What is Comprehensive Car Insurance?
What is comprehensive car insurance? What does it do? Why do you need it? Well, would you believe it if we told you we and our insurance brokers get asked this question a lot? And it’s understandable. Sometimes, this kind of car insurance legal jargon makes things… complicated. It’s one of the core reasons why people don’t fully understand what’s in their insurance policies. We’re here to take you through what it is, how much comprehensive car insurance costs, deductibles, limitations, and of course, the benefits of its coverage.
What is comprehensive car insurance?
Comprehensive car insurance covers your vehicle from non-collision-related incidents. Simply put, these are the things that could happen to your car when you’re not driving it. With Sandbox Mutual Insurance, you can get comprehensive insurance on your trailer, car, commercial vehicle, classic car, RV, ATV, motorcycle, and snowmobile policies. This protects you from all those fiascos, coincidences, and as we said, unexpected incidents when life throws a curveball. But what kind of incident are we talking about? Well…
What does comprehensive car insurance generally cover?
- Vandalism to the interior or exterior of your vehicle
- Theft of the entire vehicle or damage that occurred from attempted theft
- Falling and flying objects, things like tree branches or… in some cases, baseballs
- Natural disasters and weather damage, this is where our not-so-friendly neighbourhood pal, hail, comes in
- Fire and explosions
- Edward Scissorhands deciding to hand-wash your car; we have yet to see this happen but hey, it could be possible
What does comprehensive car insurance not cover?
- Stolen belongings from the inside of the car
- Everyday wear and tear on your vehicle
- Car maintenance not resulting from a claim
- Any animal damage or collisions with an animal – that’s collision/upset coverage
What’s the difference between collision/upset and comprehensive car insurance?
Collision or upset is a type of auto coverage, and these two words often go hand-in-hand on an insurance policy. Essentially, if your car is involved in a collision with another object or rollover, collision/upset is the part of the insurance policy that covers the damage. Collision/upset insurance also covers hit-and-runs occurring to your car. Whether the situation is direct or accidental, having this on your policy will cover the costs of these unexpected situations on the road.
What are the deductibles and limitations of comprehensive car insurance?
When you put in a claim, a deductible is the amount of money you pay out of pocket as the policyholder before the insurance company covers the costs. You can choose to have a high deductible in exchange for a lower monthly or annual premium, or you can choose to have a low deductible in exchange for a higher monthly or annual premium.
What are the benefits of having a Sandbox auto policy when it comes to comprehensive car insurance?
A benefit of having a Sandbox car insurance policy is that you can select reduced deductible options on your policy. In addition to this, if there’s fire damage, theft of the entire car, or even lightning damage, no deductible will apply. This means less financial burden for you, and we’ll do the heavy lifting to get you back on the road as soon as possible.
How much does comprehensive car insurance cost?
We’ll make the answer to this one simple! While comprehensive car insurance is not required in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, it certainly is recommended. Comprehensive coverage is a big part of most car insurance policies out there, with most of them having it, aside from liability-only policies. Since it’s not an automatic coverage on every single car insurance policy out there, you never want to assume that you have it. That being said, if you do, it can differ in price depending on if optional coverages are added to it. Sandbox offers optional coverages for an auto insurance policy of replacement cost, loss of use, and road hazard glass.
On the other side of the coin, one of our automobile products, Classic Car, has road hazard glass automatically included in comprehensive coverage. This means that since it contains more than the standard comprehensive coverage, it may come at a higher cost on your policy.
Where can you get car insurance with comprehensive coverage?
Sandbox Mutual Insurance has trusted insurance brokers located throughout Manitoba and Saskatchewan. To get car insurance in Manitoba or Saskatchewan from a broker nearest to you, we offer an interactive broker map on our website. Remember, we don’t expect our policyholders to be the experts when it comes to these things. We are here to simplify and break down insurance quotes, concepts, and costs! So, now that you’ve got comprehensive car insurance in your backseat, you won’t have to worry about life’s unexpected situations, especially if it’s your car being abducted by aliens. In which case, we’ll be here, paperwork ready, just in case they don’t bring it back.