Comprehensive Insurance and Collision Insurance – The Major Differences

This is one choice that tends to create issues for a lot of people. Should you choose only a comprehensive car insurance plan or should you add a collision policy to it as well? People do get rather confused in these cases and this is why it makes complete sense to get all the knowledge that you can in this context before you make any choice in this context. Please understand that both these types of policies have their pluses and minuses as well as differences.

It is thus important to know what the difference between comprehensive and collision insurance is.

The Basics of Comprehensive Car Insurance

The comprehensive car insurance policies provide you with complete coverage for your car as the name of the policy would suggest. So, such insurance can protect your car from the damage and accident that it may have suffered because of any reason with the only exception, in this case, being that of a crash with a static object or another vehicle. This means that such policies provide coverage for criminal activities such as theft and vandalism, incidents that are beyond our control such as storms and floods, and instances of public disturbance such as riots.

So, we can now assume that you know what comprehensive insurance is. You may buy these policies as standalone units or combine them with third-party car insurance and collision coverage so that you can get the best coverage possible for your four-wheeler.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Comprehensive Car Insurance Policies

Following is a comparative analysis of the cons and pros of these policies to gain a better understanding of the difference between comprehensive and collision policies:

Pros	Cons
Protect your vehicle from all accidents that cannot be controlled by you.	Would not offer protection against damages that are caused by on-road collisions.
Pay for third-party damages and protect you from most of the emergencies that arise on the road.	Would not provide coverage for damages that may have been caused by you to a third party in an accident. For that, you would have to buy third-party insurance separately.
This is the finest policy that you could get for your new vehicle. It helps you get the best possible protection from incidents that you cannot foresee while you are driving.	Would not provide any compensation for damages like the wear and tear suffered by your car, electric or mechanical breakdown, or depreciation.

This should give you some idea of the difference between comprehensive and collision insurance policies.

The Basics of Collision Car Insurance

This is a kind of car insurance that provides coverage for collisions on road. So, if you possess a valid collision insurance policy you would get financial compensation for the money that you have spent to repair the damages that your car has suffered in an accident. Now it could have been another vehicle or a stationary object as well. This is something that you would not get in a comprehensive policy. So, if you want to know the difference between comprehensive and collision this is something that you should know.

So, if you have a comprehensive policy you need to buy collision insurance along with it as the former would not provide coverage for collisions. Normally, as per the laws of car insurance in India, you cannot buy the collision policies as a standalone entity. When you think – what is the difference between comprehensive and collision insurance– this is another factor that you should know.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Collision Car Insurance Policies

Come – let us take a look at the pluses and minuses of the comprehensive policies:

Pros	Cons
Would offer protection against damages that are caused by on-road collisions.	Would not protect your car from accidents that cannot be controlled by you.
Pay for repairing your vehicles in these cases and protect you against financial expenses that you may not have planned.	Would not cover damages that may have been caused by you to a third party in an accident. For that, you would have to buy third-party insurance separately.
This is the best car insurance that you can buy for your car to gain protection from the commonest sort of accident that happens on the roads – vehicular collision.	You can buy it only as an add-on with your third-party or comprehensive car insurance plan. You cannot buy it as a separate policy.

This, we assume, should provide you with a good idea of the difference between comprehensive and collision car insurance policies.

Comparison between Comprehensive Insurance and Collision Insurance Policies

Since you would not be able to buy the collision policies as an independent policy, the comprehensive policies automatically become the core option in these cases. So, in case you are planning to purchase collision insurance for your vehicle, you would have to buy the comprehensive policies first.

So, now do you have some idea of what is the difference between comprehensive and collision insurance? Normally, when you are purchasing a new car it would make total sense to get a comprehensive policy with the same. This way, your car would stay protected against both minor and major damages that may have been happened because of events that are not under your control. The thing with the collision policies is that they would only provide you with coverage in cases of vehicular collision that may have happened because of the fault of the driver of another car.