What is comprehensive coverage?

While "full coverage" isn’t a consistent, defined offering across providers, it can mean having a package of customer-selected coverages that provides you the protection that meets your needs. It can mean you have both liability and physical damage coverage, like comprehensive and collision coverage. Keep in mind there are optional coverages like rental and emergency roadside service that you also may wish to consider.

Consider how much your car is worth and what you are willing to pay out-of-pocket for repairs or replacement of your car.

Collision coverage generally does cost more than comprehensive coverage.

If you sustain a loss, your coverage pays to repair the vehicle or the actual cash value of the vehicle minus the deductible that you choose. You determine how much you want to pay out of pocket.

Laws vary by state, but almost all states require bodily injury liability and property damage liability coverage. However, comprehensive coverage is unlikely to be required in your area. Check with your State Farm agent to be sure.

Ask yourself if the savings from not carrying this coverage would be enough to offset the risk of having to pay the entire cost of repairing or replacing the vehicle along with these factors:

• Is your car a high-value vehicle?
• Do you live in an area prone to weather-related disasters?
• Is there a high rate of car theft where you live?
• How much can you afford to pay, or are willing to pay, out of your own pocket if you experience an accident that isn’t covered by collision insurance?

To determine if you should purchase comprehensive coverage, estimate the approximate value of your vehicle through an online resource. A State Farm agent can help you determine the value of your vehicle along with how much extra you'd pay to add comprehensive coverage.

With a covered loss, comprehensive coverage may extend beyond your own vehicle to include temporary substitute cars, newly-acquired cars, and cars you're using but aren't owned by anyone in your household.

Depending on the extent of the damage resulting from a loss covered under comprehensive coverage, we will decide whether to pay the cost to repair a covered vehicle minus any applicable deductible or whether to pay the actual cash value of the covered vehicle minus any applicable deductible.

If you lease your vehicle, or if you used a loan to purchase it, your lender or financing company will likely require you to buy comprehensive auto insurance because your lessor or lender will want to be protected in case anything happens to your car during the term of your lease or loan.

Contact a State Farm agent

Coverage options, deductibles, and discounts may affect your policy cost, along with such things as your driving history, credit score (where permitted by law), and other third-party reports.

With comprehensive coverage, you choose whether you have a deductible and how much it is.

• A deductible is the amount you agree to pay up front when you make an insurance claim.
• Higher deductibles lower your premium but increase how much you must pay out of your own pocket if a loss occurs.