This lesson is general education about U.S. personal finance, not financial, tax or investment advice. Tax rules and limits change every year; check IRS.gov or a qualified professional for your situation.
What you’ll learn
- Collision covers repairs to your car after it strikes another vehicle or an object, rolls over, or takes a pothole hit, no matter which driver caused the crash.
- Comprehensive pays for theft and damage from events other than crashes, such as fire, hail, vandalism, falling objects and animal strikes.
- No state requires either coverage, but a lender or leasing company typically requires both on a financed or leased car.
- Collision coverage costs about $290 a year on average; comprehensive averages a little over $134 a year.
- You can set a different deductible for each coverage, and a higher deductible means a lower premium.
If you just bought your first car, the quote sheet probably lists collision and comprehensive side by side, each with its own price and its own deductible. They sound like a matched pair, but they pay for entirely different kinds of damage. No state requires either one, yet roughly eight in ten drivers carry them anyway, and if you borrow or lease, you will almost certainly be told to. This comparison shows what each coverage pays for, how the deductibles work, and when carrying both makes sense.
The Two Coverages, Side by Side
Collision steps in after your car is wrecked in a crash or an overturn. Comprehensive handles damage from everything else, which insurers sometimes call other than collision. Each appears on your policy with its own price, so you can change one without touching the other. Our checklist for your first car insurance quote walks through all six coverage types you will be asked to choose.
| Feature | Collision | Comprehensive |
|---|---|---|
| What it pays for | Repairs when your car strikes another vehicle, an object such as a mailbox or guardrail, rolls over, or takes a pothole hit | Damage from events other than a crash, plus theft of the car or its parts |
| Typical events | Rear-ending another car, backing into a pole, sliding into a guardrail, hitting a mailbox | Fire, flood, hail, vandalism, theft, falling rocks or trees, animal strikes |
| Average yearly cost | About $290 | A little over $134 |
| Typical deductible range | Usually $250 to $1,000 | Usually $100 to $2,000 |
| Required by state law? | No | No |
| Required by a lender or lease? | Often, on financed or leased cars | Often, on financed or leased cars |
One clarifying note: a crash with a deer falls under comprehensive, not collision, because the damage came from contact with an animal rather than a collision with a vehicle or object. Drivers mix this up constantly, and the coverage that applies changes how your deductible and payout work.
What Collision Coverage Pays For
Collision covers your car when it strikes another vehicle or an object, or when it flips over. Objects in the list include trees, fences, telephone poles, guardrails and mailboxes. It also covers damage from potholes, which surprises people who assume potholes are the city’s problem.
Two things collision does not pay for: mechanical failure and normal wear and tear. Bad roads that slowly chew up your tires are not a claim. Bad roads that break your wheel in one hit can be.
Collision pays regardless of who was at fault. Even if you caused the accident, the coverage reimburses the cost of repairing your car, minus your deductible. If the other driver caused the crash, your insurance company may try to collect what it paid from that driver’s insurer.
Here is the math in a common example. Your car hits a guardrail and takes $2,500 in damage. With a $500 deductible, you pay the first $500 and the insurer covers the remaining $2,000.
What Comprehensive Coverage Pays For
Comprehensive covers damage from incidents other than collisions, which is why it is sometimes labeled other than collision on a policy. The covered events include:
- Theft of the entire car, or of parts such as an airbag
- Vandalism
- Fire and flood
- Hail and other weather damage
- Falling objects, such as rocks, tree limbs or entire trees
- Contact with an animal
Comprehensive also generally pays the actual cash value of your car if it is stolen. Like collision, it carries its own deductible in most policies.
Comprehensive costs far less than collision, averaging a little over $134 a year for the long list of hazards it covers. The average collision premium runs about $290 a year.
Windshield damage is common enough that many insurers sell separate glass coverage, so check whether a glass or full glass option exists before assuming your comprehensive deductible applies to a cracked windshield.
How Deductibles Change Your Premium and Payout
The deductible is the amount you pay before the insurer pays anything on a claim. The insurer subtracts it from the repair payout, so a $2,500 hail repair bill with a $1,000 comprehensive deductible means you pay $1,000 and the insurer pays $1,500.
Because collision and comprehensive are separate coverages, you choose a deductible for each. Collision deductibles generally run from $250 to $1,000. Comprehensive deductibles are usually between $100 and $2,000. The pattern works the same way for both: raise your deductible and your premium drops. Triple-I recommends taking a higher deductible as a way to trim auto insurance costs, as long as you could actually pay that amount from savings.
Try it
Do the deductible math on small claims before you file. Pothole damage often falls below a typical $500 or $1,000 deductible, which makes a claim impractical even when the damage is technically covered.
Choosing the same deductible for both coverages makes it easier to predict your out-of-pocket cost for any physical damage. Choosing different ones lets you lower your costs on the claim type you worry about most.
When You Can Drop One or Both
Neither coverage is required by state law, so once you own the car outright, the choice is yours. New Hampshire is the only state that does not require liability coverage to drive legally, and collision and comprehensive stay optional everywhere. About 73 percent of insured drivers carried collision and 78 percent carried comprehensive in 2015, the most recent year for which the National Association of Insurance Commissioners has data.
If you drive an older car, run the numbers before renewing either coverage. Add what you would pay in premiums over a year to what your deductible would leave you to cover after a claim, then set that total against what the car could realistically sell for. Spending more to insure it than it would bring at a sale rarely pays off.
A few factors can help you decide whether to keep both, drop one or drop both:
- The value of your car. A higher-value car costs more to repair or replace, so coverage protects more of your own money.
- Your driving exposure. More miles, especially on busy roads, raise the odds of a crash.
- Your parking situation. A car parked outside faces storms, falling branches and theft risk that a garage keeps away.
- Your budget. Ask what you would actually pay out of pocket after a claim, and whether that amount would hurt.
You can also drop just one. A driver with an older but theft-prone model, or one who parks on the street in a hail-prone area, might keep comprehensive while dropping collision. The reverse makes sense for a car with high repair costs but low theft appeal. Price both scenarios when you get quotes.
How Lenders and Leases Require Both
If you finance or lease your vehicle, the lender or leasing company typically requires both comprehensive and collision until the loan or lease is paid off. These requirements exist to protect the lender’s financial interest in the car, which serves as collateral. The same rule applies whether you are three payments in or thirty, so budget for full coverage costs from the start of the loan.
That requirement changes the real price of financing, not just the sticker price. If you are weighing the two paths, our comparison of whether it is cheaper to buy or lease a car covers how lease requirements work. The length of your loan matters too, since a longer term means more years paying for required coverage; our guide to how long a car loan should be walks through that trade-off.
When a lender or an agent says full coverage, ask them to confirm exactly which coverages the policy carries and at what limits. Full coverage is not an official insurance term or product, so the phrase alone guarantees nothing. And before you sign anything at the dealership, it pays to know the common mistakes people make buying their first car, including ones that show up in the insurance paperwork.
Common questions
Is hitting a deer covered by collision or comprehensive?
Comprehensive covers contact with an animal, because the damage did not come from a crash with a vehicle or object. That surprises many drivers who assume any driving incident counts as a collision.
What does full coverage mean on a car insurance policy?
Full coverage usually means carrying both comprehensive and collision on top of the liability coverage your state requires. The phrase is not an official insurance term or product, so ask exactly which coverages a policy includes and at what limits.
Can I have a different deductible for comprehensive and collision?
Yes. Because they are separate coverages priced separately, you can pick a lower deductible for one and a higher deductible for the other. Choosing the same deductible for both makes it easier to predict what you would pay out of pocket.
Is pothole damage covered?
Pothole damage is usually covered if you carry collision coverage, but not normal wear and tear to the car or its tires from bad roads. If the repair cost falls below your deductible, filing a claim may not be practical, and some jurisdictions may pay for pothole damage in certain cases.