Comprehensive Car Insurance

There's often confusion as to what is and what isn't covered by a comprehensive car insurance policy. The following list sets out the minimum cover you should expect:

• Damage to your car -; Covers costs incurred if your car needs to be repaired or replaced following an at-fault accident or an accident where fault cannot be proven.
• Fire damage to your car - Provides protection against the costs associated with the repair or replacement of your car following fire damage.
• Theft of your car - also provides cover for the cost of a replacement car in the event that yours isn’t recovered.
• Damage to third party vehicles - Costs associated with the repair of damage that has been caused to third-party vehicles and personal belongings as a result of an accident where you are deemed to be at fault. This also covers the costs associated with replacement if the third-party vehicle is written-off.
• Damage to third party objects, structures and property - Covers costs incurred in repairing or replacing third-party objects, structures and property (i.e. wall, building, crash barrier, road service) that has been damaged in an accident where you are deemed to be the driver at fault.
• Bodily injury to third party drivers and their passengers - Cover for the cost of providing treatment to third-parties for injuries suffered in a collision where you are at fault. This includes cover for ongoing costs associated with after-care and rehabilitation.
• Bodily injury to you and your passengers - Costs incurred in the treatment of injuries sustained by you or your passengers in a collision where you are deemed to be at fault. This also includes cover for the cost of after-care and rehabilitation.

Some insurers include additional levels of cover on comprehensive car insurance policies (find out who includes what, here . The most common additions are:

• Liability whilst towing - This simply extends your comprehensive cover to provide the same protection if you are towing a trailer.
• Driving Other Cars (DOC) - The DOC clause provides cover for you to drive other cars, but is usually only on the basis of Third Party Only. Furthermore, you may only do so if the vehicle in question is insured elsewhere and you have the owner’s permission. Age restrictions and further terms may also be applicable. Always check your policy documents for full details. Find Out More
• Windscreen damage - Covers you for repair or replacement of your windscreen and side windows in the event of them being chipped, cracked or broken. This cover is almost always provided on the basis that making a claim won’t affect your No Claims Discount (NCD), but an excess is likely to be payable (this is different and usually lower than the excess that you’d pay to make a claim following an accident, fire or theft).
• Key cover - Provides cover for locks and keys that are damaged or lost as a result of an accident, fire or theft as well as keys that are misplaced.
• Audio equipment - Covers you for the repair or replacement of your in-car audio systems. This usually includes both original and aftermarket systems with a typical claim limit ranging from £500 - £1,500.
• Uninsured driver cover - If your car is damaged in the event of an accident with an uninsured driver, your Insurer will need the vehicle registration, make and model and we will repay your excess and restore your No Claims Discount. This will be done once we confirm the accident was the fault of the uninsured driver.
• New for old replacement - Most insurers operate on a ‘new for old’ basis, meaning that in the event your car is declared a write-off and is less than 12 months old, it will be replaced with a brand new like-for-like replacement.

As with any type of insurance, there are scenarios in which a comprehensive car insurance policy won’t provide cover, the main ones are:

Track days - Given the high-risk nature of track days, cover for participation in them isn’t included on a standard comprehensive policy. Instead, you will need to purchase a specialist track day insurance policy. Unfortunately this isn't something we currently offer.

Business use - Comprehensive car insurance doesn’t provide cover for business use as standard. However, depending on the exact nature of use, insurers are often willing to extend your cover to incorporate business use, but will likely charge an additional premium for it.

Wear and tear - Comprehensive insurance doesn’t cover you for wear and tear or for damage caused by repairs or modifications to your car.

Confiscation and impoundment - Your car insurance provider will likely not cover your car against damage or loss if it has been confiscated or impounded.

Tip: This isn’t an exhaustive list and exclusions do vary by insurance provider so it’s important to read an insurer’s policy booklet in order to ensure you understand what cover you have and what cover you don’t have before you buy car insurance.

Statistics show that high-risk drivers often opt for lower levels of cover, perhaps in a bid to reduce the amount they have to pay to get insured, and in order to combat this, most insurers load the price. The result being a scenario where the higher levels of cover offered under a comprehensive policy can cost you less than the basic cover provided under Third Party Only.

Don't leave it to the last minute - Some insurers load the cost of cover (applies to all levels and not just comprehensive) for quotes where the proposed start date is within a couple of days of the quote date. With this in mind you should, wherever possible, plan ahead to ensure you have insurance in place at least a couple of weeks before the policy start date.

Compare comprehensive car insurers - Comparing comprehensive car insurance cover from a selection of providers is the only way to be confident that the price you have been quoted is the best on offer. You can begin a comparison here.

Add a voluntary excess - In addition to the compulsory excess that applies to claims made under a comprehensive policy; you will have the option to add a voluntary excess and in doing so, you are likely to receive a discount on your premium.

Don’t over estimate your mileage – It’s important to ensure you estimate your annual mileage as accurately as possible. If you over estimate, you could end up paying over the odds for your car insurance. However, you should express caution as underestimating your mileage could invalidate your insurance policy.

Switch to a low-risk car – There are 50 groups that insurance companies use to categorise the risk posed by different cars (1 being something like a Ford Ka and 50 being something like a Bugatti Chiron). Where your car sits within these groups can have a huge impact on the cost of cover, so, if cutting costs is your primary objective, you should aim to drive a car from one of the lower groups.

An unrated insurer is an insurer that does not carry an insurer financial strength rating given by international rating agencies, such as Standard and Poor’s 500 index (S&), Moody’s, Fitch Ratings and A.M. Best. An insurer financial strength rating ‘provides an assessment of the financial strength of an insurance organisation’ and its ability to pay claims to its policyholders.

Each agency has its own methodology, but ratings are usually organised on a scale based on letter grades to indicate the degree of credit risk. For example, an ‘A’ rating means that the insurers have an excellent ability to pay out claims, while a ‘C’ rating means that the insurer has a weak ability to pay out claims.

Some unrated insurers have been trading in the United Kingdom for many years, and so failure is not seen as likely, but this is not any sort of guarantee and such firms can fail given the appropriate combination of circumstances. However, just because an insurer is rated does not mean they cannot get into difficulty.

Risks of using an unrated insurer include:

• Unrated insurers may be based overseas and outside the influence of UK regulation. The home state regulation they are subject to may be less intrusive, less rigorous or a lighter touch than that of the UK Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) / Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
• In the event of an overseas insurer failing, claims may have to be directed to an overseas equivalent of the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), and this may bring delays in dealing with the claim.
• Unrated insurers lack independent corroboration of the quality of their current financial stability. As your Insurance Broker, we carry out monthly due diligence checks on our entire panel of insurers, Underwriting Agencies & Managing General Agents and the underlying insurance provider. We are confident in the panel we choose to do business with.

Some of the benefits of using unrated insurers include the following:

• You may only be able to source cover from an unrated insurer due to your particular circumstances
• They may offer comparably lower prices than an alternative rated insurer
• There is no legal requirement for an insurer to be rated; brokers are not obligated to restrict placing business with rated insurers only