There are several types of insurance policies every car insurance company provides. However, these types of insurance coverage are divided into four main classes.
- The first class is the liability coverage which covers for any injury or damage a policy holder at fault causes to another party.
- Next is the uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage which covers for drivers who have no liability coverage or owns insufficient liability coverage.
- Then there’s the physical damage coverage which covers for damages on the policy holder’s car during an accident which is caused by the car colliding with another car, hitting another object or other reasons which do not fall under collision.
- Finally, the car insurance policies which do not fall in any of the other three classes, falls under the class termed others. Other insurance coverage are insurance policies which are focused more on covering for the policy holder’s medical expenses during an auto accident which is either caused by the policy holder or another party.
Let us look into the physical damage coverage a little closer. As what was already explained above, the physical damage insurance coverage concerns itself to the damaged car of the policy holder. The cause of the damage to the policy holder’s car provides the class two types of insurance policies. The first type is termed as the collision coverage or known shortly as the COLL and the other type is the comprehensive coverage which is otherwise known as the COMP, OTC or other than collision.
The collision coverage is a physical damage coverage which covers for damages on the policy holder’s car which is caused by the car hitting another car or the car colliding with another object like a tree, a wall or light post. For example, when a driver did not see a lamp post on a curb and accidentally hits it, the damage that the driver’s car would get is covered by the collision insurance policy.
The comprehensive coverage, on the other hand, covers for the damages on the policy holder’s car that is caused by other factors other than collision with another car or another object. Fire, flood, hail, vandalism or theft could be a few causes of damage on the policy holder’s car that is covered by the comprehensive insurance policy. When a policy holder hits an animal on the road, it is not the collision coverage which pays for the damages on the policy holder’s car. Instead, this type of accident is covered by the comprehensive insurance policy.
