Does car insurance cover break-ins?
The answer is YES… but only if you opted to purchase comprehensive insurance on your car.
Liability Insurance Protects OTHER People…
Sometimes people opt for the cheapest, bare minimum car insurance policy to save money – and then they’re surprised when they call to report a claim and find out that they bought a liability-only car insurance policy that doesn’t include comprehensive coverage or collision coverage. But the law doesn’t require you to have comprehensive or collision coverage at all. It only requires you to hold insurance to protect other people on the road. Not you.
…Comprehensive and Collision Insurance Protects YOU.
But the reason to buy collision and comprehensive insurance on your car is to protect you, rather than other people. Collision and comprehensive car insurance pays you, instead of other people, in the event of a covered claim (Sometimes they pay a car repair shop on your behalf, instead of you, personally. But the idea is to make you financially whole again after an incident, instead of somebody else, which is what liability insurance does.
What to Do If Your Car Is Broken Into
Document everything right away. Don’t even get into the car until you’ve taken photos of all the damage visible from the outside. Walk around the car and document all the dings, broken windows, dents, crowbar marks, and other evidence of burglary, vandalism, and tampering.
List everything that was stolen from your car. Include serial numbers if possible.
Notify law enforcement. Most areas will send an officer to your location. Some will require you to submit your report online or to come to the police station in person.
Do not drive your vehicle to the station. They. may want to send an officer to investigate afterward, and by disturbing the crime scene, you may compromise the investigation, and make it more difficult to locate the perpetrator, or if he’s caught, the fact that you interacted with or altered the evidence before the investigator arrived could allow the criminal to beat the charge.
Vehicle vs. Contents Coverage.
Car insurance is usually only designed and priced to cover damage to your vehicle itself. It provides very limited coverage for valuable items you may have left in your car that gets stolen.
However, you may have coverage for your personal belongings under your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy – even though the items were stolen from your vehicle and not from your residence.
Basically, if your car came from the factory with the part installed, it will fall under your car insurance policy.
If you added the part or component yourself. you either need to have the new component listed on your car insurance policy, or it will fall under your renter’s or homeowner’s insurance policy if you have one.
If you have any custom add-ons, features, or components that you added yourself, see this post on how to insure custom cars, mods, and hot rods.
Exception: Some RV insurance policies provide substantial protection against personal items stolen from your vehicle.
Add Comprehensive Coverage
If you don’t already have comprehensive coverage and you want to add it, or if you already have comprehensive or full coverage and you just want to make sure you’re getting the best possible deal available on your car insurance, contact Select Insurance Group today!
It’s free, and unlike a lot of the car insurance agents working in offices in your local strip mall, we aren’t captive to any single company. We can actually help you shop around many different competing insurance companies.
It’s easy! And it’s free! All you have to do is fill out a short quote request form here. Or you can call us directly at (855) 438-7353.
See you on the road!
Steve “Mr. Insurance” Ludwig
CEO, Select Insurance Group
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