Comprehensive car insurance policies usually protect you from the full costs of:
This is where it’s useful to compare comprehensive vs third-party car insurance. ‘Fully comp’ also covers your own repair costs, whereas third-party car insurance only covers the costs due to other drivers, and their vehicle or property.
With fully comprehensive insurance, driving just about any car was once the norm. As with most things these days, now it’s not always quite so simple. Driving Other Cars (DOC) policies let you drive someone else’s vehicle, even when you’re not a named driver on their policy.
It’s really only for emergency use and wasn't intended to be used as a way to drive other cars on a regular basis. That's why some insurers no longer offer this cover. Any that do often provide Third Party Only (TPO) cover, so you’d still be out of pocket for the cost of repairing the vehicle you were driving and any medical costs as a result of any injury to yourself.
There are many different aspects to what makes for the best car insurance policy.
For a start, there are different levels of cover to choose from:
- Fully comprehensive
- Third-party, fire and theft
- Third-party
It can be tempting to go for the least expensive policy but the cheapest comprehensive car insurance might not include everything you need.
Different insurers offer different benefits to their policyholders, which can make life easier in the event they need to make a claim. These can include a courtesy car or a contribution towards travel expenses.
Some drivers choose their provider based on its customer service – keeping you updated during the claims process, or how quickly they can settle a claim.
Now you know what comprehensive car insurance means, why not check out what you get with an Allianz Car Insurance policy? We're a digital insurer so you manage your policy yourself online, but we’re only a phone call away if you need to claim. You can trust us to keep things simple.
Third party, fire & theft is a mid-level cover. This gives you a bit more than basic third party cover, but not as much as a comprehensive policy. It doesn't cover the cost of any damage to your own car after an accident.
Basically, 'third party' refers to the other person involved in a claim. So, this cover level protects you if you damage someone else's car or injure somebody. It also covers your own car for fire damage, theft and attempted theft.
Comprehensive cover is what most peoople choose and some insurance, like Allianz Car insurance, doesn't offer third party, fire & theft.
Third party only is the lowest level of cover allowed by UK law. It only covers you for damaging someone else's car or injuring another person (a 'third party')
It won't cover any injuries to you, or damage to your own car.
Allianz Car Insurance doesn't offer this level of cover as an option.
