If you drive around a lot and tend to keep your life in your car, you might keep a lot of your stuff in your vehicle. And since you keep a lot of treasured possessions in your car, you might be wondering if your car insurance would protect your stuff. What if your car is broken into and your belongings are stolen? You’d want to be able to replace your possessions. Well, you may be a little surprised at the answer, but we’ll explain what you need to know about insurance for this unfortunate situation.
What happens if your stuff gets stolen out of your car?
So – would your car insurance cover your belongings if they’re stolen out of the vehicle?
The response to that completely reasonable question is no. Your car insurance would most likely not cover your stolen belongings. If you have comprehensive coverage, it may cover the car itself if it’s stolen…but no, car insurance won’t cover your stuff if your window gets smashed and someone swipes your belongings.
But wait – listen to the rest of the answer to the question.
Your car insurance won’t cover it, but don’t despair. The bright side is that your home insurance or renters insurance might. The thing is that these policies typically come with personal property coverage that protects, well, your personal property. The nice thing about this coverage is that it typically follows your belongings, whether they’re tucked away neatly in your home or tossed across the backseat of your car.
To recap – does car insurance cover the items stolen from your car? No. Are these items covered? Quite possibly yes, but by your home insurance or renters insurance. See, you just have to know which insurance company/policy to ask for money.
Don’t forget your deductible.
The catch is that your home insurance or renters insurance comes with something called a deductible. Your deductible is the amount you agree to pay if you have a claim. For example, you might have a $500 deductible. If you have a covered $2,500 claim, you’d pay $500 and your insurance would pay $2,000. However, if you experience a car break-in and your stuff is stolen, you might not meet your deductible amount…which means your insurance may not be terribly helpful. You really have to consider the amount that the claim would be as it compares to your deductible.
What does car insurance cover?
So, this might leave you wondering about what exactly your car insurance will do for you in this situation. Shouldn’t it do something to help you? Well, yes, it can. If you have comprehensive coverage, your car insurance could help you cover the costs of repairing the broken window if it was smashed. (Comprehensive coverage is the one that can help you repair your car if it’s damaged by a covered loss such as fire, vandalism, theft, falling objects, and so on – basically, damage not caused by an accident.) And like we said, if the car itself is stolen, your comprehensive coverage could also help you cover that.
(If you only have liability coverage for your car, however, it isn’t going to help much in this situation. You’d be out of luck. You’d need to have comprehensive coverage.)
There is that little catch called your deductible once again, though. You have to consider the amount of your deductible and the cost of the damage to evaluate whether it’s worth filing an insurance claim.
Anyways, it’s super frustrating to have your car broken into, and it might leave you feeling shaken. But if necessary, you could go through your home insurance or renters insurance to replace your belongings, and you could go through your comprehensive coverage to repair the window if it was broken.
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