Comprehensive car insurance.

As the name suggests, fully comprehensive car insurance is the most complete type of policy on the market, offering a far better level of protection than both third party and third party fire and theft policies. 

Unlike the other types of policy, fully comprehensive insurance not only covers damage to third parties but also compensates policy holders for loss or damage to their own vehicle, be it through accident, fire, theft or vandalism.

This means that if you take out fully comp insurance and are involved in an accident then your insurance company will cover the cost of repair to your vehicle or write it off and pay you the market value minus excess deductions. In some cases insurers will offer a like-for-like replacement to save any disputes concerning the market value of your vehicle.

This is the case even if you are at fault for the accident in question, but be aware that making a claim on a fully comprehensive policy will still affect your no claims bonus unless it is protected.

 Is comprehensive insurance the right choice for you?

Although we say 'comprehensive', fully comp insurance does not cover every eventuality and so insurers offer optional extras that can be added on to your policy.
These extras often include services such as breakdown cover, which some insurers will extend to Europe-wide breakdown cover; courtesy car hire, which provides you with a vehicle whilst yours is getting repaired; and legal expenses, which will cover solicitor's fees should you need to recover any losses.
Many insurers also offer third party insurance for other vehicles which means that you are automatically covered to drive a vehicle that is not your own provided you have the registered owner's permission to drive it.

But shop around and you may find that certain insurance companies will offer these extras as standard on their fully comprehensive polices. So, when comparing insurers, it's worth weighing up the extras against the cost of the policy to determine which one best suits your needs.