Comprehensive coverage is the part of an auto policy that pays when something happens to a vehicle that isn’t a crash. Hail on the Front Range. A break-in in a parking garage. A deer on C-470 at dusk. A rock off a gravel truck on I-70. It’s often called “comp” or “OTC – Other than Collision.” When someone says “full coverage auto insurance”, that normally implies comprehensive and collision coverage.
In a lot of states, comprehensive is the coverage a driver buys and forgets about. In Colorado, it’s the one they’re most likely to actually use.
What comprehensive coverage actually is
Damage to a vehicle falls into two buckets: collision, and everything else. Comprehensive is the “everything else” bucket, and it’s a big bucket.
Comp is usually cheaper than collision, which is why it’s common to carry a lower deductible on comp than on collision. Nationally, comprehensive claims get filed nearly as often as collision claims — 3.15 per 100 insured vehicles a year versus 4.20 — but the average comprehensive claim pays $2,042 against $5,010 for collision. Smaller claims, filed almost as often.
There’s one rule that surprises people: if damage happens while the car is being driven, it’s normally a collision claim. The exception is hitting an animal. That’s comprehensive, because it’s treated as outside the driver’s control.
What’s covered, and what isn’t
Colorado is a comprehensive-claim state
Hail
Colorado sits inside Hail Alley, and the Front Range is the expensive part of it. The May 8, 2017 storm across the Denver metro is still the costliest insured catastrophe in Colorado history at $2.3 billion — and roughly 167,000 of those claims were auto claims, against 100,600 home claims. More cars were damaged than houses.
That storm wasn’t a one-off. Colorado recorded 244 hailstorms producing stones an inch or larger in 2025, sixth most in the country.
For any vehicle that sits outside along the Front Range, comprehensive isn’t really optional. Same storms, different policy: wind and hail coverage on the house.
Theft
Colorado had the worst vehicle theft rate in the country in 2021. The last three years have been a genuine turnaround — 16,291 thefts in 2025, down 34% from 24,575 the year before, and down 56% from the 2021 peak.
“Much better” still isn’t “good.” That rate is 6th worst per capita nationally, 271 thefts per 100,000 residents, about $257.6 million in vehicles gone, and roughly 69% of it inside the Denver metro. Around 80% of the vehicles stolen in 2025 were recovered that same year — usually with damage, which is still a comprehensive claim. The most-stolen vehicle in Colorado last year was the Chevrolet Silverado, 683 of them; Hyundai and Kia models together made up about 15% of thefts.
Wildlife
Wild animals caused more than 3,600 crashes on Colorado roads in 2025. CDOT and Colorado Parks and Wildlife logged over 7,700 animals killed — more than 4,700 deer and more than 700 elk — and October through December is the worst stretch of the year, both here and nationally.
If a deer jumps out, hit the deer. Hitting the animal is a comprehensive claim. Swerving into another car, a guardrail, or a ditch is a collision claim — normally with a higher deductible, and it goes on the driver’s record as an at-fault accident.
What a hail claim actually costs
A hail claim Premier Mountain Insurance handled last year, on a 2023 Ford F-150, came in at $14,576. That is a real estimate on a real truck, not a hypothetical. Here is what the deductible choice does to a claim that size.
Two things people miss on a claim like that:
If the repair estimate is higher than the car’s value, the carrier totals it. The payout is actual cash value minus the deductible instead of a repaired car. On an older vehicle, an estimate like that is well past what the car is worth.
Damage that goes unrepaired doesn’t disappear. A driver who takes the check and skips the bodywork can find that the carrier excludes that prior damage going forward, so the next hailstorm isn’t paid the same way. Anyone planning to keep the check rather than fix the car should tell their agent — it changes what the next claim looks like.
Do comprehensive claims raise rates?
Mostly no. Comp claims are treated as outside the driver’s control, so one hail claim doesn’t move a premium the way an at-fault accident does.
What it does affect is the ability to shop. A run of comp claims — two break-ins, a hail claim, a stolen catalytic converter — makes a policy harder to move to a new carrier. Underwriters look at claim frequency, and some read a pattern as careless parking or a habit of turning in everything. That’s a shopping problem rather than a rating problem, and it’s why an agent will sometimes advise absorbing a $700 repair instead of filing it.
Deductibles, and what lenders require
Colorado law does not require comprehensive coverage. Lenders do. With a loan or a lease on the car, the bank holds the title and will require both comp and collision — and plenty of lienholders cap the deductible at $1,000, some at $500. Dropping below what the contract requires lets the lender force-place coverage that costs several times what the same protection would cost on a personal policy, and protects the lender rather than the owner.
The comprehensive deductible is worth setting separately from collision. Given how routine hail is here, Premier Mountain Insurance generally suggests a lower deductible on comp than on collision — $500 comp against $1,000 collision — rather than matching the two. The premium spread between them is usually small enough to be worth pricing rather than guessing, and it can be quoted both ways.
Windshields and the Colorado glass law
Chips and cracks are comprehensive claims, and there’s one thing Coloradans get wrong constantly:
A stranger at the door offering a free windshield and a gift card is the exact conduct that statute was written about.
Full glass coverage is available as an add-on with most of the carriers Premier Mountain Insurance offers. More on the glass coverage page.
When it makes sense to drop comprehensive
Once a loan is paid off, comp becomes optional. The common rule of thumb is to look hard at dropping physical damage coverage when the annual premium plus the deductible starts approaching about 10% of what the car is worth. On a $2,500 car with a $1,000 deductible, only $1,500 of value is actually insured.
In Colorado that decision deserves a second look. A single hailstorm can total an older car outright, and the older car is usually the one that’s hardest to replace out of pocket.
Premier Mountain Insurance can price comprehensive coverage across its full carrier panel — start a quote below.
