Missouri auto · Full coverage
Full coverage is three coverages, not a policy name
No Missouri form is titled “full coverage.” Drivers mean liability, which pays other people, plus collision and comprehensive, which pay for your car. The legal minimum is only the first piece. It does not fix your car.
Missouri auto, the longer Missouri auto guide, and how much car insurance you may need. The phrase, unpacked: what full coverage means.
What each part pays
Liability pays people you hurt and their property, up to the limits, when you are at fault. It stops there. Your car is not on that check. Driving without at least the minimum is a separate problem: driving uninsured in Missouri. Liability only, on purpose: what liability-only covers.
Collision pays to repair your car after a crash, or its actual cash value if it is totaled. Actual cash value is the car’s value the moment before the loss, minus your deductible. It is not the loan balance. Comprehensive pays what is not a crash: theft, vandalism, a deer, hail, flood water on the car. Hail on a Missouri car is comprehensive, not collision.
A lender or a lease almost always requires collision and comprehensive. That requirement is why people say they “have to carry full coverage.” Dropping those two on a paid-off older car can be a real choice. Dropping them on a financed car usually breaks the loan.
Deductibles and what full coverage still leaves out
You pick a dollar deductible on collision and another on comprehensive. A higher deductible lowers the premium and raises what you write after a claim. Full coverage still does not include a rental car unless you add rental reimbursement, and it does not pay the gap between the loan and actual cash value unless you add gap. Uninsured motorist pays you when the other driver has no insurance. It is not the same as collision.
A home and auto discount does not create full coverage. Missouri bundle. Other credits: Missouri auto discounts.
