If Someone Breaks Into Your Car, How Much Is Your Auto Insurance Company Really Going to Pay?

You already know that you should never park in a poorly lit area, always remember to lock your doors and roll up your windows when you leave your vehicle and put some serious thought into buying a car with a car alarm. The risk of car theft is always hanging over all of our heads, but it's easy to become cocky and slightly arrogant about it. Why? Because we know that our auto insurance company is standing behind us just waiting to back us up of something should happen.

Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple.

First and foremost, nowhere is it guaranteed that your auto insurance provider is going to pick up the tab whenever your car happens to be broken into. Why? Because they have a strict set of criteria they use when evaluating their auto insurance claims to make sure their drivers aren't setting themselves up for trouble, and if your claim doesn't fall into that criteria you may very well find yourself standing there empty handed with nothing to show for the amount of paperwork you just filled out.

Wait. You pay your insurance premiums each month. Why would your auto insurance carrier leave you high and dry like that? First and foremost, did you remember to lock your doors? If the door wasn't locked, you can't prove it was breaking and entering. If you can't prove it was breaking and entering you can't prove it was theft. If you can't prove it was theft you can't file an insurance claim. Continue that train of thought ad nauseum.

The second thing you need to know about your auto insurance and getting your car ripped off is what, exactly, they're going to be willing to pay for even if you can prove it's theft. Most of us are careless when it comes to leaving high priced items in our car, operating on the blind belief that no one will break into our cars, that if they do they're not going to steal that particular item and even if they do, our auto insurance coverage is going to more than cover it.

But what if they don't?

If it's not a part of the car, most auto insurance companies won't touch its replacement with a ten foot pole if it happens to be stolen. That means that cell phones, iPods, laptops, stereos, CD players, speakers, MP3 players, Bluetooth units and GPS are all on the list of things you're not going to be able to file insurance claims for-at least, not with your auto insurance. The good news is that your homeowners insurance usually thinks of your car as something of a mobile extension of your home and therefore eligible for coverage. That's great news if you just walked out to find out someone ripped off your $300 Jimmy Choos!

The bottom line is that having auto insurance coverage is good, but nothing replaces prevention and caution when it comes to defending your car and your belongings against theft.