People mix these two up constantly, so lets make it dead simple.

Collision pays when your car hits something (or something hits you) and it’s basically a crash.
Examples that trigger collision:
- You rear-end the guy who slammed his brakes
- You slide on ice and smack a guardrail
- Someone runs a red light and T-bones you
- You back into a pole in the parking lot (yes, even if it’s 100% your dumb moment)

Doesn’t matter who’s at fault, collision fixes YOUR car (as long as you have it).

Comprehensive covers pretty much everything else that isn’t a collision. People call it “other than collision” on the policy.
Real stuff that triggers comprehensive:
- Some jerk steals your car overnight
- Hail turns your hood into a golf ball
- Tree branch falls during a storm and smashes the roof
- You hit a deer (or deer hits you, happens more than you think)
- Windshield cracks from a rock kicked up by a truck
- Flood water gets you, fire, vandalism, even a rodent chewing wires (yes, really)

Quick cheat sheet I tell everyone:

If it moves and you crash into it → Collision
If the car is just sitting there minding its own business and gets damaged/stolen → Comprehensive

Money-wise they usually cost about the same to add, sometimes comprehensive is even a little cheaper. Both have your deductible, so $1,200 glass repair with a $1,000 deductible means you pay the whole thing on comprehensive too.

One catch: if you’re still paying off the car, the bank almost always forces you to carry both. Once the loan is gone you can drop either (or both) if you wanna gamble.

True story from last month, buddy parked his truck at the airport for a four-day trip. Came back, truck was gone. Police found it two weeks later stripped. Collision wouldn’t pay a dime because nobody “crashed.” Comprehensive wrote him a fat check minus his $500 deductible. Saved his butt.

So yeah, collision = oops I hit something moving, comprehensive = random life stuff that happens when you’re not even driving. Get both if the car is worth more than a couple grand and you’d be upset losing it. Simple as that.