Allstate full coverage isn’t a single product or an official insurance term. It’s shorthand for a policy that bundles three things: liability, collision, and comprehensive. Together they pay for injuries and property damage you cause to others, repairs to your own car after a crash, and damage from non-collision events like theft, hail, or a falling branch. The label is misleading, though, because no auto policy covers everything — mechanical breakdowns, personal belongings inside the car, rideshare driving, and any costs above your policy limits are all on you.
The Three Coverages Inside a Full Coverage Policy
Liability
Liability pays for injuries and property damage you cause to other people when you’re at fault. It does not pay for your own car or your own medical bills. Every state except New Hampshire requires some minimum amount.
Allstate writes liability limits as three numbers: bodily injury per person, bodily injury per accident, and property damage. A 25/50/10 policy pays up to $25,000 per injured person, $50,000 total per accident, and $10,000 for property damage. Common step-ups are 100/300/50 and 250/500/100. Allstate recommends going above the state minimum so you aren’t paying out of pocket when a serious claim blows past your cap.
Collision
Collision pays to repair or replace your own vehicle after it hits — or is hit by — another car or a stationary object like a tree or guardrail. It also covers single-vehicle rollovers and incidents like someone backing into you in a parking lot. It applies regardless of fault.
No state requires collision, but lenders and lease companies almost always do, because the car is their collateral. If you own the car outright, it’s optional. The maximum payout is the vehicle’s actual cash value — its current market worth minus depreciation — not the purchase price or the loan balance. If the car is totaled, Allstate pays actual cash value minus your deductible.
Comprehensive
Comprehensive handles damage that doesn’t involve a collision. Allstate lists the covered events as theft, fire, vandalism, hail, falling objects such as tree limbs, animal strikes, natural disasters including hurricanes and tornadoes, and civil disturbances such as riots. Like collision, it’s not required by state law but is typically mandated by lenders and lessors. Payouts are capped at the vehicle’s actual cash value, minus the deductible.
Comprehensive does not cover collision damage, injuries to other people, or your own medical bills. Those sit under collision and liability.
What Full Coverage Does Not Cover
The name oversells it. Several categories of loss are excluded even on a robust liability-collision-comprehensive policy.
- Mechanical breakdowns. Routine wear and tear, blown engines, and other mechanical failures aren’t covered. Allstate’s own guidance confirms auto insurance “will most likely not cover the costs of repairing or replacing your vehicle” after a mechanical failure and points drivers toward a car warranty instead.
- Personal belongings. A laptop stolen from the back seat or sports equipment damaged in a crash falls under homeowners or renters insurance, not auto.
- Commercial and rideshare use. Using your personal vehicle for deliveries or rideshare driving outside the app’s coverage window can get a claim denied. Allstate sells a separate rideshare endorsement for that gap.
- Intentional damage. Deliberately damaging your own vehicle is excluded and can constitute insurance fraud.
- Racing. Allstate’s policy excludes damage from organized or spontaneous racing, speed contests, or use of an auto at a racing or performance track.
- Costs above your limits. If you carry 25/50/10 and cause $80,000 in injuries, the $30,000 overage is yours to pay.
Coverages Often Bundled In — But Not Automatic
Several other coverages show up on policies people call “full coverage.” Some are required in certain states; others are optional. Don’t assume you have them without checking your declarations page.
Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist
This covers your car repairs, medical bills, and lost wages when the driver who hit you has no insurance or not enough of it. Roughly half of U.S. states require some form of it. Where it’s optional, Allstate notes it may already be on your policy or may need to be added.
Personal Injury Protection and MedPay
Personal injury protection, or PIP, covers medical expenses, lost wages, and sometimes funeral costs for you and your passengers regardless of fault. It’s required in no-fault states including Florida, Michigan, New York, and about a dozen others. Medical payments coverage, or MedPay, is narrower — it covers medical bills but typically not lost wages. Maine and New Hampshire are the only states that require MedPay. Both fill the gap left by liability, which only pays for other people’s injuries.
Rental Reimbursement
Also called transportation expense coverage, this optional add-on pays for a rental car or alternative transportation while your car is being repaired after a covered claim. Policies set a daily cap and a maximum number of days; Allstate gives $30 per day for up to 30 days as an example limit. It doesn’t apply during routine maintenance, and it doesn’t cover fuel.
Roadside Assistance
Allstate sells roadside assistance as a policy endorsement, an annual membership, or pay-per-use. It covers towing, battery jump-starts, lockouts, fuel delivery, and flat tire changes. The Roadside Elite tier includes up to 100 miles of towing. It gets you and the car to a shop; it does not pay for the repair.
Gap Insurance
If your car is totaled or stolen, collision and comprehensive pay only its current market value, which can be thousands below what you still owe on a loan or lease. Gap insurance covers the difference. Allstate’s Guaranteed Asset Protection product covers up to $50,000 of the outstanding loan balance and includes up to $1,000 toward your auto deductible. It’s available on vehicles financed for up to 96 months and has to be added at the time of financing. Allstate suggests considering it if you put less than 20 percent down, financed for more than 48 months, or drive a vehicle that depreciates quickly.
New Car Replacement and Repair Provision
New car replacement pays to replace a totaled vehicle with a new one of the same or similar make and model rather than paying only depreciated value. Repair provision coverage pays repair costs on a replacement-cost basis without subtracting for depreciation. Both target relatively new vehicles and are typically available only to the original owner within the first two or three model years.
Umbrella Liability
A serious accident can burn through even generous liability limits. Allstate’s personal umbrella policy adds coverage in $1 million increments up to $5 million, kicking in after the underlying auto or homeowners limits are exhausted. Allstate requires auto liability of at least 250/500/100 to qualify.
How Deductibles Shape What Allstate Actually Pays
When you add collision and comprehensive, you pick a deductible for each. That’s what you pay out of pocket before Allstate pays anything. Options commonly run from $0 to $1,000. File a comprehensive claim for $5,000 in hail damage with a $500 deductible, and Allstate pays $4,500.
Higher deductible, lower premium, more out of pocket at claim time. Lower deductible, higher premium, less out of pocket. Allstate advises weighing your budget, the car’s value, and your tolerance for a surprise bill.
In a not-at-fault accident, you may not pay the collision deductible at all. If you do pay it upfront, Allstate can pursue reimbursement from the at-fault driver’s insurer through subrogation and return it to you.
When You’re Required to Carry It
No state law requires collision or comprehensive. The requirement comes from your lender or leasing company, because the vehicle is their collateral. Most loan and lease agreements require both for the life of the loan. Let the coverage lapse and the lender can buy force-placed insurance on your behalf, which is typically more expensive and offers less protection than a policy you’d choose yourself.
Once the loan is paid off, the call is yours. A rule of thumb from the Insurance Information Institute: if the car’s market value is less than ten times the annual collision premium, the coverage may not be worth it. Subtract the deductible from the car’s value to see your maximum possible payout; if that number is close to what you pay in premiums, dropping the coverage and self-insuring may make sense.