Does Insurance Cover My Stolen Car If I Left the Keys Inside?
Written by
Ann Herro has been writing about insurance and employee benefits for over 15 years. She covers topics ranging from car insurance to healthcare costs.
Reviewed by
Paul Martin is the Director of Education and Development for Myron Steves, one of the largest, most respected insurance wholesalers in the southern U.S.
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Does Insurance Cover My Stolen Car if I Left My Keys in It?
How Do I Know if My Insurance Will Cover a Stolen Car?
How Much Damage Is Covered if My Car is Stolen with the Keys Inside?
If Basic Car Insurance Won't Cover a Stolen Car, What Will?
Expert(s) Found on this Page
Does Insurance Cover My Stolen Car if I Left My Keys in It?
What happens if I leave my keys in my car and it gets stolen? Will my insurance still cover it?
It depends on what kind of car insurance you have. If you only have liability coverage, your car isn’t covered if it gets stolen, whether you left your keys in it or not. (Liability coverage is the most basic kind of car insurance. It covers damage you do to other people and property in an accident.)
Comprehensive coverage is the kind of car insurance that covers theft, even if you left your keys inside.
How Do I Know if My Insurance Will Cover a Stolen Car?
There have been a few car thefts in my neighborhood. I want to make sure my car is covered. How do I know if my car and the personal items in it are covered from theft?
To understand the answer to this question, you need to know that there are three main car insurance coverage types. Each one covers different situations.
- Liability coverage: Covers damage you do to other people, vehicles, or property.
- Collision coverage: Covers damage that other vehicles do to you in a collision. Also covers damage from collisions with inanimate objects, like mailboxes.
- Comprehensive coverage: Also called "other-than-collision" coverage, it covers a wide range of damage to your own vehicle, including theft.
If you check your car insurance policy online or in your paper packet, it should spell out pretty clearly what kind of insurance you have. If you have comprehensive coverage, breathe easy! Your car is covered if it’s stolen, even if you left the keys inside.
If you don’t have comprehensive coverage and would like to add it, it’s easy to work with an independent insurance agent to add the coverage.
How Much Damage Is Covered if My Car Is Stolen with the Keys Inside?
Will my insurance company pay the full value of my car if it’s stolen? What if the theft happened because of something I did, like leaving the keys inside?
If you have comprehensive insurance, your insurance will pay for a stolen car whether or not you left the keys in it. How much it pays depends on your policy limits and the deductible. A policy limit is what it sounds like: the limit on what the insurance company will pay for any given claim.
Liability coverage (the most basic type of coverage mandated for all drivers by most states) usually has high limits, like $10,000, $25,000, or $50,000. If you have comprehensive coverage, the limit is usually the actual cash value of your car.
Actual cash value isn’t what you paid for your car. It’s the replacement cost minus depreciation (the amount of value your car loses each year due to age and wear and tear). Cars depreciate quickly, so the actual cash value can plunge quickly on older cars.
Your insurance won’t pay out anything over the limit of the policy. If your car is stolen, you’ll receive the actual cash value as a payout so that you can replace your car.
Additionally, if your insurance policy has a deductible, then you will need to pay it before getting your insurance payout. If the actual cash value of your car is $10,000 and your deductible is $500, then you will receive $9,500. You’ll have to pay that $500 yourself when you replace your car.
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If Basic Car Insurance Won't Cover a Stolen Car, What Will?
I recently bought a nicer car, and I want better insurance coverage. What can I buy that will cover theft?
Liability coverage will never cover a stolen car. Only comprehensive coverage will, whether or not you leave your keys inside. Comprehensive coverage is helpful to have. In addition to theft, it also covers damage due to natural disasters, hail damage, collisions with wild animals like deer, vandalism, and more.
A quick call or email to an independent insurance agent will get the ball rolling. They can help you fill out paperwork and find discounts and can generally make the process as painless as possible.
Hopefully, you’ll never have to use your comprehensive coverage, but you’re right to be thinking about it. If a thief strikes, you’ll be glad you took the time to get your car covered.