What does Third party insurance cover you for?

Last Modified 16th of February 2021

There are (generally) three types of car insurance:

  • Third Party
  • Third Party, Fire And Theft
  • Fully Comprehensive

As the name suggests, fully comprehensive covers everything and third party fire and theft is similar to third party but it also covers you in the event that your vehicle catches fire or gets stolen (or broken in to or vandalised etc…) Third Party It’s often referred to as ‘third party only’ because it only covers the third party or parties. That means that in the event of an accident the insurance company will pay out for damages to the people who you hit (and any other damages which are found to be your fault, including injury claims etc…) Third party won’t cover any of the costs to you or your vehicle and it won’t cover you if you are a victim of crime etc… Of course, if you have third party insurance and you are in an accident which isn’t your fault then the other person’s insurance will be used and you will still receive a pay-out. So having third party only insurance will only affect you if you cause an accident. Side Note Third party only is the lowest level of insurance cover allowed by law. The additional cover offered by the other two options is purely to cover your own losses if the worst happens. Costs Since third party insurance doesn’t pay out for your costs your claims will generally be less expensive and therefore third party insurance can be a cheaper option – but surprisingly it might actually be more expensive, mainly because the type of people who use it are often more comfortable with risk and hence statistically more likely to cause an accident and have to make a claim!