Windscreen cover protects you in the unfortunate event that your windscreen gets damaged and needs repairing or replacing.
With most policies, you won’t have to pay for small chip repairs but with some you may have to pay a small excess fee.
If your windscreen needs a full replacement, you are likely to have to pay an excess, which can vary in cost across different providers.
Whether your windscreen is covered will depend on your insurance. Typically, most comprehensive policies will treat your windscreen, sunroof and other windows like they do any other part of your car. For third-party only and third party, fire and theft, you may be able to add it as an optional extra.
Your policy will cover your windscreen if it’s damaged from an event listed in your policy like fire, theft or storm. That means a third party, fire and theft policy will cover your glass if it’s damaged by fire or theft. A comprehensive policy has your back for those two scenarios plus a range of others like hailstorms, accidents, vandalism and more.
Typically, insurers are able to choose whether they want to pay to repair or replace the glass as appropriate. Generally, this will be done based on the mechanic’s recommendation.
Car insurers will typically offer a lifetime guarantee on all repairs carried out by their approved providers, including glass repair and replacement, so it’s in everyone’s interests to make sure it’s fixed properly, whether that means repair or replacement.
Depending on the policy, you can claim these costs under car insurance but:
No matter where the crack is, you should get it attended to immediately. Cracks have a tendency to spread and multiply once formed, especially those near the edge of your windscreen, and could easily threaten the integrity of the entire glass if not treated at once.
Examples include:
You can expect your comprehensive car insurance to cover the costs of damage to your windscreen, as well as glass on other parts of your car. As usual, though, you will have to pay an excess for the claim. Often, this excess will be greater than the cost of repairs, making a claim pointless. Once again, this is why an excess-free windscreen claim option is sometimes worth adding to your policy.
When people ask about windscreen cover, they usually want to know about those infuriating little rocks that fly out of nowhere, crack your windscreen then fly off leaving the rest of your car untouched.
The good news is that most comprehensive car insurance policies will take care of you. You won’t be able to get away with anything less than that, as comprehensive is the only level of protection that covers you for accidental damage.
To make sure your claim is honoured, report the damage to your windscreen immediately to your insurer and use a licensed repairer, preferably one recommended by your insurer. Send in a photograph of the damage and your car’s surroundings, as well as a measurement of the crack.
If your car insurance policy doesn’t include windscreen cover as standard, it might be worth looking into adding windscreen cover as an optional extra. If you travel a lot, the risk of getting a chipped or broken windscreen is much higher. Plus, if you think you’d struggle to pay the cost of fixing or repairing a broken window or windscreen, then windscreen replacement may be worth that little extra.
This is because driving around with a broken or chipped window is unsafe, and can end up causing further damage to your car that won’t necessarily be covered by insurance.
Generally, you might want to make sure you’re in a position to get broken glass repaired as soon as possible, whether it’s out of pocket or through insurance.
The added cost of this extra will depend on your situation, and on how much it will typically cost to replace the windscreen in your vehicle.
Some policies allow you to choose your own repairer but it varies. Insurers may handle it one of a few ways:
If you’re using insurance to make a windscreen-related claim, there’s not much downside to using a repairer in the insurer’s network. Repairing or replacing a windscreen is a relatively straightforward process and insurers usually offer a lifetime guarantee for in-network repairs.
The option to use your own repairer is handy for complicated repairs, but windscreen repairs are usually simple.
There are a few different ways to handle damaged glass, with or without car insurance.
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