Auto insurance

How auto insurance works, what each coverage does, what affects what you pay, and which companies write it.

Companies: 15
Full profiles: 13
Comparisons: 10

The basics

How auto insurance works

An auto policy is a bundle of separate coverages sold together. Some of them pay other people when you cause harm, and some of them pay you when your own car is damaged. They are priced separately, they have their own limits, and you can usually adjust them independently.

Auto insurance is regulated state by state. Which coverages a driver must carry, what the minimum limits are, and how claims are settled are all set by state law, and they change. Treat your own state insurance department as the authority on that, rather than anything you read here or on any other site.

This line in the database

Companies writing this line: 1513 researched in full
Published comparisons: 10
Tools for this line: 3
Guides that apply: 7

What you are buying

What the coverages do

Each of these is priced and limited separately, so it helps to read them as separate promises rather than as one policy.

Bodily injury liability: Pays for injuries you cause to other people, and pays for a lawyer if you are sued over them. It never pays for your own injuries.
Property damage liability: Pays for damage you cause to someone else’s property, most often their car but also fences, buildings and anything else you hit.
Collision: Pays to repair or replace your own car after an impact with another vehicle or object, regardless of fault, minus your deductible.
Comprehensive: Pays for damage to your own car from causes other than collision: theft, fire, hail, flood, vandalism, falling objects and animal strikes. It carries its own deductible, often a different one from collision.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist: Steps in when the driver who hurt you has no insurance, or not enough to cover what they owe you. Whether it is mandatory, offered by default, or declinable only in writing depends on your state.
Medical payments or personal injury protection: Pays medical costs for you and your passengers without waiting for fault to be decided. Personal injury protection is the broader of the two and is the form used in no-fault states. Which one you can buy depends on where you live.

Add-ons

Optional coverages you may be offered

Rental reimbursement, which pays for a rental car while yours is being repaired after a covered claim. It usually has a daily cap and a total cap.
Roadside assistance, for towing, jump starts, lockouts and flat tires. Check whether you already have it through a motor club or your card issuer before paying for it twice.
Gap coverage, which pays the difference between what you still owe on a loan or lease and what the car was worth when it was totaled. It matters most early in a loan on a car that depreciates quickly.
New car replacement, which pays for a new car of the same model rather than the depreciated value of yours, subject to age and mileage conditions.
Custom equipment, for aftermarket parts and audio systems that a standard policy values as if the car were stock.
Rideshare or delivery coverage, which fills the gap between your personal policy and the platform’s policy while you are logged into an app.

Where cover stops

Common exclusions and limitations

The exclusions are where a policy is actually decided. These are the ones that come up most often on this line.

Using your car commercially, including delivery and rideshare work, is normally excluded from a personal policy unless you add the right endorsement.
Intentional damage and damage caused while committing a crime are excluded.
Wear, tear and mechanical breakdown are maintenance, not a covered loss, even when a failing part causes an accident.
Personal belongings stolen from inside the car are generally a homeowners or renters claim, not an auto claim, though the car itself is covered.
A driver who lives with you but is not listed on the policy can be excluded from coverage, which is why insurers ask who lives in your household.
Racing, track days and off-road use are excluded on ordinary policies.
Collision and comprehensive pay the vehicle’s value at the time of the loss, not what you paid for it and not what a replacement costs today, unless you bought a coverage that says otherwise.

Pricing inputs

What affects what you pay

Insurers price a policy from the risk characteristics they are allowed to use in your state. The main categories are:

01The car itself: repair cost, theft rate, safety record, engine and trim.
02How much you drive and what you use the car for.
03Where the car is garaged, down to the ZIP code where that is permitted.
04Your driving record, including at-fault accidents, tickets and claims history.
05Your age and how long you have been licensed.
06How long you have been continuously insured, and any gaps in that history.
07The limits and deductibles you pick, and which optional coverages you add.
08Discounts you qualify for, such as bundling, safety features or a telematics program.

Which of these an insurer may actually use is itself regulated, and it differs by state. Your state insurance department publishes what is permitted where you live.

The process

How getting a quote generally works

In the order it usually happens. Nothing here is a quote, and this site does not sell one.

1
You give the vehicle identification number, the garaging address, every driver in the household and your license details.
2
The insurer pulls your motor vehicle record, a claims history report and, where permitted, a credit-based insurance score.
3
A quote before those reports come back is an estimate; the number after them is the real one.
4
Quotes are only comparable when the coverages, limits and deductibles match exactly. Two prices for different liability limits tell you nothing. Write the coverage sheet down first and hold every quote to it.

Glossary

Terminology

The words that appear on a quote or a policy for this line, in plain language.

Split limits: Liability limits written as three numbers, such as 25/50/25: the most paid for one person’s injuries, the most paid for all injuries in one accident, and the most paid for property damage. The numbers are stated in thousands of dollars.
Combined single limit: One pool of liability money covering injuries and property damage together, instead of three separate caps.
Deductible: The amount subtracted from a collision or comprehensive payment. You do not write a check for it; the insurer simply pays that much less.
Actual cash value: Replacement cost minus depreciation. It is the default basis for paying out a car.
Total loss: When the repair estimate crosses a threshold relative to the car’s value, the insurer pays the value instead of repairing it. Where that threshold sits is set by state law or by the policy.
Subrogation: Your insurer paying your claim first and then pursuing the at-fault party’s insurer for the money, including your deductible.
SR-22 and FR-44: Not insurance, but a form your insurer files with the state to certify you carry the required coverage, usually after a serious violation.

Before you buy

Questions worth asking before you buy

Ask these of an agent, or of yourself, before comparing two prices.

What are my state’s required coverages, and are these limits above them?
Is uninsured motorist coverage included, and at what limit?
Does comprehensive or collision pay actual cash value, or something better?
Who is listed as a driver, and is anyone in my household excluded?
What happens to my rate after one at-fault claim, and is accident forgiveness available?
Am I covered if I drive for a delivery or rideshare app?
Does the policy let me choose the repair shop, and does it pay for parts from the original manufacturer?
How do I reach a person to file a claim, and how quickly does that happen?

State law

What your own state requires you to carry

Required coverages and minimum limits are statute, not an insurer's choice. We publish a state only once its requirement has been read from the state's own material and attached to a source.

Open the requirements lookup

States researchedSourced minimums

12

A state missing from this list has not been researched. That is a statement about our work, not about the state.

Who writes it

Companies that write this insurance

Every profile is built from the company's own documentation and from regulators, with the source and the date beside each fact.

All companies

Partial records

We have verified that these companies write this line, but have not finished researching them. Their profiles show only what is sourced.

Side by side

Comparisons for this line

A pair is published only where enough fields are verified for both companies to make the comparison worth reading. No comparison names a winner.

All comparisons

Free tools

Tools for this line

Each one shows its arithmetic and its assumptions. None of them produces a premium, a quote or a savings figure.

Tool

Deductible exposure explorer

Shows exactly how one loss splits between you and your insurer at each deductible level, and how much more of a loss you carry when you raise it.

Open tool

Tool

Insurance company comparison

Put two companies side by side on the facts we have verified, with the source for each one and an explicit gap where we have not verified something.

Open tool

Tool

Auto insurance requirements by state

The auto insurance a state requires you to carry, shown only for states where the requirement has been researched and sourced, with the source and the date attached to each one.

Open tool

Guides

Guides that apply here

All guides

Guide

How to read an insurance policy without reading all of it

A policy is four kinds of document stapled together. Knowing which part answers which question lets you check the things that decide a claim without reading the whole contract.

Read the guide

Guide

What a deductible actually costs you

A deductible is not a one-time cost. How it resets, how many can apply at once and whether it is a flat amount or a share of a limit all change what you are exposed to.

Read the guide

Guide

Actual cash value versus replacement cost

The same limit pays very differently depending on which valuation method the policy uses, and the method is often chosen for you by default.

Read the guide

Guide

What insurance companies mean by an exclusion

Exclusions are not fine print bolted on to a policy. They are how coverage is defined, and there are only a few reasons any of them exist.

Read the guide

Guide

How to compare two insurance companies fairly

Most comparisons are unfair by accident, because the two things being held up against each other were never the same thing. Here is how to make them comparable first.

Read the guide

Guide

What to do when a claim is denied

A denial is a decision with a stated reason, and the reason determines what you can do about it. Work out which kind you received before you argue with anyone.

Read the guide

Guide

Why the same coverage costs different amounts for different people

Identical coverage carries different prices because insurers are not pricing the coverage. They are pricing the expected cost of the risk behind it, and that is assembled from categories of factor.

Read the guide

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