Car insurance in New York

What New York law requires on every policy

To register and drive a car in New York, you must carry a liability policy from an insurer licensed in the state. The legal floor is:

• $25,000 per person / $50,000 per crash for bodily injury you cause
• $10,000 per crash for damage to other people's property
• $50,000 of no-fault personal injury protection (PIP), which every policy must include
• Uninsured motorist (UM) bodily injury coverage at 25/50, which is mandatory

One wrinkle to know: when a claim involves a death, New York requires higher bodily injury limits than the ordinary 25/50 floor — the per-person and per-crash figures both step up.

Underinsured motorist coverage is not mandatory on its own. In New York it is sold as SUM (Supplementary Uninsured/Underinsured Motorists) coverage, which is optional and can be bought in amounts up to your own bodily injury liability limits (NY DFS).

Those minimums are a floor, not a recommendation. A serious injury claim or a crash involving a newer vehicle can exhaust 25/50/10 quickly, and anything above your limits is your personal problem — your assets and future wages included. For context on what drivers pay overall, the NAIC put the 2023 average annual expenditure in New York at $1,896 per insured vehicle for liability, collision and comprehensive combined. Your own cost depends on your ZIP code, car, driving record, how you use the car, and — because New York permits it — a credit-based insurance score.

How fault and claims actually work here

New York is a no-fault state for injuries. After a crash, your own policy's $50,000 of PIP pays your medical bills, a portion of lost earnings and certain other necessary expenses — regardless of who caused the crash. Passengers, pedestrians and cyclists struck by an insured vehicle are generally covered by that vehicle's no-fault benefits too.

No-fault applies only to injuries. Vehicle damage is still handled on a fault basis: you either claim against the at-fault driver's property damage liability, or use your own collision coverage and let your insurer pursue the other side (and refund your deductible if it recovers).

The deadlines are short, and missing them is the most common way New Yorkers lose benefits:

• Written notice of the accident must reach the no-fault insurer within 30 days of the crash — usually on the prescribed NYS Form NF-2 application.
• The insurer must send you the NF-2 within five business days of being notified of the accident.
• Once it has your completed NF-2 (or the hospital's NF-5), the insurer has 30 days to pay, deny, or request further verification of the claim.

(Source: DFS Insurance Circular Letter No. 1 (2015), applying 11 NYCRR 65 / Regulation 68.)

Because of no-fault, you generally cannot sue the other driver for pain and suffering unless your injury meets the "serious injury" definition in the state's Insurance Law — categories such as fracture, significant disfigurement, permanent loss of use of a body function, or a substantial disability lasting most of the first 90 days after the crash. Economic losses beyond what no-fault pays can still be pursued against the at-fault driver.

Optional coverage worth paying for in New York

• SUM (supplementary uninsured/underinsured motorists). The most valuable optional coverage in this state. Mandatory UM only matches the 25/50 minimum; SUM steps in when the at-fault driver carries too little to cover a serious injury, and you can buy it up to your own liability limits. If you raise your liability, raise SUM with it.
• Higher liability limits. Cheap per unit of protection compared with almost anything else on the policy, and the thing standing between a bad crash and your savings.
• Additional PIP (and optional basic economic loss). Extends the $50,000 no-fault benefit for medical care and lost wages, which a long recovery can use up.
• Collision and comprehensive. Not required by the state, but your lender or lessor will require both. Comprehensive is what covers theft, flood, fire, vandalism and a cracked windshield.
• Rental reimbursement and towing, if being without the car would hurt.
• Gap coverage if you lease or financed with little money down.

DFS itself points drivers toward comprehensive, collision, additional PIP and SUM as the coverages worth considering beyond the legal minimum (DFS FAQ).

Rules New York drivers trip on

Coverage and registration are linked. New York matches insurance records to registrations electronically. Your insurer reports lapses to the DMV, and the DMV acts on them — so cancelling a policy on a car that is still registered is a mistake even if the car is parked. Surrender the plates first.

Lapses are penalised by the day. For a lapse of 90 days or less you may be offered the choice of paying a civil penalty instead of turning in your plates; beyond that, the penalty option is not available and you face registration suspension, with a driver licence suspension possible as well (NY DMV). Driving while the registration is suspended for a lapse is a separate and far more serious problem.

Your insurer must be licensed in New York. Out-of-state or unauthorised "coverage" will not satisfy the DMV and will not produce a valid New York insurance ID card.

The 30-day no-fault notice does not wait for you. Report the crash to the insurer promptly even if you feel fine; injuries that surface weeks later are still covered, but only if notice was given on time.

Moving to New York. Register the car and switch to a New York policy before the grace period on your out-of-state plates runs out — the PIP and UM structure here differs from most states, so a straight policy transfer is rarely possible.

Credit matters. Insurers in New York may use credit-based insurance scores in pricing, so cleaning up a credit file can change what you are quoted.

Shop at renewal, not after a crash. Rating territories in New York City, Long Island and Westchester differ sharply from upstate, and the spread between companies for the same driver can be wide.

If you can't get covered or disagree with a claim decision

Drivers with a poor record, a long gap in coverage, or an unusual vehicle can be turned down in the open market. New York's answer is the New York Automobile Insurance Plan (NYAIP), the assigned-risk plan, which places applicants with a licensed insurer through a broker. It is a backstop, not a bargain — treat it as temporary and re-shop the standard market once your record improves.

If a no-fault claim is denied or underpaid, you have more than a phone argument available: disputes over no-fault benefits can be taken to no-fault arbitration under the Department's no-fault regulation (Regulation 68, 11 NYCRR 65), as an alternative to going to court. Ask the insurer in writing for the specific reason for the denial and the policy or regulation it relies on; that written denial is what a complaint or an arbitration will be built on.

Keep copies of everything: the police report, the NF-2 and any provider bills, correspondence, photographs, repair estimates, and a note of every call with a date and a name.

How to complain to the regulator

Auto insurers, agents and brokers in New York are supervised by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS), dfs.ny.gov.

1. Complain to the company first. Use its formal complaint channel and get the decision in writing. DFS will ask what the insurer told you.
2. File with DFS. Use the online Consumer Complaint Form at dfs.ny.gov/complaint. Attach the policy declarations page, the denial letter, claim correspondence and anything documenting the loss.
3. Or call the DFS consumer hotline on (800) 342-3736, staffed Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM (DFS Contact Us).

DFS asks the insurer to respond and reviews whether it followed New York law, the Insurance Law's claim-handling rules and the terms of your policy. It can press an insurer to reverse an improper denial or pay what it owes, and patterns of complaints feed into examinations and enforcement. What it cannot do is decide a genuinely contested question of fact or law that belongs in court or in no-fault arbitration, or dictate what your premium should be.

Complaining does not pause anything else — keep meeting your policy's deadlines, and if a serious injury or large loss is involved, get independent advice well before any deadline to sue expires.