Car insurance in South Carolina

What South Carolina law requires you to carry

South Carolina makes you buy two things before you can legally put a car on the road: liability coverage and uninsured motorist (UM) coverage.

Liability — the minimum limits:

• $25,000 for bodily injury to any one person
• $50,000 for bodily injury per crash (all people combined)
• $25,000 for property damage per crash

That's usually written as 25/50/25. Liability pays other people when you cause a crash — their injuries, their vehicle, and other property you damage, such as a fence, a wall, or a storefront. It never pays for your own car.

Uninsured motorist — also mandatory. This is the part that surprises people who move to South Carolina. The Department of Insurance states that you must carry UM coverage equal to the minimum liability limits (25/50/25). UM protects you when the at-fault driver has no insurance or takes off after a hit-and-run. The property-damage half of UM carries a small set deductible; if your insurer later recovers its money from the uninsured driver, that deductible amount should come back to you.

Not required here: South Carolina has no personal injury protection (PIP) requirement, and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage is optional — insurers must offer it, but you don't have to buy it. Collision and comprehensive are optional too, though any lender or leasing company will insist on them.

For context on cost: the NAIC's countrywide data put the average South Carolina premium at about $1,517 per insured vehicle in 2023 for liability, collision, and comprehensive combined. That's an average across all drivers and vehicles — not a quote, and not what any one driver pays.

Source: SC Department of Insurance — Automobile Insurance and SCDOI Auto Insurance FAQs.

Fault and claims: how a South Carolina crash gets paid

South Carolina is a tort (at-fault) state — the Department of Insurance says so plainly. There is no no-fault system and no mandatory PIP. Whoever caused the crash is responsible for the resulting losses, and that driver's liability insurer pays, up to the policy limits.

What that means in practice after a wreck:

1. You can claim against the other driver's insurer (a third-party claim) for your vehicle damage, medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering — all of which fall under bodily injury claims in a tort state.
2. Or you can claim on your own policy if you bought collision or comprehensive, pay your deductible, and let your insurer chase the other company. If the recovery succeeds, your deductible normally comes back.
3. If the other driver has no insurance or flees, your mandatory UM coverage steps in.
4. If you're sued, your liability policy pays for a defense lawyer. The DOI notes the insurer has a duty to defend you against negligence claims and that there's no cap on what it spends on your lawyer — but if a judgment or settlement exceeds your limits, you personally owe the difference. An insurer can refuse to defend claims that you injured someone or damaged property on purpose.

On repairs and totals: you choose the body shop, not the adjuster — the adjuster recommends, but the claim payment is based on local market rates for parts and labor wherever you go. If your car is totaled, the insurer owes its actual cash value the moment before the crash, not a book value; the DOI points out that price guides are only a guide and encourages you to research comparable local used-car prices yourself. The DOI cites a state total-loss threshold of 75% of actual cash value (S.C. Code 56-19-480(G)).

Rental cars: when the claim is against the other driver's company, the DOI says that company is required by law to reimburse your reasonable and necessary loss of use. Some insurers direct-bill a rental agency instead.

Claim timing: there's no single statutory clock the DOI publishes for every payment; its guidance is that claims should be paid in a prompt and reasonable time, and that complex investigations, coverage disputes, multi-car pileups, and storms can legitimately stretch things out.

Source: SCDOI Auto Insurance FAQs.

Optional coverage that's genuinely worth the money here

Underinsured motorist (UIM) — the most important optional coverage in the state. South Carolina's minimum liability is 25/50/25, which means plenty of legally insured drivers carry limits that a single hospital stay would blow through. UIM pays the gap between what the at-fault driver's limits cover and what your losses actually are. Your insurer must offer it; you have to say yes. If you buy only one optional coverage in South Carolina, make it this one.

Higher UM/UIM limits. You're required to carry UM at minimum limits only. Many drivers buy UM and UIM matched to higher liability limits, since the risk UM covers — being hit by someone with nothing — doesn't shrink just because you drive carefully.

Collision and comprehensive. Collision pays for your own car after hitting another vehicle or object; comprehensive covers fire, theft, vandalism, flood, falling objects, animal strikes, and glass. In a coastal, hurricane-exposed state, comprehensive is doing real work — flood damage to a car is a comprehensive claim, not a collision one. A useful South Carolina detail: insurers cannot charge a deductible for safety glass repair or replacement, so a windshield claim shouldn't cost you out of pocket.

Medical payments (MedPay). Because there's no PIP requirement, nothing automatically pays your own medical bills right after a crash while fault is argued about. MedPay fills that role and applies no matter who was at fault.

Rental reimbursement and towing/labor. Small add-ons the DOI lists among common optional coverages. Rental reimbursement matters most when you're claiming on your own policy, because the other side's loss-of-use obligation doesn't apply to a first-party claim.

Higher liability limits. Minimum limits protect the state's interest, not your assets. If a judgment exceeds your limits, the shortfall is yours to pay.

Source: SCDOI Automobile Insurance.

Rules and habits South Carolina drivers trip on

• "I have full coverage" doesn't mean UIM. Required UM is not the same as optional UIM. Check your declarations page for both lines — a lot of South Carolina policies have one and not the other.
• There is no grace period on an auto premium. The DOI says this outright in its own tips: pay well ahead of the due date, because auto insurance has no grace period. A missed payment can mean a gap in coverage, and a gap is what triggers trouble with the DMV and higher prices later.
• Your UM property-damage claim comes with a deductible, unlike the bodily injury side — and you can get that money back if your insurer recovers from the at-fault uninsured driver. Ask about the refund; it isn't always automatic.
• The adjuster's preferred shop is a suggestion. You pick the repairer. Just know the payment is pegged to local market rates for parts and labor, so a shop charging above-market may leave you with a balance.
• Credit-based insurance scores are permitted in South Carolina. Your credit history can influence what you're charged, which is one more reason the same driver gets very different numbers from different companies.
• Rating factors vary a lot by company. The DOI lists driving record, territory, age, gender, marital status, prior coverage, vehicle use, make and model, and prior claims among the things that move a rate — each insurer weighs them its own way.
• Verify the company and agent are licensed before you sign anything. The DOI warns that buying from an unlicensed insurer leaves you with no guarantee the coverage will ever be honored.
• Can't find coverage? The DOI runs a Market Assistance service to help drivers locate insurance.

Source: SCDOI Automobile Insurance.

How to complain to the South Carolina Department of Insurance

If an insurer, agent, broker, or adjuster is stalling, underpaying, or simply not answering, the South Carolina Department of Insurance (SCDOI) Office of Consumer Services will take it up.

Before you file: write down the claim number and policy number, keep every letter and email, note the dates and names of people you spoke to, and ask the company for its position in writing. A written denial or a written explanation of a low offer is the single most useful document you can hand the regulator.

How to reach them:

• Online complaint form: doi.sc.gov/complaint (also linked from the Consumers page)
• Phone: 803-737-6180 to speak with an Insurance Regulatory Analyst; toll-free 1-800-768-3467
• Email: consumers@doi.sc.gov
• Hours: 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Monday–Thursday; 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Friday
• Mail: South Carolina Department of Insurance, 1201 Main Street, Suite 1000, Columbia, SC 29201 (main line 803-737-6160)

Suspected fraud — staged crashes, phantom damage, a fake policy or fake agent — goes to the SCDOI Insurance Fraud Division hotline at 1-888-953-7283, or through its online fraud complaint form. You don't have to give your name.

What the regulator can and can't do: it can require the company to explain itself, review the handling against South Carolina law and the policy language, and act on patterns of misconduct. It is not a court and does not decide disputed questions of fault or the value of a personal injury claim. If liability or damages are genuinely contested, that's a matter for negotiation or litigation — though a regulator's inquiry often unsticks a file that's simply been ignored.

Source: SCDOI Auto Insurance FAQs and SCDOI Automobile Insurance.

A short checklist for shopping and for crash day

When you shop:

1. Give every company identical information — same vehicle details, same drivers, same coverages and limits — or the comparison is meaningless.
2. Decide your limits first, then compare. Start from 25/50/25, then ask what higher liability plus matching UM/UIM would look like.
3. Ask explicitly about discounts the DOI lists: multiple vehicles, driver education, good student, safety devices, anti-theft, low mileage, good driver/renewal, and bundling auto with home.
4. Set the highest deductible you could comfortably pay tomorrow, not in theory.
5. Read the policy when it arrives. It's a contract, and the declarations page is where you confirm UM, UIM, collision, comprehensive, and MedPay are actually on it.
6. Re-shop after a move, a new car, a teen driver, a marriage, or when a ticket or accident ages off your record.

At the scene and after:

1. Call police and get the report information; exchange insurance details with every driver involved.
2. Photograph all vehicles, the road, signage, and any visible injuries.
3. Report the claim to your own insurer promptly, even if you believe the other driver was at fault.
4. If you're served with a lawsuit or any legal notice, tell your insurer immediately — the DOI stresses this, because your right to a defense depends on it.
5. Research your car's local used-car value before accepting a total-loss offer.
6. Keep receipts for rental, towing, and anything else you lay out.

Source: SCDOI Automobile Insurance.