Auto Insurance Coverage Types, Required and Optional
New York requires some of it, strongly suggests more, and leaves the rest to you. A plain breakdown of what each auto coverage actually pays for.
Nobody reads an auto policy for pleasure. But the declarations page is a list of decisions somebody made about your money, and it's worth knowing which ones were yours. Here are the auto insurance coverage types, sorted by whether you actually had a choice.
What New York requires
Bodily injury liability. If you're at fault and someone is hurt, this pays their medical costs and lost wages. It does not pay for you.
Property damage liability. Same idea, aimed at property. The other car, the fence, the storefront you backed into.
No-fault, also called personal injury protection. New York is a no-fault state, which means your own policy pays your medical expenses after an accident regardless of who caused it. It covers you and your passengers, and it works whether or not anyone involved has health insurance. This is the coverage that surprises drivers moving here from other states.
Uninsured motorist. New York requires this too, and it's the one people are quietly grateful for. It responds when the driver who hit you had no coverage, or left the scene.
What's optional but usually worth it
Underinsured motorist. The other driver had a policy, it just wasn't big enough. Minimum limits are minimums, and serious injuries pass them easily. This is inexpensive relative to what it does.
Collision. Pays for damage to your car from hitting another vehicle or an object, including the pothole that ate a wheel and the guardrail you'd rather not discuss. It doesn't cover mechanical failure or wear.
Comprehensive. Everything that isn't a collision. Theft, vandalism, fire, flood, hail, falling branches, and the deer that stepped out of the tree line on a back road at dusk. In this part of New York, that last one is not hypothetical.
Glass. Windshields crack. Some policies include glass coverage with no deductible, covering side windows, rear glass, and sunroofs. Others sell it as an add-on. Worth checking which one you have before you find out the hard way.
How to think about the optional half
The required coverages protect other people. The optional ones protect you, and the right amount depends on a question insurance documents never ask: what could you absorb yourself?
If replacing your car out of pocket would be painful, keep physical damage coverage and consider a higher deductible instead of dropping it. If the car is old and paid off and you could replace it, dropping collision is a defensible trade.
We're independent, so we shop your coverage across a diverse stable of carriers and put your file where the appetite actually is. Two carriers can look at the same driver and land hundreds of dollars apart.
Want to see where yours lands? Compare your options, or send us your current auto insurance declarations page and we'll read it with you.