The 6 Main Types Of Car Insurance

By Stash Team
Last updated June 9, 2026

The six main types of car insurance are liability, collision, comprehensive, uninsured/underinsured motorist, personal injury protection, and medical payments coverage. The point is simple: car insurance helps keep one crash, theft, or lawsuit from wrecking your budget.

Stash’s view: don’t treat insurance as a boring legal checkbox. It is part of your financial foundation. The right coverage can protect your cash flow, your emergency fund, and the long-term investing plan you’re working hard to build.

What you’ll pay for car insurance in 2026

Car insurance prices vary a lot by state, driver, vehicle, insurer, coverage limits, and deductible. In 2026, many drivers are still feeling the effects of higher repair costs, vehicle prices, medical costs, and severe weather claims.

These are broad monthly ranges you may see when comparing policies:

Two people can buy the same coverage and pay very different prices. A driver in a high-claim ZIP code with a new SUV may pay far more than a driver in a lower-cost area with an older sedan. Your credit-based insurance score may also affect pricing in many states, though some states limit or ban that practice.

Smart move: compare the same limits, deductibles, and add-ons across insurers. A cheap-looking policy may have low limits or leave out coverage you assumed was included.

The 6 main types of car insurance

1. Liability insurance

Liability insurance pays for damage you cause to other people. It is the backbone of most auto policies.

It has two parts:

• Bodily injury liability: pays for other people’s medical bills, lost wages, and legal claims if you injure them in an at-fault accident.

• Property damage liability: pays to repair or replace someone else’s car, fence, building, mailbox, or other property you damage.

Nearly every state requires drivers to carry liability insurance or prove financial responsibility. New Hampshire is the notable exception for many drivers, but even there you can be required to show you can pay for damage after certain violations or accidents. Virginia also changed its rules in 2024 and no longer lets drivers simply pay an uninsured motor vehicle fee instead of carrying insurance.

How liability limits work

Liability limits are often written like this: 100/300/100.

That means:

• $100,000 bodily injury coverage per person

• $300,000 bodily injury coverage per accident

• $100,000 property damage coverage per accident

State minimums can be much lower. California, for example, increased its minimum liability limits on January 1, 2025, to 30/60/15, but $15,000 of property damage coverage can still disappear quickly if you total someone’s car.

Here’s the plain-English version: liability insurance is a wall between your savings and someone else’s claim. If your wall is too short, you may have to pay the rest.

2. Collision coverage

Collision coverage pays to repair or replace your car if it is damaged in a crash, no matter who caused the accident.

It can apply when you:

• Hit another vehicle

• Hit a pole, guardrail, tree, or building

• Roll your car

• Get into a single-car accident

Collision coverage usually has a deductible. Common deductibles are $250, $500, and $1,000. If you choose a higher deductible, your premium usually goes down, but you take on more out-of-pocket cost if you file a claim.

Example: Your car needs $4,000 of repairs after you hit a guardrail. You have a $500 collision deductible. Your insurer would generally pay $3,500, and you would pay $500.

If you lease or finance your car, your lender will almost always require collision coverage. If you own your car outright, you can choose whether to carry it.

3. Comprehensive coverage

Comprehensive coverage pays for damage to your car that is not caused by a typical collision.

It can cover:

• Theft

• Vandalism

• Hail, wind, and flood damage

• Fire

• Falling branches or objects

• Broken glass

• Animal strikes, such as hitting a deer

Comprehensive also has a deductible. Like collision, it is usually required if you lease or finance your car.

A useful way to remember it: collision is for crashes; comprehensive is for almost everything else that damages your car.

Should you keep collision and comprehensive?

This is where a little math helps.

Say your car is worth $22,000, your deductible is $500, and collision plus comprehensive costs $90 per month, or $1,080 per year. If the car is totaled, the coverage could protect roughly $21,500 of value after your deductible. That may be worth keeping.

Now say your car is worth $2,500, your deductible is $500, and collision plus comprehensive costs $70 per month, or $840 per year. The most you might collect after a total loss is around $2,000. In that case, you may decide the premium is better used for your emergency fund or next car fund.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer. The real question is: could you repair or replace the car without derailing the rest of your financial life?

4. Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage

Uninsured motorist coverage helps pay your costs if a driver with no insurance hits you. Underinsured motorist coverage helps when the other driver has insurance, but their limits are too low to cover the damage.

You may see these listed as:

• UMBI: uninsured motorist bodily injury

• UIMBI: underinsured motorist bodily injury

• UMPD: uninsured motorist property damage

The Insurance Research Council estimated that 15.4% of U.S. drivers were uninsured in 2023, the most recent broad national estimate. That is roughly 1 in 6 drivers.

This is one of the coverages people skip because they assume other drivers are insured. That assumption can get expensive.

If your state does not require UM/UIM, it may still be worth pricing. It is often not the most expensive part of the policy, and it protects you from someone else’s lack of coverage.

5. Personal injury protection (PIP)

Personal injury protection, or PIP, pays certain expenses after a car accident regardless of who caused the crash.

Depending on your state, PIP may cover:

• Medical bills

• Ambulance costs

• Lost wages

• Childcare or household services you cannot perform while recovering

• Funeral expenses

PIP is closely tied to no-fault insurance systems. As of 2026, PIP or similar first-party medical benefits are required in many states, including Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Utah. Some of these states have special rules, choices, or waiver options, so check your state’s requirements before changing coverage.

PIP can be pricey in some states because it pays without waiting for a fault decision. But if you are seriously hurt, that fast access to coverage may matter.

6. Medical payments coverage (MedPay)

Medical payments coverage, or MedPay, pays medical expenses for you and your passengers after a crash, regardless of who was at fault.

MedPay is narrower than PIP. It generally does not cover lost wages, childcare, or household services. It focuses on medical bills.

MedPay may help pay for:

• Health insurance deductibles

• Copays

• Ambulance bills

• X-rays and surgery

• Funeral costs, depending on the policy

MedPay is optional in most states. Maine requires it, and New Hampshire policies include MedPay when a driver buys auto insurance. If you have a high health insurance deductible, MedPay is worth understanding because it may fill a gap at a relatively low monthly cost.

Other car insurance coverages worth knowing

These are not part of the six main types, but they often show up when you shop for coverage.

Important: full coverage does not mean every possible thing is covered. It usually means liability, collision, and comprehensive. Rental reimbursement, roadside assistance, gap coverage, and rideshare coverage are usually separate add-ons.

How to choose coverage without overpaying

A good policy balances three things:

1. Legal requirements: what your state requires.

2. Contract requirements: what your lender or leasing company requires.

3. Real-life risk: what you could afford to pay if something went wrong.

Start with the basics:

• Check your state minimums, but do not assume the minimum is enough.

• If you lease or finance, expect to carry collision and comprehensive.

• Match your deductible to cash you could actually access after an accident.

• Price uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage before rejecting it.

• Review your policy at renewal, after moving, after paying off a car, or after adding a teen driver.

Insurance is not exciting. That is the point. It is supposed to be boring protection that lets the rest of your financial plan keep moving.

Methodology

Coverage rules in this article reflect state insurance requirements and common policy structures available in 2026. Cost ranges are broad national estimates based on publicly reported auto insurance rate analyses and typical market pricing; your premium may be higher or lower based on your state, insurer, vehicle, driving history, credit-based insurance score where allowed, coverage limits, and deductible.