Car Insurance in Florida

Florida Car Insurance

Florida law requires residents of FL to have car insurance. You must purchase the minimum coverage amounts for both personal injury protection (PIP) insurance and property damage liability (PDL) car insurance.

Luckily, Florida offsets this coverage requirement by offering some of the lowest car insurance coverage minimums in the country.

Learn more about Florida’s car insurance requirements, the effects of traffic violations on premium costs, and how to get the best quotes on car insurance available.

FL Auto Insurance Requirements

Florida is a no-fault insurance state. If you are injured in an accident, your car insurance will pay your medical costs up to your policy’s limits, regardless of who caused the accident.

The minimum limits for Florida car insurance coverage are:

• $10,000 of no-fault or personal injury protection (PIP) insurance.
• $10,000 of property damage liability (PDL) insurance.

Personal Injury Protection

In addition to covering your part of any medical expenses and income loss that result from a car accident, your Personal Injury Protection, or PIP, insurance will also cover:

• Your child and other members of your household.
• Your child (when he or she is riding on a school bus).
• You (when you are a pedestrian or bicyclist involved in a car accident.)
• Passengers in your car who do not have their own PIP insurance and do not own a car.

Anyone in your car who has PIP car insurance will be covered by his or her own policy if you get in a car accident. Likewise, your PIP car insurance will cover you while you are a passenger in someone else’s car.

Property Damage Liability

Property Damage Liability (PDL) auto insurance in Florida will cover you for damages you cause in a car accident to someone else’s property, such as homes or buildings.

Violation Penalties and Fines

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) requires your insurance company to electronically notify them if there is a cancellation of your insurance policy.

If the DHSMV has no record of your current car insurance policy, you will be notified by mail. The notification will give you a date of suspension. If you are not ableto provide the DHSMV a proof of insurance before the suspension date, your driver’s license, plates, and registration will all be suspended.

To reinstate these, you will have to provide proof of Florida insurance and pay a fee of:

• $150 for your first offense.
• $250 for your second offense.
• $500 for each offense after.

If you are able to provide proof of insurance to the DHSMV before the date of suspension, you will not face any penalties.

You can provide your proof of insurance:

• Online at the DHSMV website.
• In person at a driver license office.
• By phone at (850) 617-2000.

If you no longer own the car, surrender your plates and registration to the Florida DHSMV to avoid suspension of your FL driver’s license.

Optional Car Insurance in Florida

While Florida law mandates the minimum amounts of coverage you must purchase, you always have the option of purchasing higher amounts of coverage on your property injury protection and property damage liability coverage.

Also, for those looking for more comprehensive coverage, most Florida car insurance companies will offer the following types of optional coverage:

• Comprehensive – This coverage will pay for damages to your car that do not result from accidents, e.g., scratches to your car’s paint due to vandalism.
• Collision – This coverage will pay for accident-related damages to your car.
• Towing and labor.
• Uninsured/underinsured motorist – This coverage will pay for damages incurred by incidents with drivers who do not have insurance.
• Rental car coverage.

NOTE: While comprehensive and collision coverage policies are not required by Florida law, your lender will require you to purchase both if you are financing your car.

Bodily Injury Liability

One of the major reasons that Florida requires no-fault car insurance is to protect FL drivers from being sued after an accident. However, if you get into an accident, there’s still a chance the victim(s) will sue you, especially if one or more victims suffers severe injury or if there is a fatality.

To help cover you in these cases, you can get Bodily Injury Liability (BIL) car insurance in Florida. If you have BIL coverage and you are found responsible for an accident, this coverage helps to pay for injuries to the victims of that accident, up to the coverage limits of the policy.

Bodily injury liability coverage will even help pay for the cost of a lawyer if you are sued after an accident.

Insurance Penalties: SR-22 and FR-44

In Florida, you may be required to purchase additional car insurance if you’ve been in a car accident or you’ve had certain traffic violation convictions.

SR-22 in Florida

Certain incidents or violations may require you to carry an SR-22 certification, whichmandates that you purchase bodily injury liability, or BIL, car insurance on top of the basic Florida car insurance requirements.

You will have to carry an SR-22 for 3 years IF:

• You are involved in a car accident that causes injuries or property damage.
• You have had your driver’s license suspended due to excessive traffic violation points.
• Your driver’s license has been habitually revoked.

If you are found guilty of driving without car insurance, you may have to carry a 6-month non-cancelable SR-22 for up to 2 years. A 6-month non-cancelable SR-22 requires you to pay your entire premium up front each time you renew your policy.

FR-44 in Florida

If you are convicted of a DUI in Florida, you may be required to purchase additional insurance and file an FR-44 form as proof of that coverage. FR-44 certificates are required when a driver has been convicted of a DUI and did not hold the following amounts of coverage for bodily injury liability and property damage liability insurance on the date of the arrest:

• $100,000 for injuries to any one person.
• $300,000 for injuries to all people in one accident.
• $50,000 for property damage liability (PDL).

If you are subject to the FR-44 requirement, you will need to add BIL and PDL coverage to your policy, with the minimums shown above.

You must have your FR-44 for at least 3 years from the date of suspension.

Driving under the influence is not only dangerous, but it can also be extremely costly. Stay safe and keep your car insurance premiums down.

The Most Stolen Cars In Florida

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Driving a car that is known to be a target for car theft may increase your car insurance premium.

The following is a list of 2013's most stolen cars in Florida according to www.nicb.org:

1. Ford Pickup (Full Size).
2. Honda Civic.
3. Honda Accord.
4. Nissan Altima.
5. Toyota Camry.
6. Toyota Corolla.
7. Nissan Maxima.
8. Chevrolet Pickup (Full Size).
9. Dodge Pickup (Full Size).
10. Dodge Caravan.