New York City Auto Insurance
Last Updated on September 30, 2026 by James Shaffer
Car insurance in New York City follows state law, so the required coverage is the same in all five boroughs: bodily injury liability of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident ($50,000 and $100,000 if someone is killed), $10,000 in property damage liability, $50,000 in no-fault benefits, and uninsured motorist coverage of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. The policy must come from an insurer licensed in New York.
How much more you need depends a lot on where in the city you live and how you drive. This page covers the rules that apply citywide, filing a no-fault claim after a city crash, insurance for TLC and for-hire driving, and the DMV and ticket offices in each borough. It also links to our separate guides for each borough.
At a Glance
- One set of rules citywide: Every car registered in the five boroughs needs the state minimums, and the DMV won’t accept out-of-state insurance for a car registered in New York.
- Pedestrian injuries: DFS says a pedestrian hit by a car files a no-fault claim with the insurer of the car that struck them. Written notice is due within 30 days of the accident.
- For-hire cars: TLC rules require livery and black cars to carry at least $100,000/$300,000 in bodily injury liability and $100,000 in PIP, well above the minimums for a personal car.
- Trips into New Jersey: The uninsured motorist coverage every policy includes doesn’t apply to accidents outside New York. Optional SUM coverage does.
- Insurance Required for Cars Registered in New York City
- Filing a No-Fault Claim After a City Crash
- Borough Guides, DMV Offices, and Ticket Offices
- Insurance for TLC and For-Hire Driving
- SUM Coverage for Driving Outside New York
- What Affects Premiums Across the City
- Checking Insurers Before You Buy
- Insurance Agencies Around the Five Boroughs
- FAQs on New York City Car Insurance
Insurance Required for Cars Registered in New York City
| Coverage | Minimum | What It Pays For |
|---|---|---|
| Bodily injury liability | $25,000 per person / $50,000 per accident | Injuries you cause to others |
| Death liability | $50,000 per person / $100,000 per accident | Deaths you cause |
| Property damage liability | $10,000 per accident | Damage you cause to others’ property |
| No-fault (PIP) | $50,000 per person | Injury costs, regardless of fault |
| Uninsured motorist | $25,000 per person / $50,000 per accident | Your injuries caused by an uninsured driver in New York |
These limits come from the DMV’s insurance requirements. Coverage has to stay active for the whole time the car is registered, even when it isn’t being driven. None of the required coverages pays to fix your own car; that takes collision or comprehensive. Our overview of New York insurance laws and requirements goes through the statewide rules in more detail.
New Residents and Drivers Leaving the City
The DMV’s page for people moving to or from New York says new residents must get a New York driver license within 30 days, and a car registered in New York must be insured by a New York policy. The DMV won’t accept out-of-state coverage of any kind for it. Our guide to moving to New York with a car walks through the steps in order.
Leaving works in the opposite order. Surrender your New York plates and registration to the DMV before you cancel the New York liability policy. If you cancel first, the coverage lapses on the DMV’s records, which can lead to a suspension of your registration and license.
Filing a No-Fault Claim After a City Crash
No-fault, or personal injury protection (PIP), pays injury costs without waiting to decide who caused the crash. It isn’t limited to drivers: passengers and pedestrians can claim too, usually under someone else’s policy. The DFS no-fault FAQ says to file with:
- The insurer of the car you were in, if you were a driver or passenger
- The insurer of the car that struck you, if you were a pedestrian
- If you don’t know which car struck you or it was uninsured, the insurer of a relative in your household who had an auto policy, or the Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corporation (MVAIC) if the household had none
DFS also notes that motorcycle drivers and passengers are excluded from no-fault benefits.
The basic benefit covers up to $50,000 per person. It pays necessary medical and hospital bills under state fee schedules, 80% of lost earnings up to $2,000 a month for as long as three years, and up to $25 a day for one year for other reasonable and necessary expenses. A separate $2,000 death benefit is paid on top of that.
Deadlines are tight: written notice within 30 days of the accident, medical bills within 45 days, and lost-wage claims within 90 days. Late submissions need a clear and reasonable justification. According to DFS, you may also sue the driver who caused the crash if you sustain a “serious injury” as defined in Section 5102(d) of the Insurance Law.
Borough Guides, DMV Offices, and Ticket Offices
Car ownership varies widely by borough. A State Comptroller report on transportation costs found that 43.8 percent of city households owned at least one vehicle in 2023. That share was about 21 percent in Manhattan, 61.4 percent in Queens, and 82.6 percent on Staten Island. Our borough guides cover what that means locally, from flood exposure to local agencies.
| Borough Guide | DMV Offices | Traffic Violations Bureau |
|---|---|---|
| Manhattan | Harlem, 5 W 125th St; Midtown Manhattan, 366 W 31st St; Lower Manhattan, 11 Greenwich St | Manhattan North, 5 W 125th St; Manhattan South, 17 Battery Pl |
| Brooklyn | Atlantic Center, 625 Atlantic Ave; Coney Island, 2875 W 8th St | Brooklyn North, 625 Atlantic Ave; Brooklyn South, 2875 W 8th St |
| Queens | College Point, 30-56 Whitestone Expy; Jamaica, 168-46 91st Ave; Springfield Gardens, 168-35 Rockaway Blvd | Queens South, 168-35 Rockaway Blvd |
| The Bronx | Bronx District Office, 610 Exterior St | Bronx, 610 Exterior St |
| Staten Island | Richmond, 1775 South Ave | Richmond, 1775 South Ave |
Each DMV office in the table lists vehicle registration among its services, and the DMV office locator has the full list of locations and hours. The DMV strongly encourages reservations, and when waits are long, only people with one are let in.
The Traffic Violations Bureau decides non-criminal moving violations written anywhere in the five boroughs, so city tickets don’t go to local traffic courts as they do elsewhere in the state. It doesn’t handle parking tickets, red light or speed camera tickets, or criminal charges such as DWI. Not answering a moving violation ticket on time can lead to a license suspension, and the DMV’s TVB office list shows where to go in person.
Insurance for TLC and For-Hire Driving
Driving passengers for pay in the city is regulated by the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), and a personal policy at state minimums falls far short of its rules. The TLC licenses three kinds of for-hire vehicles (black cars, livery cars, and limousines), and each must be affiliated with a for-hire vehicle base. Uber and Lyft operate as high-volume for-hire services, which the TLC defines as licensed bases dispatching more than 10,000 trips a day.
The TLC’s vehicle insurance requirements, last updated March 3, 2026, set these minimums for vehicles seating up to seven passengers:
| TLC Vehicle Type | Bodily Injury Liability | Personal Injury Protection |
|---|---|---|
| Livery or black car | $100,000 per person / $300,000 per occurrence | $100,000 |
| Medallion taxi | $100,000 per person / $300,000 per occurrence | $100,000 |
| Luxury limousine | $500,000 per person / $1 million per occurrence | $100,000 |
The owner of a TLC-licensed vehicle must also keep a current for-hire insurance certificate (form FH-1) on file with the TLC, as its vehicle insurance page explains. Our guide to TLC insurance in NYC covers how these policies are bought and filed.
Quick tip: Check the TLC’s licensing status before you buy or lease a car to drive for hire. According to the TLC’s February 2026 license review report, the only new for-hire vehicle licenses available at that time were those restricted to wheelchair-accessible vehicles.
SUM Coverage for Driving Outside New York
From Manhattan and Staten Island, New Jersey is one bridge or tunnel away, and that’s where a gap in the required coverage shows up. DFS explains on its optional coverage page that the basic uninsured motorist coverage doesn’t cover accidents out of state, while supplementary uninsured/underinsured motorist (SUM) coverage does.
SUM pays for your injuries when the at-fault driver has no insurance or too little. You choose SUM limits up to your own bodily injury liability limits, and anything you recover from the other driver’s auto insurance reduces what SUM pays. To buy $100,000 per person in SUM, for example, you need at least $100,000 per person in bodily injury liability.
What Affects Premiums Across the City
New York is divided into rating territories, which each insurer files to reflect differences in claim costs. A car kept in one borough can cost a different amount to insure than the same car in another, and two insurers may price the same ZIP code differently, so there’s no single citywide price. The car you drive and the coverage and deductibles you pick also change what you pay.
A few things can bring the price down. A DMV-approved Point and Insurance Reduction Program course lowers liability and collision premiums by 10% a year for three years, and it has to be retaken every 36 months to keep the discount. On an older car, it can be worth comparing what collision and comprehensive cost with what the car is worth. If the car is financed, lenders commonly require both (the NAIC’s explainer on what auto insurance covers says so), and a lease agreement sets its own insurance terms, so check yours before dropping either.
Keep the coverage continuous. If liability insurance lapses for 90 days or less, the DMV charges a civil penalty of $8 to $12 a day, and a longer lapse means surrendering the plates and a license suspension for the same length of time, as the DMV’s insurance lapse page explains.
Drivers turned down by insurers in the regular market can get coverage through the New York Automobile Insurance Plan, which assigns them to an insurer. DFS says plan coverage usually costs more, the assigned insurer must keep you for three years, and you can move to a regular policy at any time. Our page on high-risk driver insurance covers the options.
Checking Insurers Before You Buy
Get at least a few quotes with the same liability limits, SUM limits, and deductibles so the prices are comparable. To compare service, the DFS complaint ranking lists insurers by how many complaints DFS upheld against them relative to their New York premiums. It counts only complaints filed with DFS, and small insurers can move a lot on one or two complaints.
For a closer look at individual companies, see our New York reviews of Allstate, Amica, Erie, GEICO, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, New York Central Mutual, Progressive, State Farm, Travelers, and USAA.
Insurance Agencies Around the Five Boroughs
These agencies are spread across all five boroughs, and each borough guide above lists more. We checked the addresses and phone numbers against each agency’s own website or its insurer’s agent directory in September 2026. We haven’t rated any of them.
| Agency | Address | Phone | Sells |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schmutter Strull Fleisch | 99 Wall St, Ste 1830, Manhattan 10005 | (212) 964-6190 | Multiple insurers (independent) |
| Kelly Qu Agency | 252 W 38th St, Rm 1503, Manhattan 10018 | (718) 865-8458 | Allstate |
| Cook Insurance Services | 885 Grand St, Brooklyn 11211 | (718) 782-8802 | Multiple insurers (independent) |
| JDI Brokerage | 58 Walton St, Ste 901, Brooklyn 11206 | (718) 486-5051 | Multiple insurers (independent) |
| K&N Insurance Brokerage | 182-03 Jamaica Ave, Hollis (Queens) 11423 | (718) 739-9090 | Multiple insurers (independent) |
| Joy Washington | 1946 Williamsbridge Rd, Bronx 10461 | (718) 239-3514 | State Farm |
| Allen C. Bentson Agency | 653 Forest Ave, Staten Island 10310 | (718) 442-1771 | Multiple insurers (independent) |
When you call, give the address where the car is garaged overnight, ask for SUM to be quoted at the same limits as your bodily injury liability, and say up front if you plan to drive for hire.
Car insurance guides for nearby places: Yonkers, Mount Vernon and Valley Stream. For every city and borough we cover, see New York car insurance by city.