Valley Stream
Last Updated on November 7, 2026 by James Shaffer · Reviewed for accuracy by Daniel Major, licensed insurance agent (NPN 14733759)
Registering a car in Valley Stream means carrying New York’s required insurance: liability of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for injuries you cause, raised to $50,000 and $100,000 when someone dies, plus $10,000 for property damage, $50,000 in no-fault benefits, and uninsured motorist coverage of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. The insurer must be licensed in New York.
Valley Stream borders Queens, and that shapes a few decisions more than the minimums do. Census figures show workers here averaging 40.7 minutes to get to work, tickets written just across the line follow a different process than tickets written in Nassau County, and insurers price by where a car is kept and how it’s used. Those points come first below, then the coverage worth pricing beyond the minimums, Valley Stream agencies, and nearby DMV offices. The agency details were checked in September 2026.
At a Glance
- Commute and Mileage: The average trip to work is 40.7 minutes in Valley Stream and 36.0 across Nassau County. DFS lists annual mileage and vehicle use among the factors insurers rate on, so answer those questions from your real routine.
- Garaging Address: Prices depend partly on where the car is kept. DFS describes misstating that location to get a lower premium as rate evasion, and after 60 days an insurer can cancel mid-term for fraud or material misrepresentation.
- City-Line Tickets: Notices from New York City’s school-zone speed and red-light cameras can’t be used for insurance purposes under state law. A non-criminal traffic ticket written by an officer in the five boroughs is decided by the DMV’s Traffic Violations Bureau.
- Hit-and-Run and Uninsured Drivers: Required UM covers you, your household, and your passengers for crashes in New York State, hit-and-runs included. A crash in New Jersey or an underinsured driver calls for optional SUM.
What New York Requires on a Valley Stream Policy
| Coverage | Required Amount |
|---|---|
| Bodily injury liability | $25,000 per person / $50,000 per accident |
| Death liability | $50,000 per person / $100,000 for two or more deaths |
| Property damage liability | $10,000 per crash |
| No-fault (PIP) | $50,000 per person |
| Uninsured motorist (UM) | $25,000 per person / $50,000 per accident |
The DMV’s insurance requirements page sets three rules for every policy:
- It has to come from an insurer licensed in New York. The DMV says it does not accept out-of-state insurance.
- It has to stay in force for as long as the car is registered, including any stretch when the car sits parked.
- The name on the policy has to match the name on the registration, or the DMV may suspend the license and registration.
According to the DFS consumer FAQ, the required uninsured motorist coverage protects you, family members who live with you, and people riding in your car when an uninsured or hit-and-run driver injures them in an accident in New York State. Our guide to New York auto insurance laws and requirements covers the remaining rules.
Commuting, Mileage, and Vehicle Use
According to Census Bureau QuickFacts, workers in Valley Stream averaged 40.7 minutes getting to work in 2020–2024, compared with 36.0 minutes across Nassau County. That average includes every way of commuting, trains and buses among them, so it says little about how far any one driver goes. It does explain why the mileage and vehicle-use questions on an application deserve a careful answer.
DFS’s page on applying for auto insurance explains that New York groups drivers into rating classes that include territory, annual mileage, and whether a car is used for pleasure or work. An insurer must revise the premium if it learns that the car is used differently from what the application says, that other people drive it, or that there are surchargeable accidents or convictions. If your daily drive changes or someone else in the household starts using your car, tell the insurer instead of waiting for it to find out.
DFS’s page on discounts and saving money tells shoppers to ask about discounts such as car pools and low annual mileage. It also describes usage-based programs, in which some insurers offer a discount tied to driving statistics from a device in the car, such as miles driven, time of day, braking and acceleration, and GPS location. Read what a program collects before you enroll.
Keeping the Garaging Address Accurate
Each insurer files its own rating territories with the state to reflect differences in claim costs, DFS says, so the address where a car is kept is an input to the price. DFS’s instructions for insurers’ annual fraud reports describe rate evasion as misrepresenting where vehicles are garaged or driven in order to get a lower premium.
If you move, or the car is now kept somewhere other than the address on your policy, update the policy. Once a policy has been in force for 60 days, the DFS FAQ lists fraud or material misrepresentation, in getting the policy or making a claim, among the few grounds an insurer has for canceling mid-term.
Quick tip: When a new policy arrives, DFS suggests checking that the mailing and garaging address, each vehicle’s classification, the discounts you should receive, each vehicle’s make and model, the drivers’ birthdates, and the dates of any accidents and convictions the insurer lists are all correct.
Tickets and Crashes Across the City Line
Where a traffic ticket was written decides who handles it. The DMV says all non-criminal traffic tickets issued in the five boroughs are decided by its Traffic Violations Bureau (TVB), while tickets issued elsewhere are processed in the criminal or traffic court where the violation took place. The Queens South bureau is at 168-35 Rockaway Blvd in Jamaica, and the DMV lists it with the other TVB offices.
Camera Notices and Your Insurance
New York City also issues violations by camera. State law says liability under the city’s school-zone speed camera program and its red-light camera program is not a conviction, is not made part of the operating record of the person held liable, and can’t be used for insurance purposes. The rules are in Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 1180-b for school speed zones and Section 1111-a for red lights. Those sections cover the city’s two programs; a notice from any other program is governed by its own rules.
Officer-Issued Tickets and Insurance Surcharges
A ticket handed to you by an officer is treated differently. DFS explains that an insurer can raise your premium after an at-fault accident or a traffic conviction, and it calls that increase a surcharge. Our article on speeding tickets and car insurance covers how tickets affect what you pay, and our page on why insurance rates increase looks at other causes.
A course in the DMV’s Point and Insurance Reduction Program (PIRP) takes 10% off the base rates of liability and collision premiums each year for three years for the vehicle’s principal operator, and you retake it every 36 months to keep the discount. It can also reduce up to 4 points for the DMV’s suspension calculations, though the violations stay on your record. Courses are offered in a classroom or online.
Getting the Police Report
Valley Stream is in the Nassau County Police Department’s Fifth Precinct. The department’s page on accident reports online says reports are available through LexisNexis eCrash with a report number, or with your name and either the date of the incident or the street where it happened, and that a copy can also be ordered from the DMV. The DMV’s crash report page lets you search for and buy certified reports online.
Coverage Worth Pricing Beyond the Minimums
None of the required coverages pays to repair your own car. According to DFS, collision pays for damage when your car hits another vehicle or an object, whoever is at fault, and comprehensive pays for theft, fire, flood, windstorm, glass breakage, vandalism, and hitting an animal. A lender or leasing company may require both on a financed or leased car. Our guide to the types of car insurance in New York describes each coverage.
If you add collision or comprehensive to a car you already own, the insurer must inspect and photograph it first. DFS says the inspection is usually waived for a brand-new vehicle and that physical damage coverage is suspended if you don’t allow it.
The required UM coverage applies to accidents in New York State, including those in the five boroughs. It doesn’t apply to an accident in New Jersey or Connecticut. DFS says supplementary uninsured/underinsured motorist (SUM) coverage also covers accidents out of state, and it applies when the other driver has some insurance but too little. SUM limits can’t exceed your bodily injury liability limits, and what SUM pays is reduced by amounts you recover from the other driver’s auto insurance. DFS explains the options on its optional auto coverage page.
Comparing Quotes and Insurers
Insurers set their own rates and territories, so the same driver and car can get different quotes. Ask each company for the same liability limits, SUM limits, and deductibles, and give each one the same garaging address, mileage, and driver list, or the numbers won’t line up. Our tips for lowering car insurance costs in New York suggest other ways to trim the bill.
For service records, the DFS auto insurance complaint ranking lists insurers by the complaints DFS upheld compared with the premiums they write in New York over two years. It counts only complaints sent to DFS, and a small insurer’s rank can move a lot on one or two cases. Look up the exact company on your quote, because a large group may write policies under more than one name.
If a quote comes from one of these companies, you can read NYMI’s review of how it operates in New York: Allstate, Erie, GEICO, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, New York Central Mutual (NYCM), Progressive, State Farm, Travelers, and USAA.
Valley Stream Car Insurance Agents
We looked up each of these seven offices in September 2026, using the agency’s own website or a carrier’s agent listing, and haven’t rated any of them. Two sell for a single company, State Farm or Allstate. The other five describe themselves as independent or say they represent several insurers.
| Agency | Address | Phone | Sells |
|---|---|---|---|
| P&G Long Island | 76 S Central Ave, 11580 | (516) 791-1800 | Multiple insurers (independent) |
| SRS Brokerage | 59 Rockaway Ave, 11580 | (516) 872-6554 | Multiple insurers (independent) |
| Shield Group | 437 Rockaway Ave, 11581 | (516) 825-3100 | Multiple insurers (independent) |
| Brightway Insurance (The Redler Agency) | 70 E Sunrise Hwy, Ste 500, 11581 | (516) 613-5010 | Multiple insurers (independent) |
| Grober Imbey Insurance Agency | 1 Sunrise Plz, 11580 | (516) 872-9500 | Multiple insurers (independent) |
| Herb Albernas | 1575 Dutch Broadway, 11580 | (516) 825-6556 | State Farm |
| Chavelt Saint Charles | 135 E Merrick Rd, 11580 | (516) 405-6002 | Allstate |
Herb Albernas’s website lists English and Spanish. Whichever office you call, have the address where the car is kept, the drivers’ license details, and your real annual mileage ready, since those feed the rating factors above.
DMV Offices Near Valley Stream
Two DMV offices near Valley Stream are the Garden City office in Nassau County and the Springfield Gardens office in Queens, at the same address as the Queens South TVB. Each office page has a reservation link. The DMV strongly encourages reservations and, when an office has long waits, admits only customers who have one.
| Office | Address |
|---|---|
| Garden City (Nassau County) | 400 Oak St, Garden City, NY 11530 |
| Springfield Gardens (Queens) | 168-35 Rockaway Blvd, Jamaica, NY 11434 |
The DMV office locator shows other offices by city or ZIP code. After you switch insurers, the DMV’s insurance status lookup shows whether it has your new policy on file.
Car insurance guides for nearby places: Lynbrook, Queens, Rockville Centre and Hempstead. For every city and borough we cover, see New York car insurance by city.