By the Yellow Ribbon Insurance team · Bill Cline, Licensed Insurance Agent
What Indiana car insurance law requires, what a typical auto policy adds on top, how deer season and winter claims work, what drives the price here, and the questions to ask before your next quote.
Quick answer
Indiana car insurance must include at least 25/50/25 liability coverage, and every new auto policy includes uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless you reject it in writing. Collision and comprehensive coverage are optional under state law but usually required on a financed car. Your cost depends on your drivers, your car and where it's kept, and a quote starts with your VIN and driving history.
- Indiana's average auto insurance expenditure was $926 in 2023, below the $1,282 countrywide average, per the NAIC. That's a statewide average, not a quote for your car.
- An estimated 14.0% of Indiana drivers were uninsured in 2023, according to the Insurance Research Council.
- Deer collisions peak in October and November, and hitting a deer is usually a comprehensive claim.
- Driving uninsured can mean a suspension that's lifted once your insurer files an SR22 and ends after you keep it for 180 consecutive days.
Do this: pull out your declarations page and check four things: your liability limits, whether uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is listed, your collision and comprehensive deductibles, and who's listed as a driver.
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A letter from the BMV asking for proof of insurance. A deer stepping onto a two-lane road at dusk. A renewal that went up even though nobody in the house got a ticket. Most Indiana drivers find out what their car insurance actually does at moments like these, after the policy is already written. This guide covers what Indiana requires, what a typical auto policy adds on top of that, what drives the price here, and the questions worth asking before your next quote. We wrote it for drivers across Indiana, starting with our neighbors in Floyd, Clark and Harrison counties. If you drive in or around New Albany, our guide to car insurance in New Albany covers local roads, weather and garaging.
Indiana car insurance: key facts
| Minimum liability | 25/50/25: $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for injuries, $25,000 for property damageIndiana BMV · IC 9-25-4-5 |
|---|---|
| Uninsured/underinsured motorist | Included on every newly written policy unless you reject it in writingIndiana Department of Insurance |
| Fault system | Fault-based; you can't recover if your fault is greater than everyone else's combinedIC 34-51-2-6 |
| Average expenditure (2023) | $926 in Indiana vs. $1,282 countrywideNAIC Auto Insurance Database |
| Uninsured drivers (2023) | An estimated 14.0% of Indiana driversInsurance Research Council, via the Insurance Information Institute |
| Deer collisions | More than 15,000 reported a year, peaking in October and NovemberIndiana DNR |
| Driving uninsured | Suspension, stayed once an SR22 is filed and ended after 180 days of continuous SR22; $250 reinstatement fee for a first offense, not charged if you keep the SR22 for 180 daysIndiana Driver's Manual, ch. 5 |
What car insurance does Indiana require?
The short answer: Indiana requires liability coverage of at least $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for injuries, plus $25,000 for property damage, and new policies include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless you reject it in writing.
Those liability minimums come from Indiana Code 9-25-4-5, and the Indiana BMV lists the same amounts. You'll often see them written as 25/50/25:
- $25,000 for bodily injury to or death of one person
- $50,000 for bodily injury to or death of two or more people in one accident
- $25,000 for damage to or destruction of property in one accident
Liability coverage pays other people when you cause a crash: their medical bills, their car, the fence or storefront you hit. It doesn't pay to fix your own car or treat your own injuries. The state minimum doesn't include collision, comprehensive or medical payments coverage, so a policy written to the bare minimum leaves your own vehicle uninsured.
The second piece of Indiana law is about uninsured drivers. The Indiana Department of Insurance says each newly written auto liability policy must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless you reject it in writing. We cover how that works, and why it matters here, further down.
Minimums are a floor: the NAIC's consumer guide says state minimums are too low to fully cover you if you cause a serious accident, and that higher liability limits are often available without much increase in your premium. If a claim runs past your limits, the rest can come back to you. See the coverage we offer on our auto insurance page.
Bill Cline
Licensed insurance agent · Veteran · Licensed since 2018
Bill owns Yellow Ribbon Insurance in New Albany. More about Bill.
What does a typical Indiana auto policy cover?
The short answer: A typical auto policy pairs the required liability coverage with optional protection for your own car, your passengers' medical bills and crashes caused by uninsured drivers, plus extras like towing and a rental car.
Each coverage shows up as its own line on your declarations page, with its own limit or deductible. The definitions below follow the NAIC's Consumer's Guide to Auto Insurance and the Insurance Information Institute's overview of a basic auto policy. Your own policy wording decides the details.
| Coverage | What it pays for | Indiana law | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bodily injury liability | Injuries you cause to other people | Required $25,000 / $50,000 | Does the limit fit what you own and earn? |
| Property damage liability | Other people's cars and property | Required $25,000 | Would $25,000 cover a newer vehicle or a building? |
| Uninsured / underinsured motorist | You and your passengers when an at-fault driver has no insurance or too little, including hit-and-runs | Included unless rejected in writing | Do the limits match your liability limits? |
| Collision | Your car, after hitting another car, an object or a pothole, or rolling over | Optional Lenders usually require it | What's the deductible? |
| Comprehensive | Your car, after theft, hail, flood, fire, a falling tree or hitting an animal | Optional Lenders usually require it | What's the deductible? |
| Medical payments | Medical and funeral costs for you, your passengers and family, no matter who caused the crash | Optional | How much is the limit? |
| Towing, rental, gap | A tow, a rental car while yours is repaired, or the loan balance above a totaled car's value | Optional | Which of these are actually on your policy? |
People often call liability plus collision and comprehensive "full coverage." It's a nickname rather than a line on your declarations page, and a "full coverage" policy can still leave out rental, towing or gap protection. When someone tells you a car is fully covered, ask which of the rows above are included.
Some vehicles need a different kind of policy altogether. If you own a classic you drive only occasionally, our guide to collector car coverage explains how that differs from a standard auto policy.
Should you keep uninsured motorist coverage in Indiana?
The short answer: For most Indiana drivers, yes, because an estimated 14.0% of drivers here were uninsured in 2023, and this coverage is what pays for your injuries when one of them causes the crash.
That estimate comes from the Insurance Research Council and is published by the Insurance Information Institute. It puts Indiana 22nd among the states, a little below the 15.4% national estimate. Roughly one in seven drivers on the road around you may have nothing to pay your claim with. Underinsured motorist coverage handles the related problem: a driver who has insurance, but only a state-minimum policy that runs out long before your bills do.
What Indiana law says
- It's on by default. The Indiana Department of Insurance says each newly written Indiana auto liability policy must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless you reject it in writing.
- It matches your liability limits. Under IC 27-7-5-2, the insurer must make it available in limits at least equal to your bodily injury liability limits, unless you reject that in writing.
- A rejection sticks. The same statute says that once you reject it, the insurer doesn't have to offer it again on a renewal or replacement policy unless you later ask for it in writing.
- Property damage needs bodily injury. You can't carry uninsured motorist property damage coverage without also carrying uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage.
The Department of Insurance's auto insurance fact sheet lists the minimums as $25,000/$50,000 for uninsured motorist bodily injury, $25,000 for uninsured motorist property damage on policies issued on or after July 1, 2017, and $50,000 for underinsured motorist bodily injury.
Check for an old rejection form: because a written rejection carries forward, a decision someone signed years ago to lower a premium can still be shaping your policy today. It's worth checking even if you've kept the same policy for years. If uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage isn't on your declarations page, ask why, and ask what it would take to add it back.
Do you need collision and comprehensive on a financed car?
The short answer: Indiana law doesn't require them, but if you finance or lease, your lender or leasing company will likely require both, and it may insure the car itself if your coverage lapses.
The Insurance Information Institute puts it simply: if you lease or finance your vehicle, auto lenders and leasing companies will likely require you to buy collision and comprehensive. Until the loan is paid, the car is partly the lender's collateral, and those two coverages are what pay to repair or replace it.
Keep the policy continuous. The NAIC warns that if you let your insurance lapse, your lender will likely have your car insured, a policy arranged to protect the lender's interest rather than yours.
There's also a gap that collision and comprehensive don't close. The NAIC notes that auto insurance doesn't pay off your loan if the car is damaged and its market value is less than what you owe. Dealers and lenders may offer gap coverage for that situation, which matters most early in a loan with a small down payment.
Once the car is paid off, collision and comprehensive become your decision. Weigh what the car is worth against the premium and your deductible, and remember that on an older car, comprehensive is still what answers for a deer, a hailstorm or a theft.
How much does car insurance cost in Indiana?
The short answer: The NAIC's latest figure puts Indiana's average auto insurance expenditure at $926 for 2023, below the $1,282 countrywide average, but it's a statewide average, not a quote for your car.
Indiana's average auto insurance expenditure in 2023, versus $1,282 countrywide. Source: NAIC, 2023 Auto Insurance Database Average Premium Supplement, Table 4. Checked September 2026. Not a quote.
Where that number comes from, and why you'll see higher ones
The NAIC builds average expenditure from premiums insurers actually wrote in the state: total written premium for liability, collision and comprehensive, divided by the number of insured vehicles for a year. The NAIC assumes every insured car carries liability, but not every car carries collision and comprehensive, so liability-only cars pull the average down. The NAIC also cautions that these averages don't account for differences in drivers, vehicles, limits or deductibles.
The figure lags, too. The 2023 numbers were released in July 2025, and prices were climbing: Indiana's average rose from $814 in 2022 to $926 in 2023, about 14% in one year. Countrywide, the NAIC reported a 19.21% increase in average expenditure between 2019 and 2023.
Many of the "average cost" figures you'll find online are something else: this year's price for one sample driver, with full coverage at set limits and deductibles. That answers a different question from what Indiana drivers actually paid, which is why published numbers can differ widely. Neither is your price. The factors below are what actually set it. For the published figures side by side, see how much car insurance costs in Indiana.
The Indiana Department of Insurance lists the factors insurers commonly use: age and sex, marital status, driving record, how the car is used, where you live, your policy limits and deductibles, the type of car, driver training, claims history and credit scores.
Driving record
Tickets and at-fault accidents on each listed driver's record feed into the price.
Where the car is kept
Where you live and garage the car is one of the rating factors on the state's list.
Who drives
Age, marital status and driver training for every listed driver in the household.
The car itself
Make, model and use: commuting, pleasure or business driving.
Limits and deductibles
Higher limits add some cost; higher deductibles lower the premium but raise what you pay after a claim.
Claims and credit
Past claims and credit-based information can both factor in, where the insurer uses them.
Discounts can move the number too. Bundling with home or renters insurance, paying in full and safe-driving programs may be available, and eligibility varies. The only way to know your price is to quote your drivers and your cars, and a quote with a licensed agent is also a good time to check whether your limits still fit.
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Does car insurance cover deer hits and winter crashes in Indiana?
The short answer: Hitting a deer is usually a comprehensive claim, while sliding off an icy road into a guardrail or ditch is usually a collision claim, so your own car is only covered if you carry the matching coverage.
Deer are a real Indiana driving hazard. The Indiana DNR says more than 15,000 deer-vehicle collisions are reported to the Indiana Department of Transportation every year, each with at least $1,000 in vehicle damage, and it estimates the 2024 damage at $104.5 million. Collisions climb from September through December and peak in October and November, during mating season, with the riskiest hours around dawn and dusk.
The DNR's driving advice lines up with how claims work. Never swerve to avoid a deer: braking and hitting the deer is safer than swerving off the road or into oncoming traffic. And when you see one deer, assume there are more.
Here's why the swerve matters for insurance. The NAIC lists hitting animals under comprehensive, along with theft, hail, windstorm, flood and fire. Collision covers damage from hitting another car, an object or a pothole, or rolling over. Hit the deer, and it's usually a comprehensive claim. Swerve into a tree, and it's usually a collision claim, often with a different deductible. With liability-only coverage, neither pays to fix your car.
Winter follows the same logic. A slide on black ice into a guardrail, a ditch or another car is a collision loss for your own vehicle. A tree limb that falls on a parked car during an ice storm, or hail in a spring storm, is comprehensive.
Illustrative scenario
On a county road at dusk in November, a driver sees a deer too late. The repair estimate is $4,000 either way. The policy has a $500 comprehensive deductible and a $1,000 collision deductible.
| Brakes and hits the deer (comprehensive): $4,000 − $500 | $3,500 |
| Swerves into a guardrail (collision): $4,000 − $1,000 | $3,000 |
| Liability-only policy, either way: paid by the policy for your car | $0 |
Illustrative figures only, not a quote or a promise of how any claim is paid. How a claim is classified and settled depends on your policy and the facts of the loss.
What happens after a car accident in Indiana's at-fault system?
The short answer: Indiana is a fault-based state, so the driver who causes a crash is responsible for the damage, and your own recovery shrinks by your share of the fault or ends if your fault outweighs everyone else's combined.
Indiana isn't on the Insurance Information Institute's list of no-fault states. In a traditional fault state, the III explains, a driver who causes a crash can be sued by the other driver and passengers for their medical costs and their pain and suffering. In practice, that's what your liability coverage is for: it pays those claims, up to your limits.
Indiana splits fault by percentage. Under IC 34-51-2-5, your own share of fault reduces what you can recover in proportion, so a driver found 20% at fault collects 80% of their damages. Under IC 34-51-2-6, you can't recover at all if your fault is greater than the fault of everyone else who contributed.
What to do at the scene and after
- Check for injuries and call 911 if anyone is hurt. Move the cars out of traffic if it's safe.
- Exchange information with the other driver and get names and contact details from witnesses and the responding officer, as the NAIC's checklist recommends.
- Document it with photos of the scene and the damage.
- Report the claim to your insurance company promptly.
- Watch for BMV mail. When the BMV receives an accident report, it asks for proof that you were insured. Your insurer answers by filing a Certificate of Compliance, covered in the next section.
What happens if you drive without insurance in Indiana?
The short answer: If the BMV asks for proof and no Certificate of Compliance arrives within 90 days, your driving privileges are suspended; once your insurer files an SR22, the suspension is stayed, and it ends after 180 days of continuous SR22 coverage.
The Indiana BMV asks for proof of financial responsibility in four situations:
- an accident for which the BMV receives an accident report;
- a pointable moving violation within one year of two other pointable moving violations;
- a serious traffic violation, such as a misdemeanor or felony;
- any pointable violation by a driver previously suspended for failing to provide proof.
Your insurance company answers by electronically filing a Certificate of Compliance showing you had at least the state minimum coverage. The BMV must receive and process it within 90 days of its request, or your driving privileges are suspended.
Getting them back takes time and money. According to the Indiana Driver's Manual, insurance suspensions that took effect on or after December 31, 2021 are indefinite: the suspension is stayed when the BMV receives an SR22 and ends after you keep SR22 coverage continuously for 180 days. An SR22 is a form your insurer files with the BMV to prove future financial responsibility. The manual lists reinstatement fees of $250 for a first offense, $500 for a second and $1,000 for a third or later, unless your insurer files an SR22 and you keep it continuously for 180 days, in which case you can reinstate without paying that fee.
Don't let a switch become a lapse: if you're changing policies, have the new one in force before the old one ends. A single day uninsured is the day a deer, a patch of ice or another driver decides to test it.
If a past accident, lapse or violation makes a standard auto policy hard to get, we may have non-standard auto options. Eligibility depends on the driver, so call us to see what fits.
What should you have ready for an Indiana car insurance quote?
The short answer: Have each driver's license details and driving history, each vehicle's VIN, the ZIP where the cars are kept, your typical annual mileage and your current declarations page ready.
Our car insurance quote checklist goes item by item, and our guide to what car insurance Indiana requires covers the legal minimums, penalties and SR22 rules in depth.
The NAIC notes that an insurer needs quite a bit of information to price a policy, usually including your vehicle's VIN. Having the rest on hand makes the quote accurate the first time:
- Your current declarations page: limits, deductibles and any uninsured motorist rejection
- Every driver in the household: names, dates of birth and license numbers
- Each vehicle: VIN, how it's used (commuting, pleasure, business) and roughly how many miles a year
- Tickets, accidents and claims in the last several years
- Your lender or leasing company details, if the car is financed
Then ask the questions that decide how a claim goes, not only what the premium is:
- Are my liability limits high enough for what I own and earn?
- Do my uninsured and underinsured motorist limits match my liability limits? Did anyone ever sign a rejection?
- What are my collision and comprehensive deductibles, and could I pay them tomorrow?
- Does my lender require anything I don't have? Would gap coverage make sense on this loan?
- Is every driver in the household listed correctly?
- Do I have towing and rental reimbursement, and what are the limits?
- Which discounts might I qualify for? Bundling with home or renters coverage, paying in full or a safe-driving program may help, and eligibility varies.
If you own a home too, our Indiana home insurance guide covers the same ground for your house, and a coverage review with our New Albany office can look at both policies side by side. You can also stop by the office or call.
Bottom line
In short: Indiana's 25/50/25 minimum is the legal floor, and the coverage that actually protects you usually sits above it.
Liability pays others, uninsured motorist coverage protects you from roughly one in seven drivers with no insurance, and collision and comprehensive are what fix your own car after a slide on ice or a deer in November. Averages like the NAIC's $926 are useful context, but your price depends on your drivers, your cars and where they're kept. Have your declarations page ready, ask the seven questions above, and you'll know exactly what you're buying.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Indiana a no-fault car insurance state?
No. Indiana uses a traditional fault-based system, and it isn't on the Insurance Information Institute's list of no-fault states. The driver who causes a crash is responsible for the damage, usually through their liability coverage. Under Indiana's comparative fault law, your own recovery is reduced by your share of the blame, and under IC 34-51-2-6 you can't recover at all if your fault is greater than the fault of everyone else involved. That's why both your liability limits and your uninsured motorist coverage matter.
Is uninsured motorist coverage required in Indiana?
It's included by default, but you can turn it down. The Indiana Department of Insurance says every newly written Indiana auto liability policy must include uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage unless you reject it in writing. Under IC 27-7-5-2, it must be made available at limits at least equal to your bodily injury liability limits. If you rejected it once, the insurer doesn't have to offer it again at renewal unless you ask in writing, so check whether an old rejection is still on file.
Are Indiana's minimum liability limits enough?
They meet the law, but they may not meet the moment. The NAIC's consumer guide says state minimums are too low to fully cover you if you cause a serious accident, and that higher limits are often available without much increase in premium. Indiana's bodily injury minimums are $25,000 per person and $50,000 for everyone hurt in one crash, and its property damage minimum is $25,000 per accident. If a claim runs past your limits, the rest can come back to you, so choose limits based on what you own and earn.
Does car insurance cover hitting a deer in Indiana?
Usually yes, if you carry comprehensive coverage. The NAIC and the Insurance Information Institute both list hitting an animal among the losses comprehensive covers, subject to your deductible. A liability-only policy doesn't pay for damage to your own car. The catch is swerving: if you miss the deer and hit a tree, a guardrail or another car, that's normally a collision claim instead. Collisions peak in October and November, and the Indiana DNR advises braking rather than swerving.
What happens if the Indiana BMV asks for proof of insurance?
The BMV asks for proof after it receives an accident report, after certain repeat or serious violations, and in a few other cases. Your insurance company answers by electronically filing a Certificate of Compliance showing you had at least the state minimum coverage. According to the Indiana BMV, it must be received and processed within 90 days of the request, or your driving privileges are suspended. If that letter arrives, call your agent right away rather than setting it aside.