Auto insurance, written for how Florida actually works
Florida is one of the only states in the country that does not require you to carry bodily injury liability. That single fact explains most of what goes wrong here, and it is where every honest conversation about auto insurance here starts.
What this touches
- Personal injury protection (PIP), which pays your own medical bills first, no matter who caused the crash
- Property damage liability (PDL), which pays for what you break
- Bodily injury liability, which Florida does not require and which protects everything you own
- Uninsured and underinsured motorist, for the very large share of drivers here carrying nothing
- Collision and comprehensive, if you have a loan, a lease, or a car you cannot replace out of pocket
- Rental reimbursement, towing, and roadside, which cost little and get used often
What Florida requires, and what it does not
The legal minimum is $10,000 of personal injury protection and $10,000 of property damage liability. That is all. It buys you a licence plate and almost no protection: PIP pays 80% of medical and 60% of lost wages up to the limit, and only if you seek treatment within 14 days of the crash. Without an emergency medical condition finding from a qualified provider, PIP is capped at $2,500. If you injure somebody and you carry no bodily injury liability, the claim comes to you personally.
What actually moves your price in South Florida
- Your ZIP code, more than almost anything else. Rates inside Miami-Dade vary sharply from one municipality to the next.
- How long you have held a Florida licence, and whether your record transferred from another country or another state.
- Credit-based insurance score, which Florida permits and most carriers use.
- Continuous coverage. A gap of even a few weeks moves you into a higher tier with most carriers.
- The car itself: repair cost, theft frequency for that model here, and whether it has a lienholder demanding full coverage.
The coverage almost everybody here is missing
Uninsured motorist. Florida does not require bodily injury liability, so a meaningful share of the cars around you can injure you and owe you nothing they can pay. UM is the coverage that fixes that, it is priced against your own liability limits, and it is the first thing we raise when somebody hands us a minimum-limits policy.
Same-day proof, and what we need for it
A driver licence or the document you drive on, the VIN, the garaging address and the lienholder if there is one. With payment cleared we can usually have an ID card in your hand the same day, and if a state filing is attached it goes out electronically that business day.
Questions people actually ask
Can I get insurance without a Florida licence?
Often yes. Carriers differ on foreign and out-of-state licences, and the ones that write it price it differently. This is exactly the kind of case an independent agency exists for. See the no licence page.
Is full coverage required in Florida?
Not by the state. It is required by your lender or your leasing company, and that requirement is contractual, not legal.
My policy cancelled for non-payment. What now?
Call before the lapse is thirty days old. A short gap is a rating problem. A long one is a rating problem plus a possible suspension of your registration.
Work it out before anybody sells you anything
Four calculators that run in your browser, a page for every situation Florida puts people in, and the claims data for your own county. All of it free, and none of it behind a form. The form is for the other half of the job: when you have read enough and want a person on the phone.
Leave a name and a number and a licensed Florida agent gets in touch. No obligation, and no call from six companies you have never heard of.
A licensed Florida agent may call, text or email you about your request.