Stillwater auto insurance, and the Arkansas rules nobody hands you at the counter.
Arkansas decides fault, sets a statutory floor for liability, tells insurers how a totaled car has to be settled, and gives you a written right to make a carrier look at your rate again. Cribb Insurance Group is appointed with Stillwater and places auto coverage for Arkansas drivers from our office in Bentonville.
The short version
Auto insurance is several separate coverages sold under one name, and the ones that decide how a bad day goes are usually not the ones people shop on. Liability protects other people from you. Uninsured motorist protects you from the driver who had nothing. Physical damage protects the car.
Arkansas adds specifics that national advice tends to miss: fault matters here, the statutory liability floor is a floor and not a recommendation, a totaled vehicle has to be settled a particular way, and you have a written entitlement to compel a credit re-rate. All four are on this page.
One policy, six jobs.
People shop auto insurance as though it were a single product with a single price. It is closer to six coverages that happen to share a declarations page, and they protect different people from different things.
Bodily injury liability
Pays what you become legally obligated to pay for injuring somebody else, and provides the defense. It protects other people from you, which is why the state has an opinion about it and none about the rest.
Property damage liability
Pays for damage you cause to somebody else’s property, most often their vehicle. Modern vehicles are expensive to repair, which is the practical reason this limit deserves more thought than it usually gets.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist
Responds when the driver who hit you has no coverage, or not enough of it. This is the coverage that protects you rather than everyone else, and it is the one most commonly declined by people who did not realize they were declining it.
Medical payments
Covers medical bills for you and your passengers without fault having to be settled first. Useful precisely because the fault question can take a long time to resolve while bills do not wait.
Collision
Pays for damage to your own vehicle from a collision, whoever was at fault, subject to your deductible. If you have a loan or a lease, your lender requires it.
Comprehensive
Pays for damage to your own vehicle from things that are not collisions: hail, theft, fire, flood, a deer. In this state, hail is not a hypothetical, and the deductible you chose is the number that matters when it arrives.
Arkansas decides fault, and sets a floor.
Arkansas is an at-fault state. When a crash happens, responsibility is assigned, and the at-fault driver’s liability coverage is what answers for the harm. That is the frame everything else sits inside.
The statutory minimum liability limits in Arkansas are 25/50/25 under Ark. Code 27-22-104 — twenty-five thousand for bodily injury to one person, fifty thousand for bodily injury in one accident, twenty-five thousand for property damage. That is the legal floor for operating a vehicle, and we publish it because it is a statutory fact.
What we will not do is tell you what to carry. A floor is not a recommendation, and the right limits for a household depend on what there is to protect behind them. That is a conversation about your situation, not a number on a page. For the coverage line generally rather than this carrier specifically, start with auto insurance.
Arkansas tells insurers how a total loss has to be settled.
This is the single most useful thing to know before you are standing in a body shop parking lot, and it is one of the places national advice is simply wrong for Arkansas.
- Actual cash value is the correct basis hereA totaled vehicle settles at actual cash value — what the vehicle was worth immediately before the loss. Unlike a dwelling roof, where actual cash value is the wrong framing for Arkansas, on a vehicle it is right. These are two different rules for two different products and they get mixed up constantly.
- Sales tax is part of the settlementArk. Code 23-89-211 addresses total loss settlement in Arkansas, and it includes the sales tax requirement. If you are replacing the vehicle, the tax is not something you are simply expected to absorb out of pocket.
- There is a threshold that makes a vehicle a total lossThe statutory framework uses a damage-to-value threshold set at seventy percent. Below it, the vehicle is repaired. At or above it, the conversation changes to settlement and salvage, and it stops being your decision.
- Gap is a separate product, not a coverageIf you owe more than the vehicle is worth, actual cash value does not close that difference. Gap coverage exists to do it, it has to be arranged in advance, and it is worth asking about before you need it rather than after.
If your vehicle is totaled, send us the settlement worksheet before you sign anything. We do not adjust claims and cannot overrule an adjuster, but we can read the settlement against the rule and tell you whether what you are looking at reflects it.
Ark. Code 23-89-211, summarized. General information, not legal advice.
You can make a carrier look at your rate again, in writing.
Credit-based insurance scores affect auto rates in most states. What differs here is that Arkansas gives you a written entitlement rather than leaving it to a carrier’s goodwill.
The written-request re-rate at Ark. Code 23-67-405
Credit-based insurance scoring is normal and lawful, and a score assigned at the time you were first quoted can follow you through renewal after renewal without anybody re-examining it. People clear collections, pay down balances, come out the other side of a hard couple of years — and the rate quietly reflects who they were rather than who they are.
Arkansas addresses this directly. Under Ark. Code 23-67-405, an Arkansas consumer has a written-request entitlement to compel a re-rate based on current credit information. It is not a favor you are asking for and it does not depend on how the conversation goes. It is a request you are entitled to make, and it exists precisely because the passage of time and a stale score are a bad combination.
Two honest caveats, because we would rather you have accurate expectations than a pleasant surprise you were promised. A re-rate means the carrier looks again using current information — it is a re-examination, not a guaranteed reduction, and if nothing has changed then nothing changes. And credit is one input among many; the vehicles, the drivers, the coverage and the loss history are all still in the calculation.
The part we can help with is the unglamorous part: knowing the entitlement exists, making the request properly and in writing, and then checking what came back rather than assuming. If your credit picture has genuinely improved since the policy was written, this is one of the few levers on an auto rate that costs you nothing to pull.
Ark. Code 23-67-405, summarized. The section carries provisions this page does not cover and may be amended. General information, not legal advice.
What an auto policy is not.
A fair amount of claim disappointment comes from expecting this policy to answer for something that was never inside it.
Not mechanical breakdown
A transmission that fails is a repair, not a loss. Insurance responds to sudden accidental damage, not to a component reaching the end of its life.
Not wear and tear
Tires, brakes, rust, fading paint and general deterioration sit outside every auto policy, at every carrier.
Not your belongings in the car
Personal property stolen from a vehicle is normally a homeowners or renters question rather than an auto one, subject to that policy’s deductible.
Not delivery or rideshare by default
Using a personal vehicle to deliver or to carry passengers for money reaches past what a personal auto policy contemplates. If you do it, say so, and we will sort out what is needed.
Not a rental car automatically
Coverage for a rental while yours is being repaired is normally its own coverage with its own daily and total limits, and it is not on the policy unless it was added.
Not a substitute for reading the form
Exclusions, conditions and definitions vary between carriers and between forms. Ask us what yours says rather than assuming it matches the last one.
The part that lasts twelve months.
An auto policy drifts out of alignment with the household faster than any other personal line, because households change faster than houses do.
Drivers change
A new driver in the household, a driver who has moved out, a household member using a vehicle regularly. Who drives is part of how the policy was underwritten, and it is worth keeping current rather than accurate only at renewal.
Vehicles and mileage change
A different vehicle, a shorter commute, a car that has become the one nobody drives. Any of those can change the picture, and none of them tells the carrier on its own.
The mature driver course is mandatory, not optional
Under Ark. Code 27-19-608, the premium reduction for a qualifying mature driver course is a requirement rather than a courtesy. Worth knowing: the section excludes self-instructed and online self-paced formats, so the format of the course matters as much as completing it.
New to Arkansas
Act 41 of 2023 extended the window for a new resident to register a vehicle from thirty days to sixty, effective August 2023. Most of the web still says thirty, including sources you would expect to be current, so it is worth hearing the correct number from someone.
Reporting a claim
Report promptly, including anything that might become a claim later. Call the office and we will walk you through it and coordinate with the carrier, or report direct if that is faster in the moment.
Re-shopping the account
Auto renewals move, sometimes sharply and for reasons that have nothing to do with you. The useful question is not whether an increase is fair but whether it is competitive, and answering that takes more than one carrier.
Discounts for holding more than one policy, insuring more than one vehicle, safe driving, good students and paperless billing are commonly available. Which ones actually apply is account-specific, so we work it out rather than promise it.
Other Stillwater lines.
Stillwater overview
The carrier profile: what Stillwater writes, how the appointment works, and where its financial strength ratings currently sit.
Stillwater homeowners
Settlement basis, the Arkansas roof rule, wind and hail deductibles, and the twelve percent claim penalty.
Stillwater condo and renters
Where the association master policy stops, loss assessment, and what renters coverage actually does.
Stillwater landlord and dwelling fire
Rental property structure, loss of rents, tenant-caused damage, and the Arkansas deposit rules.
Stillwater personal umbrella
How an umbrella sits over the limits underneath it, and the underlying-limit requirement nobody mentions.
Stillwater businessowners policy
What a businessowners policy bundles, where the small business line stops, and what it leaves out.
Auto questions we get in Arkansas.
What are the minimum auto insurance limits in Arkansas?
What is uninsured motorist coverage and do I need it?
How does Arkansas handle a totaled vehicle?
Can I make my insurer re-rate my policy after my credit improves?
Is the mature driver discount optional for the insurer?
I just moved to Arkansas. How long do I have to register my vehicle?
Cribb Insurance Group publishes carrier explainers, Arkansas coverage guidance and insurance education. Add Cribb Insurance as a preferred source on Google.
Send us the declarations page.
The drivers, the vehicles, and whatever you are carrying now. We will tell you where your uninsured motorist position actually sits, whether your limits match what you think they are, and where Stillwater lands against the rest of our markets. If what you have is already right, we will tell you that too.
Bentonville, AR 72713
Stillwater and related marks are marks of their respective owners and are used here nominatively to identify a carrier Cribb Insurance Group is appointed with. Cribb Insurance Group Inc is an independent agency and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting on behalf of Stillwater Insurance Group or any Stillwater underwriting company.
Coverage descriptions on this page are general and simplified. Coverage, availability, eligibility, endorsements, internal limits and terms vary by policy and by state, and the actual policy language controls in every case. Nothing here amends any policy or creates coverage.
No premium figures, rate estimates, savings figures, suggested coverage limits or suggested deductibles are published on this page. Pricing and limit structure are developed from the individual account. Discounts are named without amounts; availability and application depend on the account, the state and the carrier’s filings.
Financial strength and financial stability ratings are assigned by independent rating agencies using their own separate scales, are opinions about a company’s ability to meet its insurance obligations rather than about claims handling or service, are subject to change, and are not recommendations to purchase any policy. The current rating position for this carrier is stated on the Stillwater carrier overview page and at ambest.com and demotech.com.
Arkansas statutory and Arkansas Insurance Department references are general information and not legal advice. Statutes and bulletins are summarized, carry provisions and exceptions this page does not cover, are subject to judicial interpretation, and may be amended. How any of this applies to a particular policy, property or claim depends on facts this page cannot know. Consult a licensed Arkansas attorney before relying on any of it in a dispute.
Last reviewed August 2026.