What Are the Different Types of Car Insurance?
Six coverages make up nearly every auto policy in Arkansas, and only one of them is required. Two more have to be handed to you unless you turn them down in writing, which is the part almost nobody remembers doing.
Short Answer
Six coverages make up nearly every Arkansas auto policy: liability, uninsured and underinsured motorist, collision, comprehensive, first-party medical and income benefits, and gap. Only liability is required by law. Two of the others must be provided unless you reject them in writing. The rest are choices, and collision and comprehensive are the two that repair your own vehicle.
Auto insurance is sold as one policy and assembled from separate coverages, each of which does a different job and each of which can be present, absent, or set at a limit you have never looked at. Knowing which is which is the whole difference between reading a cheap policy and reading a thin one.
Two neighbouring pages own the edges of this subject. What full coverage means deals with the nickname, and the Arkansas minimum deals with the legal floor and its numbers. This page is the taxonomy: what the six are, and what each one pays for.
Liability: the Only One Arkansas Requires
Liability pays other people when you cause a crash. It splits in two: bodily injury liability for the other party’s medical costs, lost income and related claims, and property damage liability for their vehicle and anything else you damage. Arkansas is an at-fault state, so the driver who causes the crash is responsible for the other side’s losses, and these limits are where that money comes from.
Liability covers them, never you
This is the misunderstanding we correct most often. A liability-only policy pays nothing toward your own vehicle, your own injuries, or getting you into another car. If that is all you carry and you total your truck, the truck is your loss. The state minimum is a floor for lawful operation, not a description of adequate protection, and anything above your limit is legally yours to pay — which is what a personal umbrella sits above.
Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist
This is the mirror image of liability: it pays you when the at-fault driver cannot. Uninsured motorist applies when the other driver has no coverage or leaves the scene. Underinsured motorist applies when they have coverage but not enough to cover what they did.
Arkansas does not mandate it, but under Ark. Code § 23-89-403 your insurer must provide uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage unless you reject it in writing, and that rejection stays in force until you withdraw it in writing. There is a separate property-damage version under § 23-89-404.
Check whether you rejected it, because you may not remember
A written rejection signed at the start of a policy years ago does not expire — it continues until withdrawn in writing. Plenty of drivers who assume they carry uninsured motorist coverage rejected it once, on a form, in a stack of paperwork, and have been renewing without it ever since. It is one line on the declarations page and worth confirming rather than assuming.
Collision
Collision repairs or replaces your vehicle when it hits something — another car, a guardrail, a pothole — or rolls over. It applies regardless of fault, which is what makes it useful when the other driver has nothing. You select a deductible and that amount comes out of the settlement.
Optional under Arkansas law, and effectively required by any lender, because the lender has a stake in the vehicle and wants it repaired or paid off.
Comprehensive
Comprehensive handles nearly everything that damages the vehicle without a collision: theft, vandalism, fire, falling limbs, flood, animal strikes and weather. In this part of Arkansas hail files the most claims, and comprehensive is the coverage that answers for hail damage and for vehicle theft. There is no separate theft policy; theft is comprehensive.
It carries its own deductible, separate from the collision deductible, and many carriers offer glass coverage at a reduced or waived deductible — worth asking about given how often windshields go on Arkansas highways.
First-Party Medical and Income Benefits
These pay for injuries to you and your passengers without regard to fault, which means the money moves before anyone has established who caused the crash. It is frequently the first money available after an accident, and it is useful even to households with good health insurance because it can absorb deductibles and copays.
Under Ark. Code § 23-89-202, every automobile liability policy covering a private passenger vehicle in Arkansas must provide a defined package of these benefits, and under § 23-89-203 you can reject them in writing. The statutory minimums are specific:
- Medical and hospital benefits of up to $5,000 per person, for reasonable and necessary expenses incurred within 24 months of the accident. The statute’s list is broad — medical, hospital, nursing, dental, surgical, ambulance and prosthetic services among them.
- Income disability benefits at 70% of lost income, beginning 8 days after the accident and running up to 52 weeks, capped at $140 per week. A non-income earner instead receives up to $70 per week toward essential services.
- An accidental death benefit, which is the third component of the same required package.
And they have to be paid on time
Under § 23-89-208 these benefits are payable monthly as they accrue, and a payment is overdue if it is not made within 30 days of the insurer receiving reasonable proof of the amount. Where proof supports only part of what is claimed, the supported part starts its own clock. If an insurer fails to pay when due, the person entitled to the benefits may bring an action to recover them. Almost nobody knows this provision exists, and it is the reason to keep a dated record of what you sent and when.
Note also that these are minimums rather than ceilings: an insurer is free to provide broader benefits, and some do.
Gap
If the vehicle is totaled or stolen, the policy pays its actual cash value — what it was worth immediately before the loss, not what you paid and not what you still owe. On a financed vehicle in its early years that figure is frequently below the loan balance, and the difference is yours.
Gap coverage closes that difference so that a total loss does not leave you paying for a car you no longer have. It earns its place only while you are upside down; once the vehicle is worth more than the balance, it can come off.
Add-Ons Worth Knowing About
| Add-on | What it does |
|---|---|
| Roadside assistance | Towing, jump-starts, lockouts, flat tires. Check whether a card or an auto club already provides it before paying for it twice |
| Rental reimbursement | Pays for a rental while yours is in the shop after a covered claim |
| Custom equipment | Covers aftermarket wheels, lift kits, audio and toppers, which a standard policy values at nothing |
| Rideshare or delivery | Closes the gap in a personal policy during the period you are logged into an app, which the policy otherwise excludes |
| Agreed value | For collector vehicles, where actual cash value would badly undervalue the car |
What the Combinations Cost
Prices move with the coverage rather than with the label, which is easiest to see set out side by side.
| Combination | What it protects | Cribb range |
|---|---|---|
| State-minimum liability | Other people only. Nothing toward your vehicle or your injuries | $21–$32 a month |
| Higher liability limits | Other people, with limits that survive a serious injury claim | $32–$58 a month |
| Full coverage | Other people, plus repair or replacement of your own vehicle | $79–$105 a month |
| Personal umbrella, added on top | Liability above both the auto and home policy limits | $9–$18 a month |
The shape of that table is the useful part. Liability limits are among the least expensive things on a policy to raise, because catastrophic claims are rare relative to minor ones and the curve flattens quickly above the floor.
How to Choose the Combination
Three questions settle most of it, in this order.
- What does the law require? Liability, and only liability. Everything else on this page is a choice or a lender’s condition.
- What does the lender require? If there is a loan or a lease, collision and comprehensive are contractual whether or not you would have chosen them.
- What could you absorb yourself? This is the real question and it is about your savings rather than the car. If losing the vehicle outright would disrupt the household, the coverages that repair it are worth more than the premium difference suggests.
- Then check the two you may have signed away. Uninsured motorist and first-party benefits are on the policy unless somebody rejected them in writing. Confirm which, because both are inexpensive relative to what they do.
Find out what is actually on yours
Upload the declarations page to Coverage Compare and it will list which of these six you carry, what each limit and deductible is, and which are missing. Most drivers have never seen that list set out, and the rejections are the part that surprises people.
Ask Cribby which coverages you need
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main types of car insurance?
Six make up almost every policy: liability, uninsured and underinsured motorist, collision, comprehensive, first-party medical and income benefits, and gap. Add-ons such as roadside assistance, rental reimbursement, custom equipment and rideshare coverage sit on top of those rather than replacing any of them.
Which types does Arkansas require?
Liability only. Collision, comprehensive and gap are entirely optional under state law. Uninsured motorist coverage and the statutory first-party benefits occupy a middle position: your insurer must provide them unless you reject them in writing, which means they are on the policy by default and off it only by your signature.
What is the difference between collision and comprehensive?
Collision pays when your vehicle hits something or rolls over. Comprehensive pays for nearly everything else that damages it without a collision: theft, vandalism, fire, hail, flood, falling limbs and animal strikes. They are separate coverages, each with its own deductible, and hitting a deer falls under comprehensive rather than collision.
What are first-party benefits worth in Arkansas?
The statutory package under Ark. Code 23-89-202 provides up to $5,000 per person in medical and hospital expenses incurred within 24 months, income disability at 70% of lost income beginning 8 days after the accident and capped at $140 per week for up to 52 weeks, with $70 per week for a non-income earner, plus an accidental death benefit. They pay without regard to fault, and an insurer may provide broader benefits than the minimum.
How quickly do those benefits have to be paid?
Monthly as they accrue, and a payment is overdue if it is not made within 30 days of the insurer receiving reasonable proof of the amount. Where only part of a claim is supported by proof, that part starts its own clock. If an insurer fails to pay when due, the person entitled to the benefits may bring an action to recover them.
Do I need uninsured motorist coverage in Arkansas?
It is optional in the sense that you can reject it, but you have to do so in writing, and that rejection continues until you withdraw it in writing. Arkansas is an at-fault state, so if an uninsured driver causes your injuries and you have no uninsured motorist coverage, there is nowhere for your medical costs and lost income to go. It is typically among the least expensive coverages on a policy.
Is full coverage one of the types?
No. Full coverage is not a coverage and does not appear on any policy; it is shorthand for carrying liability, collision and comprehensive together. Because there is no standard definition, two drivers who both describe their policies that way can be carrying very different limits and deductibles.
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Disclaimer: This article is general information and is not insurance, legal, tax or financial advice, and it is not a substitute for the terms of your own agreements or policies. Coverage names, terms, limits, deductibles and availability vary by carrier and by policy and are subject to change. Statutory minimums are summarized in substance rather than reproduced in full and may be amended; an insurer may provide broader benefits than the statutory minimum, and the policy actually issued to you controls in every case. Nothing here is a coverage determination. Coverage is set by the insurance company and is subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued to you, which controls in every case. Cribb Insurance Group Inc is an independent insurance agency licensed in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas. Reviewed 2026-08-09; insurance law and carrier filings change, and this article may not describe the current position after that date. Cribb Insurance Group Inc, 1601 SW Regional Airport Blvd, Bentonville, AR 72713 · (479) 286-1066 · service@cribbinsurance.com.