Guide to Car Insurance in Iowa

While these rates are among the lowest in the nation, you might want to take on additional coverage, like comprehensive or collision coverage. We’ll break down those numbers below.

• Bodily injury: Bodily injury liability covers injury-related lawsuits and the cost of injuries that you and those listed on your policy cause to someone else.
• Medical payments: Medical payments coverage will cover you and your passengers’ medical costs if injured in a crash. Unlike personal injury protection, medical payments will not cover other losses, such as lost work wages or childcare costs.
• Property damage: Property damage liability covers losses when you or someone who has permission to drive your car causes damage to someone else’s car or property.
• Collision: Collision coverage protects you from losses due to collisions with other cars, objects, potholes, or animals. Collision coverage will also protect you in the event that you flip your car on the road.
• Comprehensive: With comprehensive coverage, your insurer will reimburse losses due to theft and damages that aren’t collision-related. This includes natural disasters, vandalism, and riots.
• Underinsured/uninsured motorist: Finally, underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage protects you or someone driving your car if an underinsured or uninsured driver hits you on the road.

Since Iowa is an at-fault state, which means you might have to pay some percentage of the damages or bodily injuries even if you were only partially at fault for the accident, it’s important to get as much coverage as you can afford.

According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Iowa’s average annual auto insurance premium is $708, which is 32 percent less than the national average.¹

Rates depend on your age, credit score, insurance history, and type of coverage. You can expect to pay around $150 per month for the cheapest minimum coverage, $1,200 for full coverage, and up to $4,000 for teen drivers.

Factors like how many DUIs or at-fault crashes you’ve had will also affect your insurance rates. Compare rates between local insurance providers and stay up to date on factors that can affect your insurance costs.

• Allstate
• Farmers
• GEICO
• Grinnell Mutual
• Hastings Mutual
• Integrity
• Nationwide
• Progressive
• State Farm
• Western National

Get car insurance quotes from multiple car insurance companies to find the lowest rate.

1. Take advantage of discounts. Most major insurance providers offer discounts. These include good student discounts, good driving discounts, and multiple vehicle discounts, among others. Ask your insurance agent if you qualify for any of them.
2. Bundle your policies. Bundling different types of coverage with your auto insurance provider — life insurance, renters insurance, etc. — will often lower your overall premium.
3. Increase your deductible. Raising your deductible will reduce your premium. Make sure that you can afford to pay your deductible before raising it. Understanding how your deductible works will enable you to make an informed decision.
4. Lower your limits. Decreasing your limits is another way to lower your premium, but it entails more risk, obviously. If you get into a collision where the injuries or damages exceed your limit, you’ll be responsible for all costs beyond that limit.

While you don’t need proof of insurance in order to register your vehicle in Iowa, you need to be insured before taking it to the road. If you’re pulled over and can’t provide proof of liability insurance, you may face the following penalties for the first offense:

• A $250 fine
• Community service in lieu of a fine
• A warning or citation
• Removal of plates and registration, which can be reissued upon payment of your fine, completion of community service, or proof of insurance and a $15 fee

You can show proof of liability coverage either through a standard paper insurance card or an electronic copy of your insurance card.

At-Fault State

Iowa is an at-fault state, which means that parties who are at fault in an accident pay for both property damage and bodily injury. Here are some important things to note about the at-fault policy in Iowa:

• Drivers share fault in Iowa, which means that one driver may pay 30 percent of the damages while the other pays 70 percent, based on their degrees of fault.
• The police and insurance providers will assess fault with the evidence available to them.
• Iowa functions under modified comparative negligence law, which means that if you are 50 percent or more at fault, you won’t receive any payments from the other driver for your damages or injuries. If you are less than 50 percent at fault, you can receive payments for injuries or damages subtracted from the percentage of your fault. For example, if you get into an accident that amounts to $10,000 in damages to your vehicle and you are 10 percent at fault, the other driver’s insurance will have to pay $9,000 to cover the damages. In this case, you won’t have to pay 10 percent of the other driver’s damages or injuries, because you are less than 50 percent at fault.²

Uninsured Motorist Coverage in Iowa

While insurers are required to offer you a minimum amount of $20,000 uninsured motorist coverage, you can reject the coverage in writing. A little over 11 percent of drivers (257,011 drivers) in Iowa drive without insurance. While this isn’t necessarily a high number, as Iowa is ranked 28th in the country for the number of uninsured drivers, many drivers opt to take on uninsured motorist coverage in case they get into an accident with an uninsured/underinsured driver.³

Iowa is not a stacked state, which means that if you have coverage for more than one vehicle, your limits do not increase based on the number of cars you have covered.

DUI Laws

DUIs in Iowa stay on your record for 12 years, and you face a 180-day license suspension for the first offense. The blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit in Iowa is 0.15 percent. Additional penalties, especially if you’re under the age of 18, may include a $2,000 fine, nine months of jail time, and a six-month minimum interlock ignition requirement.

Seat Belt Laws

Iowa is one of 35 states that enforces primary seat belt laws, which means that police officers can issue tickets for not wearing seat belts alone, in the absence of any other crime or offense.

Iowa’s seat belt laws also specify that all front-seat occupants and all backseat occupants under the age of 18 must wear seat belts when the car is in motion.

Distracted Driving Laws

If you’re over the age of 18, you may use your phone while driving in Iowa either to talk while driving or to navigate your GPS system; however, texting while driving is banned for all ages and is enforced as a primary law. You can face a $45 fine and two points on your driving record per violation for texting while driving.⁴

Teen Driving Laws

If you’re a teen driver in Iowa, you’re in luck, because Iowa has some of the most lenient restrictions for teenage drivers in the country.

The minimum age to obtain  a learner’s permit in Iowa is 14, and learner’s permit fees are only $6. There are no curfew restrictions for teen drivers. As long as you have an appropriate supervisor in the vehicle (a parent, guardian, or immediate family member over the age of 21), you can have as many passengers in the vehicle as there are seat belts. You might also be glad to know that there are no school requirements in order for you to receive your learner’s permit.

When you turn 16, you can apply for an intermediate license, which allows you to drive between the hours of 5 a.m. and 12:30 a.m. without adult supervision. You can upgrade from an intermediate license to a full license when you turn 17, or you can wait until you are 18 if you want to forgo the learner’s permit and intermediate license requirements.

If you are involved in a violation or crash, you may face the following penalties.

• First offense: Your permit could be suspended, or you could receive a safety advisory letter, which encourages you to improve your safety performance without further intervention.
• Second offense: Your permit will be suspended for 30 days.⁵

If you are found guilty of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, which is defined as having a BAC of more than 0.2 percent, being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or having any amount of a controlled substance in your blood or urine, you may face the following penalties:

• 48 hours to one year in jail
• Up to a $1,250 fine or unpaid community service
• Suspension of driver’s license for up to a year
• Probation
• Completion of a substance abuse evaluation or substance abuse prevention program

Statute of Limitations for Claims

In Iowa, you have five years from the date of an accident to file a claim for property damage, and two years to file a personal injury claim. If you don’t file a claim for damages or injuries within this time frame, you won’t get coverage.

Cancellation and Non-Renewal Notification Laws

Cancellation is when your insurance company cancels your insurance policy during its term. Non-renewal is when your insurance provider refuses to renew your coverage at the end of its coverage period.

If your insurance provider decides to cancel your policy or opt out of renewing your policy, it must let you know within the allotted period prior to your policy’s expiration date.

Self-Insurance

Self-insurance is an option in Iowa for drivers who own more than 25 vehicles. The minimum required collateral to be self-insured in Iowa is, however, at the discretion of the Iowa Insurance Division. This means that the Iowa Insurance Division will determine if you’re financially able to be self-insured on a case-by-case basis.

Car Inspection Requirements

Unless your vehicle is registered out of state, you are not required to pass any DMV inspections in Iowa. Because all metropolitan cities in Iowa are in compliance with the U.S. Clean Air Act, you are also not required to pass any emission tests.⁶

SR-22s

There are no SR-22 requirements in Iowa. Some states require drivers with criminal backgrounds or histories of serious traffic violations to carry SR-22 certificates while driving. An SR-22 is an add-on to your existing insurance policy, and in states with SR-22 regulations, it is required for those who have high-risk insurance policies.

Defensive Driving

Defensive driving courses can be a good way to get discounts on your car insurance rates. These courses teach safe driving strategies that help you avoid hazards and become aware of common dangers you might encounter on the road.

You might be required to take a defensive driving course if you have three countable moving violations within a year, one speeding violation of driving 25 to 29 mph over the limit, or a ticket for passing a school bus unlawfully. Find a state-approved defensive driving course here: https://iowadot.gov/mvd/driverseducation/Iowa-driver-improvement-program.

Serious Injury and Monetary Thresholds

In Iowa, you have the right to file a civil lawsuit following a lawsuit for any amount up to $1 million. Because Iowa is an at-fault state, each party pays damages or injuries equivalent to their degree of fault.

If you don’t agree with the payout, you can file a suit and seek uncompensated economic damages including medical expenses, lost wages, and noneconomic damages (e.g., pain, suffering, and anxiety). You can file a suit regardless of the monetary value of your losses or the severity of your injuries, as no monetary thresholds exist in Iowa.

Accident Reporting Requirements

Unless the police have already investigated an accident involving a death, injury, or damage of $1,500 or more, you have to file a report within three days or face a license suspension. Learn more about how a license suspension affects car insurance.

Price Discrimination Based on Gender or Credit Score

With the exception of Massachusetts, Hawaii, Michigan, and California, most states in the U.S., including Iowa, look at your credit score and gender to determine your insurance rates. Believe it or not, women pay slightly less on average for car insurance than their male counterparts, and individuals with low credit scores may have to pay nearly double the rate of individuals with exceptional credit scores.

Total Loss Threshold

Your vehicle is considered a total loss when the cost of repairs exceeds its actual market value (AMV). While some states require the cost of repairs to be equal to or greater than the AMV, your damages only need to equal 70 percent of the AMV for it to be considered a total loss.

Since the total loss threshold is significantly lower than the AMV in Iowa, this should provide good news to anyone in a total loss incident. For example, if your car costs $10,000, you only need to incur $7,000 in damages to receive the maximum total loss coverage as stated in your insurance plan.

You can reach most state departments online, by mail, in person at an office, or by phone.

How to Contact Iowa Department of Transportation

• URL: https://iowadot.gov/mvd/iowa-dot-locations
• Mailing address:
  • Vehicle & Motor Carrier Services
  • P.O. Box 10382
  • Des Moines, IA 50306-0382
• Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m to 4:30 p.m.
• Phone number: Contact your local treasurer directly. You can find the right phone number at https://www.iowatreasurers.org/treasurermapsearch.php.

Do I Need Insurance to Register My Vehicle in Iowa?

Insurance is required in order to register your vehicle in Iowa, and you need to do so 30 days from the date that you establish residency. Follow these steps to register your vehicle:

1. Provide proof of insurance with minimum liability coverage.
2. Provide a certificate of title.
3. Complete the application for your registration and/or Iowa certificate of title. You can find that form at https://iowadot.seamlessdocs.com/f/411007ApplicationforCertificateofTitlendorRegistration.
4. Send all documents to your local treasurer’s office. You can find your county treasurer’s office at https://www.iowatreasurers.org/treasurermapsearch.php.

Find more information on how to register your vehicle in Iowa at https://iowadot.gov/mvd/vehicleregistration/registering-a-vehicle.

How to Get a Copy of Your Car Title in Iowa

1. Fill out this form: https://iowadot.seamlessdocs.com/f/CO19101000127074031.
2. Enclose a payment of $25 in an envelope with the form.
3. Send the form and payment to this address:
   • Vehicle & Motor Carrier Services
   • Iowa Department of Transportation
   • P.O. Box 9278
   • Des Moines, IA 50306

How to Contact Iowa’s Insurance Department

• Mailing address:
  • Iowa Insurance Division
  • 1963 Bell Ave., Suite 100
  • Des Moines, IA 50315
• Phone number: 515-654-6600
• URL: https://iid.iowa.gov/contact

Iowa is one of the cheapest states in the U.S. to repair your car in. Averaging just over $350, the cost of car repairs in Iowa is 8 percent less than the national average. That’s broken down between the average cost of labor ($150.18) and the average cost of parts ($206.39).

Iowa has some of the lowest vehicle theft rates in the country. At 25 percent lower than the national average, Iowa has 197 instances of vehicle theft per 100,000 inhabitants.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that most of the cities with the highest rates of crime in Iowa are also among the highest in population.

Traffic fatality rates in Iowa are also significantly lower than the national average. For every 100 million vehicles driven in Iowa, there are 336 fatalities, which is 111 percent lower than the national average.

Want more information on Iowa? Check out our auto insurance FAQs to find out more about driving in the birthplace of sliced bread.