National Association of Real Estate Editors member
Bylines include Forbes, Bankrate, and CBS News
Aly is a reporter specializing in real estate, mortgages, and personal finance. You can find her work in Hearst newspapers and numerous financial publications.
7+ years in business and financial services content
Chris is a seasoned writer/editor with past experience across myriad industries, including insurance, SAS, finance, Medicare, logistics, marketing/advertising, and many more.
Konstantin has led data teams across multiple industries, including insurance, travel, and biology. He’s led Insurify’s engineering team for more than three years.
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Insurance companies don’t offer policies specifically for parked car. But they do offer comprehensive coverage, which protects you in case your car is hit or damaged while it’s parked or stored.
Keeping only comprehensive coverage on a parked car — and dropping other coverages like collision or liability, for instance — can significantly reduce your insurance costs. Insurify data shows that the average comprehensive policy costs just $72 per year with a $2,000 deductible. Full coverage, on the other hand, is more than $3,000 annually.
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Do you need car insurance for a parked car?
Even if you don’t drive a car, you’ll need insurance on the vehicle. For one, if the vehicle is registered in your state and you regularly drive or park it on a public road, you’ll legally need at least the state’s minimum amount of liability auto insurance coverage. If you lease or finance your car, you may also need to maintain additional insurance on the vehicle per your agreement with the lessor or lender.
Even if you never drive a vehicle, protecting it with comprehensive insurance — which some insurers may call “car storage insurance” or ”parked car insurance” in this scenario — can be a good idea. Comprehensive insurance covers your car against damage caused by animals, weather, natural disasters, falling objects, and vandalism, as well as theft of the car or parts of it.
If a tree were to fall on your parked vehicle, for instance, comprehensive insurance coverage would compensate you for the damage and repairs minus any deductible. Without this protection, the damages would be your financial responsibility, meaning potentially significant out-of-pocket expenses.
Can you pause car insurance if you don’t drive the car?
While you can pause or cancel your insurance coverage on a vehicle you no longer drive, it’s not a good idea. Not only will pausing coverage leave you footing the bill for any damage to the vehicle, but it could also put you in violation of your car’s lease or loan or your state’s minimum insurance laws if you park the vehicle on a public street.
Additionally, letting your coverage lapse may make it harder — or more expensive — to secure a car insurance policy later.
Are you covered if someone hits your parked car?
The type of insurance coverage you have will determine whether you’re covered if someone hits your parked vehicle.
Here’s when comprehensive coverage would and wouldn’t cover damages
Someone hits your car with a vehicle. While the liability insurance of the at-fault driver may cover the damage, yours won’t. You’ll need collision coverage for this type of car accident.[1]
Someone vandalizes your car in a parking garage. Comprehensive insurance would cover this, minus your deductible.
An earthquake causes a bike or mailbox to hit your vehicle. This would fall under comprehensive coverage, as would other weather-related events and natural disasters.
Falling ice or a tree hits your car in a parking lot. Comprehensive coverage also covers this and the costs to repair your car.
Essentially, comprehensive covers any damage to your car that isn’t due to a collision with another vehicle.
How to get parked car insurance
The process for getting parked car insurance — specifically, comprehensive coverage — will depend on whether you already have a policy. If you do, you’ll need to call your insurance company and ask your insurer to drop any additional coverages you have on the car.
If you don’t have a policy, you’ll need to:
Pay off your vehicle. If you lease or finance your car, you’re likely required to have a full suite of car insurance coverage, including liability coverage and collision insurance. To have comprehensive-only insurance, you’ll need to pay the car off and own it outright first.
Cancel your car registration. If your vehicle is registered in the state and you park it on a public street, you’ll need at least the minimum amount of liability insurance as required by state laws. You can contact your state’s department of motor vehicles to cancel your registration.
Keep in mind that not all insurers will allow you to have a comprehensive-only policy on your vehicle. If you’re having trouble finding one, you might consider enlisting an independent insurance agent to find an insurance insurer that does.
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Parked car insurance FAQs
While there aren’t specific “parked car insurance” policies per se, you may be able to have only comprehensive insurance coverage on a vehicle you no longer drive or operate. Below are some commonly asked questions about these types of auto insurance policies if you’re considering one.
Can you file a claim with insurance for a parked car?
If you have comprehensive insurance on your parked car, you can file an insurance claim if it’s damaged due to bad weather, a natural disaster, theft, vandalism, fire, and other covered events. However, comprehensive insurance won’t cover a parked car in the event of a collision with another vehicle. This would require collision insurance coverage.
Does your insurance increase if your car was hit while parked?
It depends on your insurer and who was at fault in the incident.
If the incident was largely your fault, it could lead to higher insurance costs upon renewal. If the incident was the fault of another person, you’d want to file a claim against their insurance policy instead of your own, if possible.
Do you need insurance if you don’t drive your car?
If your car is registered in the state and parked on a public road, you’ll need at least the state’s minimum amount of auto insurance coverage.
If not, you may want to secure comprehensive-only coverage on the car, as this will protect you if the vehicle sustains weather-related damage or is damaged due to a natural disaster, fire, theft, vandalism, or another covered event. It’ll also keep you from paying higher insurance rates later due to lapsed coverage.
Methodology
Insurify data scientists analyzed more than 90 million quotes served to car insurance applicants in Insurify’s proprietary database to calculate the premium averages displayed on this page. These premiums are real quotes that come directly from Insurify’s 50+ partner insurance companies in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Quote averages represent the median price for a quote across the given coverage level, driver subset, and geographic area.
Unless otherwise specified, quoted rates reflect the average cost for drivers between 20 and 70 years old with a clean driving record and average or better credit (a credit score of 600 or higher).
Liability-only premium averages correspond to policies with the following coverage limits:
Bodily injury limits between state-minimum rates and $50,000 per person, $100,000 per accident
Property damage limits between $10,000 and $50,000
No additional coverage
Full-coverage premium averages correspond to the same bodily injury and property damage limits in addition to:
Comprehensive coverage with a $1,000 deductible
Collision coverage with a $1,000 deductible
Quotes for Allstate, Farmers, GEICO, State Farm, and USAA are estimates based on Quadrant Information Services’ database of auto insurance rates.
Insurance Information Institute. "https://www.iii.org/article/what-is-covered-by-collision-and-comprehensive-auto-insurance."
Aly J. Yale
Aly J. Yale is a freelance writer and reporter covering real estate, mortgages, and personal finance. Her work has been published in Forbes, Business Insider, Money, CBS News, US News & World Report, and The Miami Herald. She has a bachelor’s degree in radio-TV-film and news-editorial journalism from the Bob Schieffer College of Communication at TCU and is a member of the National Association of Real Estate Editors.
7+ years in business and financial services content
Chris is a seasoned writer/editor with past experience across myriad industries, including insurance, SAS, finance, Medicare, logistics, marketing/advertising, and many more.
Konstantin has led data teams across multiple industries, including insurance, travel, and biology. He’s led Insurify’s engineering team for more than three years.
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