What Most People Get Wrong About This
The usual advice online: uninsured motorist coverage is optional in Arizona, so if you don't have it, you turned it down and that's that. You probably said no on the phone years ago to save a few dollars.
What's actually true in Arizona: a verbal "no thanks" is not a rejection. ARS 20-259.01 requires your insurer to make available and offer, by written notice, uninsured motorist coverage in limits up to your liability limits — and the same for underinsured. You can decline it. But the statute contemplates a written selection or rejection on a form approved by the Director, and Arizona courts have held that where a carrier can't produce a valid written rejection, the coverage can apply by operation of law. Carriers lose these forms. People "remember" declining on a call that was never documented.
What to do instead: ask your carrier, in writing, to produce your signed UM/UIM rejection form. If it exists, fine — now you've made an informed choice. If it doesn't, that's a conversation worth having before you need the coverage, not after.
Almost every Arizona driver carries a number they've never examined. It got set when the policy was written, it's been renewing ever since, and it's probably the state minimum — because that's the default, and the default is what happens when nobody asks a question. This guide walks the whole thing: what Arizona actually requires, what those three numbers really buy, how an at-fault state with pure comparative negligence changes the math, and the one coverage your insurer is legally obligated to put in front of you in writing. No pitch. Just the mechanics.
- Required
- 25/50/15ARS 28-4009
- Fault system
- At-faultPure comparative, ARS 12-2505
- PIP required?
- NoMedPay is optional here
- No insurance
- $500 + 3 moFirst violation, ARS 28-4135
What does Arizona actually require?
Short answerLiability of 25/50/15 — and nothing else. Every other coverage on your policy is optional, including the ones that protect you.
Under ARS 28-4009, an Arizona motor vehicle liability policy must carry at least:
- $25,000 for bodily injury or death of one person in any one accident
- $50,000 total for bodily injury or death of two or more people in any one accident
- $15,000 for injury to or destruction of other people's property in any one accident
Written as 25/50/15. One detail worth knowing, because it explains why older articles disagree: those figures apply to policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2020. The statute still contains the previous limits — 15/30/10 — for policies before that date. If you're reading a guide that says Arizona's minimum is 15/30/10, it's stale.
Arizona does allow an alternative: a $40,000 cash deposit with the State Treasurer in lieu of a policy. It exists, it's legal, and it's used almost exclusively by businesses. If you're weighing it as a consumer, the $40,000 is doing the same job as a policy that costs a fraction of that per year.
What does 25/50/15 actually buy?
Short answerLess than one bad afternoon costs. The property damage limit alone is below the price of the average new car on the road next to you.
Run the numbers against reality. $15,000 of property damage is the limit for everything you break. New vehicles routinely run past $30,000, and you're not just paying for the car — you're paying for the guardrail, the pole, the storefront. Hit two cars in a chain reaction on I-10 and the $15,000 splits between them.
The $25,000 per person is worse, because medical bills don't negotiate. An ambulance ride, an ER visit, imaging, and one orthopedic procedure clears $25,000 without anyone staying overnight. And here's the part people miss: when your limit runs out, you don't. The injured party can pursue you personally for the rest — your savings, your wages, your equity.
What does an at-fault state mean for you?
Short answerWhoever caused it, pays — and Arizona's version of that rule is unusually generous to you even when you're partly to blame.
Arizona is an at-fault state. The driver who causes the crash is responsible for the losses that follow, and their liability insurance is the first place the claim goes. There is no PIP requirement in Arizona — the optional first-party medical coverage here is MedPay, which pays your and your passengers' medical bills regardless of who was at fault, up to a limit you choose. It's usually inexpensive and it's the coverage that quietly handles the deductible-and-copay mess in the weeks after a crash, before anyone has agreed on fault.
Where Arizona genuinely differs from most of the country is ARS 12-2505: pure comparative negligence. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault — but it is never eliminated.
| Your share of fault | Most states (modified) | Arizona (pure, ARS 12-2505) |
|---|---|---|
| 20% at fault | Recover 80% | Recover 80% Same |
| 49% at fault | Recover 51% | Recover 51% Same |
| 51% at fault | Recover nothing | Recover 49% Arizona pays |
| 99% at fault | Recover nothing | Recover 1% Arizona pays |
That bottom row surprises people, and it cuts both ways. It means a bad day doesn't automatically end your claim. It also means the other driver's claim against you doesn't end just because they were mostly at fault — which is precisely why your liability limit matters more here than in a state where 51% ends the argument.
Two clocks worth knowing: personal injury claims in Arizona generally run on a two-year statute of limitations (ARS 12-542), and a claim against a government entity — a city vehicle, a county truck — requires a notice of claim within 180 days (ARS 12-821.01). That second one catches people.
What's actually on your policy?
Short answerSix things, and only the first one is required. The other five are where your actual protection lives.
Bodily Injury Liability
Pays other people's injuries when you're at fault. Required. The 25/50 half of your minimum. Does nothing for you.
Property Damage Liability
Pays for what you break — their car, the fence, the pole. Required. The /15. Does nothing for your car.
Uninsured / Underinsured Motorist
Pays your injuries when the at-fault driver has nothing, not enough, or drove off. Optional — but must be offered to you in writing.
Collision
Repairs your car after an impact regardless of fault, minus your deductible. Optional unless a lender requires it.
Comprehensive
Everything that isn't a collision: hail, theft, vandalism, fire, a monsoon-loosened branch, the rock on Ina Road. Optional.
Medical Payments (MedPay)
Your and your passengers' medical bills, no fault required. Arizona has no PIP mandate; this is the first-party option.
Two Arizona-specific notes on that grid. Comprehensive earns its keep here more than in most states — sun damage, hail, and windshield strikes are the routine Southern Arizona claims, and glass is its own conversation. And rideshare or delivery driving is excluded from a personal policy by default: ARS 28-4009 expressly contemplates that a personal policy doesn't cover a vehicle while the driver is logged into a transportation network company's app unless the policy or an endorsement says otherwise. If you drive for anyone, your personal policy has a hole in it exactly where you think you're covered.
Do you need uninsured motorist coverage?
Short answerIt's the coverage that pays when the other driver can't — and the odds of meeting that driver are worse than most people assume.
Liability protects everyone except you. Uninsured motorist (UM) covers your injuries when the at-fault driver has no insurance, can't be identified — a hit-and-run — or whose carrier has gone insolvent. Underinsured motorist (UIM) covers the gap when they have insurance but not enough. Given that Arizona's legal minimum for the person who hits you is $25,000, "not enough" is the normal case, not the edge case.
That's one in three cars around you on Speedway. And here's the mechanism that makes UM the single most under-appreciated line on an Arizona policy: ARS 20-259.01 requires every insurer writing auto liability in Arizona to make available and offer, by written notice, UM coverage in limits not less than your bodily injury liability limits — and to include it at your request. UIM works the same way.
The five-step UM check
- Find the UM and UIM lines on your declarations page. They're separate coverages with separate limits. Rejected, declined, or blank all mean the same thing.
- Compare the UM limit to your liability limit. If liability is 100/300 and UM is 25/50, you were offered more than you took — and that gap is exactly what you'd eat.
- Ask your carrier in writing for the signed rejection form if UM is missing.
- If no signed rejection exists, escalate — to your agent, and if needed to DIFI Consumer Services.
- Fix it across every vehicle. Under ARS 20-259.01(C) an insurer may require all vehicles you own with them to carry the same UM limits, so this is a policy-level change, not a one-car tweak.
If you elect UM or UIM in Arizona, DIFI notes the minimum you can carry is 25/50. Most people should be carrying it at their liability limits, not the floor.
Why is your Arizona premium going up?
Short answerMostly repair costs and other people's behavior — and DIFI can't set your rate any more than it can set your neighbor's.
Same regulatory reality as the home side: Arizona is a "use and file" state. An insurer can put a rate change into effect and file it with DIFI within 30 days. DIFI reviews filings against statutory standards, but it does not approve your rate before you pay it. There's no hearing to appeal to. Shopping is the remedy the system gives you.
| Driver | What it means for you | Can you control it? |
|---|---|---|
| Repair cost inflation | Sensors in bumpers, cameras in mirrors. A fender-bender is now a calibration job. | No |
| Uninsured drivers | Their crashes get paid out of everyone's UM premiums. That's the pass-through. | No |
| Medical cost inflation | Bodily injury claims settle higher every year. Liability pricing follows. | No |
| Your claim history | Two small claims can cost more over five years than paying both yourself. | Yes |
| Credit-based insurance score | Permitted in Arizona for auto, with statutory limits on inputs (ARS 20-2110). | Yes |
| Coverage lapse | Even one day. It re-rates you as a new risk and can trigger an SR-22 requirement. | Yes |
| Vehicle and ZIP | What you drive and where you park it. Real factors, mostly fixed. | Partly |
On credit: DIFI states it plainly — Arizona does allow the use of credit history information in determining eligibility or price. Anyone telling you otherwise is repeating a rule from a different state. What Arizona does do is fence the inputs, under ARS 20-2110(F). More on that below.
How do you lower it without gutting it?
Short answerRaise the deductible you can actually cover, bundle, and never lapse. Don't buy the discount that's actually a deletion.
- Bundle auto with home. Usually the largest single discount available, and it lands on both policies. If your Arizona home insurance is elsewhere, that's money left on the table for zero behavior change.
- Raise your collision/comprehensive deductible — to a number you could write a check for tomorrow. $500 to $1,000 moves the premium meaningfully. $2,500 when you have $800 in savings isn't a saving, it's a bet.
- Never let it lapse. A day without coverage re-rates you as a fresh risk and, if you're caught, starts the ARS 28-4135 clock — $500, a three-month suspension, and three years of SR-22 filings on top.
- Ask for every discount by name. Multi-car, paid-in-full, paperless, safe driver, good student, defensive driving, telematics. Carriers do not volunteer these.
- Re-shop annually. Auto appetite moves fast. Loyalty is not a discount.
- Think hard before a small claim. A $1,900 claim on a $1,000 deductible nets $900 and can cost more than that across the next five years.
Smart-cheap vs dangerous-cheap
| The lever | Smart-cheap | Dangerous-cheap |
|---|---|---|
| Deductible | Raise it to a number you could pay tomorrow | Raise it to $2,500 when you have $800 saved |
| Liability limits | Buy the tail — 100/300 costs less than people assume | Sit at 25/50/15 because it's legal |
| UM / UIM | Match it to your liability limits | Reject it to save a few dollars a month |
| Comprehensive | Keep it — hail and glass are the routine AZ claims | Drop it on a car you couldn't replace in cash |
| Between carriers | Overlap by a day | Let it lapse "just for a week" |
| Driving for an app | Add the rideshare endorsement | Assume your personal policy follows you |
The right-hand column doesn't save money. It defers it, and it adds interest.
What does Arizona law give you as a driver?
Short answerA written offer you may never have seen, a fault rule that's on your side, and a phone you're allowed to keep locked.
- UM/UIM must be offered in writing. ARS 20-259.01(A)–(B). In limits not less than your liability limits. Rejection belongs on a Director-approved form, not in a call log.
- "Uninsured" includes insolvency. ARS 20-259.01(D). If the at-fault driver's carrier goes under and can't pay within its limits, that vehicle counts as uninsured for your UM claim.
- Pure comparative negligence. ARS 12-2505. Partial fault reduces your recovery; it never erases it.
- Your proof of insurance can live on your phone — and showing it isn't consent to a search. ARS 28-4135(B). The statute says displaying proof on a wireless communication device does not constitute consent for law enforcement to access the device's other contents. Worth knowing at the window.
- Credit scoring has fences. ARS 20-2110(F). Arizona permits credit-based insurance scores for auto — but an insurer cannot score you on the absence of credit history unless actuarially justified or treated as neutral, on medical-coded collections, on a bankruptcy or lien satisfaction more than seven years old, on what type of card you carry, or on your total available line of credit. A score built from income, gender, address, ZIP, ethnicity, religion, marital status or nationality is prohibited outright.
- Adverse underwriting decisions come with a written reason. ARS 20-2110. Declined, terminated, or placed with a substandard carrier? You're entitled to the specific reason and to your rights to access and correct the underlying information.
- Named-driver exclusions must be in writing. ARS 28-4009(3). A policy can exclude a specific person by name only by written agreement between you and the insurer. If a household member is excluded, you should know it — and they are not covered, at all, ever.
The Bottom Line
If you do one thing after reading this, pull your declarations page and look at two lines: your liability limits, and your UM. The premium is the number you talk about; those two are the ones that decide what happens to you.
Know that 25/50/15 is a registration requirement, not a plan — $15,000 doesn't replace the car in front of you, and $25,000 doesn't cover one orthopedic surgery. Know that Arizona is at-fault with pure comparative negligence, so a bad day doesn't end your claim, and the other driver's claim against you doesn't end either. Know that one in three drivers around you is uninsured or underinsured, and that your insurer had to offer you the coverage for exactly that — in writing.
None of this is about buying more. It's about knowing what you already own before the afternoon you need it. If your Arizona auto policy is sitting at the minimum because nobody ever walked you through the alternative, that's not a decision you made — it's one that got made for you. And if there's a motorcycle in the garage or an RV in the driveway, those are their own conversations: motorcycle and RV coverage don't work the way the car policy does.
Related Questions Arizona Drivers Ask
Is Arizona's minimum 25/50/15 or 15/30/10?
25/50/15, for any policy issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2020. ARS 28-4009 still contains the older 15/30/10 figures for policies predating that change, which is why stale articles and old forum posts disagree. If a source quotes 15/30/10 as current Arizona law, it hasn't been updated in six years.
Does my personal policy cover me driving for Uber or DoorDash?
Generally no. ARS 28-4009 expressly contemplates that a personal auto policy doesn't cover a private passenger vehicle while the driver is logged into a transportation network company's app or providing those services, unless the policy or an endorsement says otherwise. The rideshare company's coverage has gaps of its own, particularly while you're logged in and waiting. Add the endorsement — it's not expensive, and the alternative is a denied claim.
Do I need an SR-22, and for how long?
An SR-22 is proof of future financial responsibility that your insurer files electronically with MVD. It's triggered by certain violations, including failing to maintain liability insurance. Per ADOT, it must be maintained for three years from the date you become eligible for reinstatement — and if the coverage lapses at any point during that window, MVD may suspend your driving privileges immediately. Your insurer is required to notify MVD if the policy cancels.
Is MedPay worth it if I have health insurance?
Often yes, because it works differently. MedPay pays regardless of fault and without waiting for anyone to accept liability, which is the gap health insurance doesn't fill — deductibles, copays, and the weeks before a claim resolves. It also covers your passengers, who may not have coverage of their own. Arizona doesn't require PIP, so MedPay is the first-party option here, and the limits are usually small enough to be cheap.
Can I recover if the crash was mostly my fault?
Yes. Arizona's pure comparative negligence rule (ARS 12-2505) reduces your recovery by your share of fault but never eliminates it — even at 99% fault you can recover 1% of your damages. Most states bar recovery entirely past 50 or 51%. Arizona doesn't. The flip side: the other driver's claim against you survives their own fault too, which is why liability limits matter more here.
Does my Arizona policy cover me in Mexico?
Not for Mexican legal requirements. DIFI states that Mexican law requires you to buy separate liability coverage from a Mexican insurer before driving there. Your Arizona policy may provide limited coverage within roughly 25 to 50 miles of the border, but that does not meet Mexico's requirements. Canada is usually different — most Arizona personal auto policies extend there, but verify with your insurer before you go.
Last reviewed by Raquel Jimenez on July 17, 2026. Arizona statutes cited (ARS 28-4009, 28-4135, 20-259.01, 20-2110, 12-2505, 12-542, 12-821.01) were verified against azleg.gov, DIFI's auto consumer guidance, and ADOT MVD on that date. Uninsured and underinsured figures are from the Insurance Research Council's Uninsured and Underinsured Motorists: 2017–2023 study (February 2025). This guide is general information, not a substitute for reading your own policy — coverage depends on your specific contract.