Guide to Car Insurance in Illinois

Illinois requires the following liability limits and auto insurance coverages¹.

• Bodily injury liability: $25,000 per person/$50,000 per accident
• Property damage liability: $20,000 per accident
• Uninsured/underinsured motorist bodily injury liability: $25,000 per person/$50,000 per accident

The average cost of full coverage car insurance in Illinois is $2,166 annually, slightly under the national average of $2,356. Minimum coverage costs an average of $726 annually, which is on par with the national average of $722.

USAA, Country Financial, Travelers, and Erie tend to have the cheapest rates in Illinois depending on your driver profile.

By City

People caught driving without insurance in Illinois could face fines and license suspensions.

You can show your proof in the form of a paper or electronic ID.

If you’ve purchased your auto insurance policy from an agent or broker, you’re ready to drive – but first make sure you’re compliant with the laws of the land in Illinois.

Is Illinois a No-Fault State?

Illinois is not a no-fault state; it’s an at-fault state.

Say someone hit your parked car and left the scene, but CCTV caught them speeding off. That person would be responsible for your property damages and any injuries your passengers incurred.

Even if you had some level of negligence (say you were parked in a no-parking zone), as long as you were 50 percent or less culpable for the accident, you could recover funds under Illinois’ modified comparative negligence law.

Uninsured Motorists

Illinois is one of a few states that requires uninsured motorist coverage. An estimated 15.2 percent of Illinois drivers don’t have car insurance, according to the Insurance Research Council.

DUI Laws

If you get a DUI in Illinois, it will stay on your record permanently, with a one-year license suspension for the first offense and a registration suspension. If your blood alcohol concentration was 0.16 percent or higher, you could face even more punishments, like a minimum fine of $500 and at least 100 hours of community service.

Seat Belt Laws

No matter what seat you’re in, seat belts are mandatory for those age eight and older in Illinois, with the law under primary enforcement. Those under age eight must be in child restraint systems. That means police can pull you over merely for someone in your car not wearing their seat belt, with no other traffic violations necessary.

Distracted Driving Laws

Illinois has a ban on handheld electronic devices for all drivers, under primary enforcement. If you’re caught driving distracted by a phone, tablet, or laptop, you will be given five points per violation and fined.

• First offense: $75
• Second offense: $100
• Third offense: $125
• Fourth and subsequent offenses: $150³

Young Driver Laws

In Illinois, 16- and 17-year-old drivers are in their initial licensing phase for the first 12 months after obtaining their licenses. During this phase, they must adhere to a few restrictions.

• Curfew: From Sunday to Thursday, the curfew is 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., but it’s 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
• Limited passengers: During the first year of their license, or before they turn 18, drivers can only drive one passenger under age 20 unless the passengers are their siblings, children, stepsiblings, or stepchildren.
• Clean driving record: For the first six months of their license or until they turn 18 (whichever comes first), teen drivers need to maintain clean driving records free of convictions. If they don’t, it will delay them entering the full licensing phase.

Statute of Limitations: Property Damage and Personal Injury Claims

You have eight years to file property damage claims and two years to file personal injury claims, due to Illinois’ statutes of limitations.

Non-Renewal and Cancellation Notification Laws

If an insurance company in Illinois cancels a policy, it must alert the customer 30 days before the expiration date, or 10 days before if the cancellation is due to nonpayment. For non-renewal of policies, the window is 30 days.⁴

Self-Insurance Option

If you have more than 25 vehicles, you can self-insure rather than purchasing a personal auto insurance policy. However, self-insurance is completely at the discretion of the Illinois Department of Insurance’s director, so it’s unclear how doable this is in practice.

Inspection Requirements

The state of Illinois requires either annual or biannual emission inspections for some cars in certain counties and townships.

How often you have to get your car inspected depends on what it carries and where it drives.

• Interstate carriers of property: Annual inspections
• Intrastate carriers of property: Biannual inspections
• Interstate carriers of passengers: Both annually and biannually⁵

You can find an inspection station here: https://idot.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=40e56aad7a294032b84651dc41109f79.

SR-22s

You’ll have to maintain an SR-22 form as proof of minimum insurance if you’ve had:

• Safety responsibility suspensions
• Unsatisfied judgment suspicions
• Mandatory insurance supervisions
• Revocations.
• Three or more convictions for driving without insurance

Defensive Driving Courses

Remember when we mentioned you could get a discount for taking a defensive driving course? In Illinois, take just one class and that discount can last up to three years. Find a class here: https://apps.ilsos.gov/adultdrivered/providerlist.

Right to Sue

Illinois doesn’t pose a serious injury or monetary threshold you need to meet in order to sue for economic or noneconomic damages after a car accident.

Do I Have to Report a Car Accident in Illinois?

If you are involved in a car accident that results in any injury, property damage, or death worth more than $1,500 (or $500 if any involved car wasn’t insured), you’ll have to report it within 10 days or face a license suspension.

Discrimination Laws

Illinois allows insurance companies to base prices on both credit scores and gender, so people with bad credit and men will pay higher car insurance premiums.

Total Loss Formula

Illinois uses the class total loss formula, so a car is deemed a total loss when the repairs would cost more than its salvage value.

Since dealing with government websites is never fun, we’ve done the brunt of the work for you. Find all the contact information and processes you need for auto-related issues in Illinois below.

New Registration

Follow these steps to register a car for the first time:

1. Enter in your last name, driver’s license number, and the last four digits of your Society Security number: https://apps.ilsos.gov/pert/.
2. Or, if you don’t want to use the internet to register your vehicle, fill out form RUT-50, which you should get at a state facility like the Department of Transportation or the Department of Natural Resources.
3. Pay the Illinois Private Party Vehicle Use tax, which varies based on how much your  car costs.

4. If you live in Chicago or Cook County, you’ll pay additional taxes, as well.

5. Submit the form online or at your nearest Illinois Secretary of State facility: https://apps.ilsos.gov/facilityfinder/facility.
6. Alternatively, you can mail the form to this address:

Secretary of State, Vehicle Services Department

Howlett Bldg

Springfield, IL 62756

The payment should be made out to “Illinois Department of Revenue.”

Registration Renewal

Here’s how to renew your registration:

1. Fill out the VSD 190 form, which you can get either online (https://apps.ilsos.gov/LicenseRenewal/) or at your nearest Illinois Secretary of State facility (see above). You can also call 866-545-9609 to collect the form.
2. Gather the proper fee (see the table below).

3. Either submit payment online or send a check payable to the Illinois Secretary of State. You can also drop it off at your nearest Secretary of State facility, but make sure to bring your renewal notice and payment in the form of a check, cash, traveler’s check, or credit card.

In Illinois, car repairs cost 3 percent less than the national average at $372.51. That’s $227.32 for parts and $145.19 for labor, according to a report from CarMD.

Illinois falls below the national average for auto theft, but above it for traffic fatalities.

Car Theft Rates

The state’s annual car theft rate is 148 per 100,000 inhabitants, 48 percent lower than the rest of the country, according to FBI data. However, rates are higher in metropolitan areas like Decatur, where 185 vehicles are sold for every 100,000 inhabitants. In Peoria, the rate is 170, in Springfield, it’s 175, while in Rockford, it’s 163. Still, none of these numbers come close to the national average, making Illinois a great place to be a car-owner.

Traffic Fatality Rates

Illinois is also lower-than-average when it comes to deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. In 2022, there were 1.22 deaths, compared to the national average of 1.33.

From 2018 to 2022 alone, motor vehicle fatalities increased by 21 percent in Illinois, a high since 2021.  As far as the fatal crashes in 2018 in Illinois, 32 percent involved speeding, while 36 percent involved drunk driving.

As you can see in our state driving guide, every state has different legislation for car insurance and driving. But whether you’re driving down the Magnificent Mile in Chicago or a rural street in Elsah, Jersey County, keep Illinois’ laws in mind to avoid sullying that perfect driving history of yours.