USCCA vs CCW Safe: Which is the Best CCW Insurance?

by Ryan Cleckner

January 16, 2022

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USCCA and CCW Safe used to be ranked as our top two CCW insurance options. However, since USCCA changed their coverage/plan they dropped to #4 and CCW Safe is the clear winner.

If you’d like to learn about how USCCA and CCW Safe compare to each other, read on.

In this USCCA vs CCW Safe comparison, we’re going to compare the coverage and features of these two concealed carry insurance providers to help you decide which one might be right for you.

USCCA – CCW Insurance

  • Final Grade : A
  • MSRP : $27-$44 /mo
Criminal Defense Max $250k
Civil Defense Max $2 Million
Pick Own Attorney? Yes
Money Upfront? Yes
Per Diem $750
Check Price

CCW Safe Insurance

  • Final Grade : A+
  • MSRP : $18-$44 /mo
Criminal Defense Max Unlimited
Civil Defense Max Unlimited
Pick Own Attorney? Yes
Money Upfront? Yes
er Diem $250
Check Price

USCCA vs CCW Safe – Which is the Best?

First, congrats for narrowing the decision down to these two companies. USCCA offers a lot of resources and CCW Safe offers the best legal protection.

We know this decision is a bit difficult because I was recently in your shoes – I had narrowed my self defense legal protection coverage down to either USCCA and CCW Safe and even I, an actual firearms attorney, found that it wasn’t easy to compare these two under USCCA’s old plan/coverage. This is exactly why we knew that we needed to write this article comparing the two options – hopefully it makes it easier for you to decide. However, now that the USCCA changed what they offer for legal protection, CCW Safe is the clear winner for us.

Second, neither CCW Safe nor USCCA are actually “insurance.” This is an important legal distinction. Instead, they are both legal defense coverage plans.

The difference may not mean much to you, but as a firearms attorney, I want to be very careful and clear in my explanations. However, for the sake of simplicity and because the terms are so commonly used, I’ll refer to these as “ccw insurance” or concealed carry insurance” even though you’ll know better.

Ok, with that out of the way, I bet you’re wondering…. Which is best? Which should you get?

Well, I’ve got some bad news: I can’t possibly tell you which concealed carry insurance option is best for you and your situation. Heck, I can’t even tell you if you should get ccw insurance in the first place.

I know you want an easy answer but if anyone, including myself, gives you one – you should be suspicious because everyone’s particular situation, budget, and risk tolerance is unique.

What I can do is compare USCCA and CCW Safe’s coverage options, discuss their pros and cons, and give you the information you need to make the decision on concealed carry insurance for yourself.

Also, and especially if you don’t want to read the full deep-dive into this USCCA vs. CCW Safe review, I can tell you that I chose to purchase CCW Safe for myself and my family.

Regardless of which one fits your needs best, we like both companies and they each are ranked in the top two spots of our Best CCW Insurance Comparison.

Let’s first look at a summary of each self defense insurance options with pros and cons before we dive into a comparison of each of their features and pricing.

USCCA: Our Take

The USCCA is the big-dog in the self defense legal protection space.  They claim the largest number of members, they have the biggest organization, and a ton of training resources.

And, although they are the most expensive option available, members get a lot of training resources and support for the money. But, with their recent change in their plan/coverage, they are not the best value for leagl protection.

Things we love about USSCA: Tons of training and resources, highest daily “per diem” amount (more on that below) and they satisfy all three of our “must-have requirements.”

Things we’d change if we could: The total defense coverage dollar amounts are limited, they now treat these limits that they’ll pay to protect you as “confidential,” they reserve the right to make you pay back everything if you get a guilty verdict (where others offer support for an appeal), and a few other issues we found in their new policy .

Check out how they compare to CCW Safe in our full break-down below.

USCCA Pros and Cons

  • Great Training
  • Highest Daily Per Diem
  • Can Choose Your Own Lawyer
  • Might Have to Pay Everything Back
  • Highest Cost
  • Capped Coverage

CCW Safe: Our Take

CCW Safe, although smaller, provides the best legal coverage in our opinion. Their defense coverage amounts are unlimited and they are a legal “dream-team.”

Although not the most expensive, they are at the higher end of cost.

Things we love about CCW Safe: Unlimited coverage amounts, excellent expert resources, and they meet all three of our “must haves” (but, your attorney does need to be approved).

Things we’d change if we could: Although a per diem is paid, it is the lowest of the companies that pay.

CCW Safe Pros and Cons

  • Unlimited Defense Budgets
  • Can Choose Own Lawyer
  • Excellent Resources
  • Legal “Dream Team” 
  • Higher-End Cost
  • Attorney Must Be Approved

USCCA vs CCW Safe: Pricing

It’s fairly difficult to compare these two on pricing because they each offer multiple plans with different coverage and costs and the USCCA no longer publishes their coverage amounts and their higher priced plans don’t offer any better legal coverage than their lowest priced plan.

However we can make a few generalizations about the cost comparison of USCCA and CCW Safe.

USCCA is relatively the most expensive option but it comes with a TON of features for the cost but lower coverage amounts (and other issues).

FrequencyUSCCACCW Safe
Monthly$29-49$18-44
Annual$300-504$179-519

CCW Safe is not as expensive and it has higher coverage but not as many extra features like online training resources.

If your budget or legal protection are the main factors for your determination, CCW Safe is the better option.

Winner: CCW Safe

However, as you can likely already tell, looking at cost alone, without taking into consideration exactly what you get for the cost, isn’t super helpful. So, let’s explore more.

FeatureUSCCACCW Safe
Max Criminal Defense$250,000Unlimited
Max Civil Defense$2,000,000Unlimited

This one is fairly straight forward: when it comes to legal defense coverage for both criminal and civil trials, CCW Safe wins with unlimited coverage.

However, even though the USCCA limits coverage and now keeps their limits private, the amounts they offer are still significant and may be enough for most instances.

Winner: CCW Safe

In addition to legal defense, there are many other areas of coverage that both companies offer and which should be considered…

USCCA vs CCW Safe: Features

FeatureUSCCACCW Safe
Pick Own AttorneyYesYes
Money Up Front?YesYes
Per Diem$750$250
Psychological Support$6000$6000
Up Front Bail Bonding$50,000/$500,000$100,000/$1,000,000

There are three “must have” features that I advise you look for in CCW Insurance. Thankfully, both USCCA and CCW Safe have these features (but not all companies do).

I recommend that you only pick a company that:

  • Allows you to pick your own attorney,
  • Gives you the money up front, and
  • Offers a daily “per diem” while in trial

For a deeper discussion of these elements, feel free to check out 3 CCW Insurance Must Haves. We’ll compare these main 3 and also some more features here.

Picking your own attorney: Both USCCA and CCW Safe allow you to pick your own attorney. However, CCW Safe requires that they approve your attorney. This isn’t 100% free choice but I do understand their desire to ensure that you have competent counsel.

Money up front: Both companies give you the money up front – this is important. If you have enough money to cover these costs yourself (a few hundred thousand up to around a million dollars), I question why you’re looking at CCW insurance.

Daily “per diem” rate: While in trial, you’re not going to be able to work and earn money for you or your family. Getting a daily amount can go a long way – especially if you’re in trial for months.

Both USCCA and CCW Safe offer a daily per diem (not all companies do) but the USCCA’s rate is the highest available.

Bail: The USCCA’s highest plan offers up to $500k in bail bond coverage whereas CCW Safe’s lowest plan starts at $500k of coverage and goes up to $1 million.

Winner: USCCA

Let’s look at one final category…

USCCA vs CCW Safe: Extra Resources

I’ll oversimplify this in an attempt to make a meaningful distinction (this is a very hard area to compare these because it is so subjective).

If you’re new to firearms and/or concealed carry, then the training and resources from USCCA might be the best option for you. They offer a great library of online training and resources, including newsletters and a magazine, that cover the basics as well as some more advanced topics that can help you determine what you’ll do in a self defense situation.

If you’re more interested in legal self defense scenarios and learning from who we think is the best resource for legal self defense, Attorney Andrew Branca, then CCW Safe’s extra resources might be best for you.

Again, this is a tough call. But, most new shooters would do well with USCCA’s resources whereas I like to see the deep-dive into self defense shootings from CCW Safe.

Winner: Tie

USCCA and CCW Safe Comparison Conclusion

The choice between which option to get (or even whether to get CCW insurance) is yours alone.

Hopefully, our comparison of the top two concealed carry insurance companies helps you make up your mind.

But, if you’re still stuck, remember this: we’ve had plenty of great feedback from both companies, they are both reputable organizations, and they each provide good coverage – we wouldn’t second-guess your decision to go with either one.

Before you make up your mind, go check out the details of each:

It was tough for me to pick between USCCA and CCW Safe under the USCCA’s old plan, but I purchased CCW Safe for myself. Now that the USCCA has changed what they offer, CCW Safe is an even easier decision for me.

Which one did you pick – and are you happy with your choice? Let us know in the comments below.

USCCA vs CCW Safe Report Cards

USCCA – CCW Insurance

Cost

Although it is at the higher end, you are getting a lot of features.

A-

Coverage

The coverage amount has always been “capped” but now the actual limits are “confidential.”

C

Features

TONS of extra features for training, not for legal coverage.

B

Value

A decent value for training, not for legal coverage.

C

Final Grade: B-

CCW Safe Insurance

Cost

The price is competitive with the higher-end CCW insurance options and you’re getting arguably the best legal coverage.

A

Coverage

Best in class legal coverage from a legal “dream team” and excellent experts.

A+

Features

They provide or “must have” requirements in addition to valuable deep-dive legal analysis of real self-defense use cases.

A

Value

Although there’s minimal extras, you’re getting the some of the best possible legal coverage for the price.

A+

Final Grade: A+

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About Ryan Cleckner

Ryan is a former special operations sniper (1/75 Ranger) and current firearms attorney, firearms industry executive, university lecturer, and bestselling author of the Long Range Shooting Handbook.

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