If you’re looking for cheap car insurance in New Jersey, it helps to do a little research. Aside from taking advantage of good deals that insurance companies in New Jersey have to offer, you’ll find plenty of ways to help reduce the cost of your monthly or annual payments. Before diving into your affordable insurance options, let’s get acquainted with what insuring your car in New Jersey entails.
Car Insurance Requirements in NJ
Each state has its own requirements when it comes to the minimum amount of car insurance you need to have to legally operate your vehicle. Every state but New Hampshire and Virginia requires that you carry at least liability insurance. In New Jersey, you need to have an insurance plan that includes $15,000 per person and $30,000 per accident total in bodily injury liability and $5,000 in property damage liability. These payouts only apply to other people involved in the accident — not the insured.
If you choose an insurance plan that only offers the minimum amount of coverage, your insurance company will pay up to $15,000 per person involved in the accident. This plan will pay this individual bodily injury insurance until the cost gets up to $30,000. The other person involved in the accident will be reimbursed up to $5,000 for their damaged property.
In New Jersey, you also have to have uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage up to $15,000 per person and $30,000 per accident, as well as $5,000 of uninsured motorist property damage. This helps protect you and your property if you’re involved in a collision with an uninsured driver.
Finally, you also have to have a plan with personal injury protection of $15,000 per person. This type of insurance coverage, which is often shortened to PIP or called no-fault insurance, helps cover your medical bills and sometimes lost wages that occur as the result of a collision.
What’s Not Covered By NJ’s Required Insurance
Though New Jersey requires you to cover more situations with your insurance than many other states do, the state’s minimum insurance requirements don’t cover everything.
Liability car insurance covers other people in accidents you’re involved in. If you want to cover yourself, you should consider collision insurance. Collision insurance helps you pay to repair your vehicle or reimburse you for your vehicle if you total it. Its limit is set by the insurance company’s measured value of your vehicle. Collision coverage covers collisions with other vehicles, as well as rollovers, damage from potholes, and other accidents that can occur while your vehicle is moving.
If you want to protect your car while you’re not in it, you can add a comprehensive insurance policy to your plan. Comprehensive insurance helps protect your vehicle from situations such as damages from vandalism, falling trees, flooding, fire, hail, and so on.
If you have liability, collision, and comprehensive insurance, you have what’s called a full coverage car insurance plan. A full coverage insurance plan is simply a collection of the three, but you may see it marketed as though it were a standalone insurance plan.
It goes without saying that the more coverage you add past New Jersey’s minimum requirements, the more expensive your insurance will be. Think about what you can handle both in terms of monthly payments and getting back to where you need to be should an accident take out your vehicle. This will help you make the best choice for your needs as you shop around for cheap car insurance in New Jersey.
Cheap Car Insurance in NJ
New Jersey drivers pay an average of $846 annually or $70 per month for minimum coverage car insurance. However, this number can be misleading depending on your situation and personal details.
When an insurance company decides what it’s going to charge you for insurance, it takes into account many factors. It will look at your credit score, your driving history, age, location, your vehicle, and more. You might have an aspect of your history or current situation that drives the price of your insurance up or down. Be sure to get a few quotes from different insurance companies to get an idea of your range of options.
That being said, you can use statewide averages to figure out where to start first if you’re on the hunt for an affordable plan. According to ValuePenguin, the best cheap car insurance options in New Jersey are:
- State Farm: $427
- Geico: $476
- Plymouth Rock: $724
- NJM: $854
- Progressive: $990
- Allstate: $1,104
- Travelers: $1,346
These numbers are the annual payments only for plans for the minimum New Jersey requirements. If you add other policies, such as collision and comprehensive insurance, the cost of your monthly or annual payment goes up.
How To Make Your NJ Car Insurance Cheaper
Depending on the insurance company you choose, you may have a few available avenues to make your insurance payments go down. Some you can take advantage of today and some you’ll have to put in the time for.
Get Less Insurance
One of the most effective ways to get cheap insurance is to have less insurance altogether. Though that may seem obvious, there are some pitfalls people fall into that make them pay for insurance they don’t need.
If you want to protect yourself with full coverage insurance, be sure to reevaluate the value of your car to see if it’s still worth paying for. If you find that the value of your vehicle has dropped to a point where you’re paying more insurance than it’s worth or the deductible is more than the vehicle’s worth, it’s time to consider downgrading insurance plans.
Raise Your Deductible
Reconsider your deductible. If you’re protecting your wallet with a $500 deductible but your insurance company has a $1,000 option, you can save money on your insurance payments by raising your deductible. You’ll pay more out of pocket after a collision, but you may save enough from your payments to warrant the switch.
Ask About Discounts
Talk to your agent about potential discounts you may be eligible for. Many insurance companies — especially larger ones — offer incentives and discounts to their customers, thereby lowering their insurance payments. Take a look at which yours offers and see if you’re eligible for them.
No matter what state you call home, finding cheap car insurance just takes a little legwork and research. As always, we’re here to help you find the answers you need, whether it’s how to get the best insurance rate for your needs or figuring out what’s going on under the hood of your car.
At FIXD, our mission is to make car ownership as simple, easy, and affordable as possible. Our research team utilizes the latest automotive data and insights to create tools and resources that help drivers get peace of mind and save money over the life of their car.
