I was a loyal customer of Liberty Mutual for the past 15 years for both home and auto. When the most recent renewal came back in December for the auto portion, the annual premium for our three cars jumped from $6018.00 to $7100.00 which caught my attention.
My homeowners premium, which I just paid a few weeks prior, was $2200.00.
I called L/M to discuss this increase and they gave me a song and a dance and a couple of options to trim maybe $300.00 off the auto premium. I went online and got a quote from NJM insurance. They are highly rated but they are regional and only insure in five states, mine included. NJM's quote for both home and auto came in at $5000.00 LESS than L/M! I was able to get an umbrella policy too so I now have greater coverage and am saving $5000.00 per year. While tremendously thrilled, all I could think about was all the money I threw away by being blindly loyal to Liberty Mutual all those years. Never again....
You are in for a treat. NJM operates as a mutual insurance company. You can think of them as a nonprofit. I’ve had them since 1985 for car insurance and every year, sometimes twice a year, they send me a dividend check which they categorize in the accompanying letter as a rebate to customers for savings they have accumulated by operating efficiently and only insuring good drivers.
When they started they only insured drivers with perfect driving records, no tickets, no points, no insurance claims with their previous carrier and you had to wait, I believe three years, as a newly licensed driver before they insured you. They made an exception to the new driver rule for kids of parents who had policies with NJM for three years. Back then, they were also quick to not renew you if you showed yourself to be a high risk because of tickets or made lots of claims.
In terms of customer service and claims they are rated A+ by the BBB. They pay out quickly and fairly and don’t nickel and dime you. I had a Jeep Grand Cherokee legally parked on my street in front of my house and someone ran into the back of it and totaled it. They paid out within the week. I was also rear ended in my Audi at a stop sign, yea I fully stop at them and don’t roll through and they paid out to me directly and they dealt with recovering the claim from the other driver who was ticketed and responsible for the damage. You will get a name and direct phone number of a NJM employee based in NJ to deal with if you ever have a claim. I have no experience with medical claims through NJM and I hope I never do.
For years you had to work for a company that was a dues paying member of the NJ manufacturing council - this was a trade group of what it says, manufacturing companies based in NJ, to qualify to apply to NJM. As manufacturing dwindled in NJ they needed to broaden their potential customer base and became a common market insurance company but they initially kept their strict “who we cover” standards.
Their strictly “only good drivers” policy and low rates caught the attention of the jealous public and the they got embroiled in a law suit and the state won, requiring them to loosen up their auto policy holders standards. As I understand it, they complied to this ruling by forming a separate insurance group under the NJM insurance name for drivers with just Okay records. They are still strict. My daughter, who was covered for 10 years under my policy when she lived at home (no tickets, accidents) moved out and bought a 2024 VW Taos and figured getting NJM insurance a no brainer. Nope, as a new car owner she had to get insurance with another company and demonstrate 6 month of good driving and no claims before NJM will accept her insurance application.
I’m still in the original group since since 1976 I’ve had no tickets or accidents on my driving records. I recall getting a letter saying that they closed the group I’m in to new policy holders a few years ago to protect us from receiving a reduced dividend payout because of the addition of higher risk drivers to the insurance pool.
I’ve had them for my home and vacation cabin and umbrella coverage for the last few years, there is no dividend payout for those policies but they do give a great discount if you have auto insurance and homeowners from them.
