Summary:
Everyone who drives a motor vehicle on a public roadway in New Jersey must purchase - at a minimum - three types of automobile insurance.
All New Jersey drivers must have:
1.Liability Insurance: This insurance covers damage to other people's property, including vehicles, if you are in an accident. In New Jersey, Liability insurance does not cover medical expenses.
2.Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Insurance: This is the insurance that pays for medical claims by you ...
Everyone who drives a motor vehicle on a public roadway in New Jersey must purchase - at a minimum - three types of automobile insurance.
All New Jersey drivers must have:
1.Liability Insurance: This insurance covers damage to other people's property, including vehicles, if you are in an accident. In New Jersey, Liability insurance does not cover medical expenses.
2.Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Insurance: This is the insurance that pays for medical claims by you or by anyone else involved in an accident that involves your vehicle. In New Jersey this is sometimes referred to as No-Fault insurance since this portion of your insurance pays for medical expenses regardless of whose fault the accident is eventually deemed to be.
3.Uninsured Motorist (UM) Insurance: This insurance pays for both medical claims as well as property damage if you are involved in an accident with someone who does not have any insurance or who does not have sufficient insurance to cover the claims resulting from an accident.
The basic minimum coverage in New Jersey is what is known as 15/30/5. What this means is that you are required to have Personal Injury Protection Insurance (PIP) that covers up to $15,000 of medical protection per individual with a cap of $30,000 of medical coverage per accident. You are also required to carry $5,000 of Liability Insurance to cover any property (including vehicles) that you might damage in an accident.
Under New Jersey state law you are not required to have any other coverage in order to drive a vehicle. However, if your car is being financed then your lender may very well require that you also purchase comprehensive coverage as well as collision coverage and that you buy considerably more than the state-required minimum for Liability, PIP and Uninsured Motorist.
Even if you own your car outright and are not required to purchase anything more than the bare state minimum for insurance you may very well choose to carry higher coverage. This is especially true for anyone who owns a home, has a savings account, or for anyone who has any other assets that they wish to protect.
Just one accident-spawned lawsuit could see your home taken from you, your bank account wiped out, and any and all other assets that you own turned over to the prevailing party. In other words, if you don't have sufficient automobile insurance coverage you could lose everything in an accident.
Once you (or your lender) have decided on the amount of your full coverage insurance then it is time for you to go online and find at least 3 of the dozens of websites that will let you quickly and easily find out how much your policy will cost from different insurance companies. You will find that there can be a considerable difference in price from one company to another.
Don't get lazy and just compare prices on one website. No website compares prices from all the different insurance companies, so if you want to insure that you are seeing the widest range of prices possible you will need to make your comparisons on at least 3 different websites.
But once you've done that then all you need to do is to choose the lowest price and you're done. You now know what to look for in a full coverage car insurance quote in New Jersey and you know how to find the best price for your coverage.