NJM auto insurance review 2026
The second-highest claims satisfaction score in the country, sold direct with no agents — in five states, with no published national rate and no policyholder app.
- Market share
- 0.4% of U.S. auto
- AM Best rating
- A+
- Availability
- 5 states in the Mid-Atlantic, sold direct with no agents
A national average is not a quote. Compare NJM against 50+ insurers on your own ZIP, vehicle, and record.
How NJM scores
Each category is scored against a published figure, then weighted into the overall score. Where a figure is not published, we say so rather than estimate one.
Sources: average premiums from NerdWallet's August 2026 rate analysis (Quadrant Information Services), for a 35-year-old driver with a clean record and good credit in a 2023 Toyota Camry LE at 12,000 miles a year, 100/300/50 limits with $1,000 deductibles — national average $2,356. Claims satisfaction from the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Auto Claims Satisfaction Study (segment average 700). Complaint record from NerdWallet's analysis of NAIC complaint data, 2022–2024. Financial strength from AM Best. Discounts and app data from each carrier's published pages and the Apple App Store / Google Play, retrieved August 2026. Updated August 2026.
Strengths and trade-offs
What NJM does well
- Second-highest claims satisfaction score of any ranked insurer in the country
- Far fewer complaints than its size predicts
- AM Best A+ (Superior)
- Sold direct with no agents, and pays annual policyholder dividends
Where it falls short
- Only five states — Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania
- No published national average premium, so it cannot be price-compared like the others
- No general policyholder app; servicing is web-only
- AM Best revised its issuer credit rating outlook to negative in 2025
The full review
New Jersey Manufacturers has been selling direct — no agents, no commissions — since 1913. It writes in five Mid-Atlantic states, entered the NAIC top 25 for private passenger auto on 2024 premiums, and pays annual dividends back to policyholders.
The claims score
731 out of 1,000 in J.D. Power's 2025 claims satisfaction study. Only Erie scored higher among ranked insurers, and NJM beat Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, State Farm, Geico, Allstate and Progressive. Its complaint record is in the strongest band we assign. Two independent measures of how customers are actually treated, both near the top.
NerdWallet publishes an NJM average, but it is a New Jersey figure rather than a national one, because that is where almost all of NJM's business is.
New Jersey is an expensive state. Putting a New Jersey number on the same axis as national averages for Geico or State Farm would produce a comparison that looks precise and means nothing. We would rather show no price than a misleading one.
The dividend, and what it costs
NJM returns money to policyholders annually, which is unusual and genuinely valuable. AM Best notes those dividends added roughly nine points to its combined ratio over five years, and in 2025 revised the outlook on NJM's issuer credit rating to negative, citing consecutive underwriting losses. The financial strength rating consumers see is still A+ and stable. The direction of travel is worth watching.
No app
NJM publishes no general policyholder app on either the App Store or Google Play — the only NJM app on either store is SafeDrive Go, the telematics app. Policy servicing happens on the website. For a direct-sold insurer with no agents, that is a more significant gap than it would be elsewhere.
On the measure that matters most when things go wrong, NJM is beaten by exactly one insurer in the country. It pairs that with the best complaint band we assign and an A+ balance sheet. The catches are structural rather than qualitative: five states, no app, and no national rate to compare. If you live in its footprint, quote it.
We only publish a composite score when enough of it rests on published figures — at least 70% of the scoring weight, including price. NJM falls below that: 2 of our six categories have no published figure (price, digital experience). Averaging whatever is left would produce a confident-looking number built mostly on the categories that need no third-party study, and a carrier scored that way can easily outrank one we actually measured. The individual categories above are real; the missing ones are simply missing.
Compare NJM head-to-head
Every pairing gets its own side-by-side breakdown across the same six categories.
NJM questions, answered
The things people actually ask before switching.
NJM by state
NJM writes in 5 states. If yours is not listed, it is not an option there at any price.
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