I was reading the April 2011 edition of Money 
One of the suggestions for saving on auto insurance was to enroll in a pay-as-you-drive plan. I was curious about this plan, since my car sits in the garage most of the week, so I checked out Progressive’s program. (Only GMAC and Progressive have this option)
With Progressive’s program (called Snapshot) you install a device in your car. This device tracks your driving habits for 30 days. At the end of the thirty days you can log on to the website and find out your savings. According to the website your insurance will never go up, it can only stay the same or go down.
According to the Progressive website:
Your driving snapshot includes the number of miles you drive, time of day you drive and how often you make sudden stops. People who drive less, in safer ways and during safer times of day could get a discount.
I can’t decide if a tracking device is worth saving on car insurance. Progressive says it won’t share the information with anyone else, but then lists several ways they might share the information if necessary.
I’m not a reckless driver, in fact my husband would tell you I drive too slow, but I just don’t like the idea of my insurance company tracking all my driving.
What do you think? Would you install this tracking device in your vehicle to save up to 30%? How much is privacy worth these days?
Photo credit: NCReedplayer
I’ve thought about it, too. I’m all for saving a buck here and there, but it makes me a bit nervous to know that they know your every move…literally.
I’ll take my privacy over the 30% savings. I don’t have anything to hide, but I sure do enjoy what little privacy I have left these days.
If Progressive hadn’t given me a high quote, then i would probably try their new “Snapshot” option. Like you my vehicle sits in the driveway most of the time. And when i do run errands, i try to do them all at once and during the non peak times.
I currently am shopping around for a new policy to add my newly licensed daughter to the policy. For just her and I, it was going to be over $1800.00 a year with our 2 old vehicles with our current company. Then I found out that we can get auto insurance from my husband’s employer benefits program. I was shocked at the difference in price.
With this new company, same coverage that I have currently and covering all 3 of us, the yearly premium would be under $800/year. It just boggles my mind how two different companies can offer the same coverage for such a drastic price difference.
I’ve come to expect less privacy these days, to a point, since I do so much online and have a business. And if I could save nearly $800 a year just for having this “Snapshot” device monitoring my driving habits for 30 days, i would definitely do it.
That $800 could buy groceries for my family for 2 months!
There is a reason it is called “Progressive.” They are a money raising source for progressive candidates. I wouldn’t go near them with a ten foot pole.
My privacy is worth more than that. The whole idea is creepy to me.
Probably not, as Progressive started out so much higher than my current insurer. If my current insurance company offered something like this, I might take it to save the money to use for other things. We drive safely, why not prove it? No, I don’t like the invasion of my privacy in so many other aspects of our lives, but my driving, I don’t mind sharing. Now, if it also reported what I said in the car to possibly unruly kids while driving… NO. (j/k)
Our privacy is worth more than any savings. We use Farm Bureau and our insurance is actually pretty decent. Even when we had 4 cars our liability insurance was not over $1000 a year.
I need to comment on this – I work for an insurance company pricing auto insurance. I do not work for GMAC or Progressive. Progressive has the best pricing in the industry – in that they are very very good at figuring out exactly what the fairest price is for you.
However. The data they collect on your driving habits? It’s not just to give you lower prices – there’s nothing to prevent them from sharing that data with other companies. The devices can’t distinguish between a hard stop to prevent an accident and hard stops because you don’t pay attention to the lights coming up. It can’t always distinguish who’s driving, so it might assign the entire policy the teenage-driving habits.
The mileage features, paying for how many miles you drive by taking pictures of your odometer, is a much less invasive way to save money because it doesn’t track you by GPS and monitor your driving habits.
But I’m uncomfortable with these, and that says a lot. Please think hard about it before choosing this option.
We were with progressive and they were charging us 1,600 a year. For our one car family ( less than 5000 miles per year) and we had homeowners with them for around 1000 ( so 2600 a year). We switched to AAA and went to less than 700 per year. We now use another company and bundled it with our homeowners so we pay even less for homeowners and car insurance ( we pay 1000 a year for both). Oh and we have an agent that knows us by name. So to answer your question I would not give up my privacy for 30% savings when I can save much more by using another company!
No, I would not.
First of all and most importantly, do research on who owns Progressive. I will never give them one penny in exchange for cheaper insurance, even without the tracker.
I recommend anyone who has Progressive, drop them immediately.
Second, “up to 30%”, turns out to be zero or miniscule amounts THE MAJORITY OF THE TIME. 30% is just like “S*A*L*E!! pop the balloon to see your percentage of savings, up to 30%”. 30% is the best-case scenario that focuses your brain on the 30% figure; that’s to distract your brain away from the figure you should be concentrating on, which is the 99% figure. 99% of the time you are NOT going to pop a ballon and find 30% off. They probably have ONE balloon just to be legal. If you’re lucky that they’re even that honest. Do the math: if you get lucky and save 1%, 5%, 10%, how long would it take you to payoff the purchase of the tracker? How long after that would it take to start saving money? Do they offer to reimburse you for the tracker if you save zero, and erase all their files on your driving? No, I didn’t think so.
And you’re right about the Big Brother aspects: just say NO to Smart Grid power control devices, Driver Tracking, and accepting RFID chips in clothing, shoes, credit cards, drivers licenses, and vaccines for epidemics that are required by “public health mandates” . RFID used to be the size of 2 grains of rice. Now they are the size of a pencil point made on paper, and easily injectible. NO no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.
I disagree that Progressive is cheaper. I just got a quote from them last week and it was more than I am currently paying.
ROFLOL!!!
I used to have progressive..i was getting charged 100+ a month and now i am with State Farm and now i have 3 policys including renters insurance, car insurance and life insurance and pay less than 70 a mont
I would not let a car insurance company nor anyone else put a device in my car to monitor usage. Once it’s in there, what’s next? Not good! We have been with Allstate from the beginning and have had no problems and so I’m sticking with them!
Not a chance of going with someone who tracks my driving habits. Do I trust companies not to share my information? Not many of them. Plus, we need to consider all those lovely people out there who like to hack into other peoples stuff…..
Anyone who qualifies for USAA insurance that isn’t a current customer makes me go o_O – they have the best customer service and rates hands down. Why aren’t you using them Happy?
I do have USAA insurance, I never said that I didn’t. I was just sharing this option with my readers since not everyone is eligible for USAA.
I used to have USAA…had them for close to 20 years. I switched both my auto and home poilicies…actually found one that was cheaper for the first time…in 20 years.
Will probably shop rates again in a few months…if they’re cheaper again…I’d switch back in a heartbeat.
I would not feel comfortable knowing that everything about my driving is being recorded and someone else can see where I’m going and what I’m upto. It’s the big brother style and to me if someone can see that every Friday, I’m going shopping and it takes me an hour to come back, then a burglar with access to that data can plan a sure visit to my house. So no thanks!