An Intriguing Insurance Option

[Diggin It]

I'll be letting Flo handle me in the car for the next six to twelve months. I'm trying Auto-Owners for the home for a while, but since I'm always exploring options, I just found this:

Car insurance for good drivers | Root® Insurance

Root® does car insurance differently. We believe good drivers should pay less for auto insurance so we base rates primarily on how you drive. Get a free quote.

www.joinroot.com

I've never heard of them, but I have heard of other companies that set their rates or offer discounts based on your driving habits.

They offer a thing to install on your phone and use the GPS and other sensors to monitor how, when and where you drive, how you accelerate, turn and brake.

 

[grsthegreat]

Why the heck would you ever let your insurance company place monitors in your car. I dont care what discount they give.not going to happen

 

[Jstpssng]

Why the heck would you ever let your insurance company place monitors in your car. I dont care what discount they give.not going to happen

Ditto here. I drive around 50K miles per year and haven't made a claim in almost 40 years. That should tell them more than any GPS monitor. All that last does is give them an excuse to raise your rates.

 

[Wakey]

One more industry selling data. My mom had one, I yanked it.

 

[Hay Dude]

More privacy intrusion. It’s almost like people want this crap. Even if you save a few bucks, you could be giving up privacy you never even know about.

 

[Diggin It]

Ditto here. I drive around 50K miles per year and haven't made a claim in almost 40 years. That should tell them more than any GPS monitor. All that last does is give them an excuse to raise your rates.

By my records, I've driven about 35,000 miles in 10 years. Not each year, in total --- about 3,500/yr.

Yet insurance companies don't generally look at that. They look at vehicle, age, credit rating, location, health, violations, claims, others in the household, etc. Those things are more intrusive than how safely you drive and how often. GPS gives them reason to lower your rates. For SafeCo, I had a device that plugged into the OBDII port for 90 days. That cut my rate by 19%.

 

[dlctcg]

By my records, I've driven about 35,000 miles in 10 years. Not each year, in total --- about 3,500/yr.

Yet insurance companies don't generally look at that. They look at vehicle, age, credit rating, location, health, violations, claims, others in the household, etc. Those things are more intrusive than how safely you drive and how often. GPS gives them reason to lower your rates. For SafeCo, I had a device that plugged into the OBDII port for 90 days. That cut my rate by 19%.

I can understand your thinking.... but I drive 45 - 55K a year between personal & business & I have not had a accident or a claim in well over 20 yrs. I don't live in the middle of nowhere (deal with idiots on the road everyday), I drive multiple vehicles & drive in multiple states. So who is a safer driver? I'm not saying it is me... You are definitely a much lower risk as far as on the road time to the insurance company... but it does not in my opinion make you a more alert or better driver (I drive 12 times the miles you drive in 1 yr with no incident). I own a business & I have a huge issue with auto policies, in the past 18yrs of my current business we have never had a single incident or claims (6 vehicles on the road 5 days a week), yet due to our location & insurance requirements I pay way more in auto insurance a year than most pay in property tax on their homes. We are also a "no fault" state, which is basically a joke... (I won't get political)...

Personally, there is no way I will let the insurance companies install something in our vehicles, or a tracking app on our phones to monitor us to determine if we are a risk.... our track record proves it... Oh wait.. they don't care. They are only looking for reasons to deny a claim, when & if it comes.... that is the reason for their tracking device. They are not out to save you money, only to save themselves money. I'm not just saying this... I deal with them everyday as a contractor for home owners placing legitimate claims that are either under valued by the insurance company or just plain denied....

For your personal situation this might be a win because of you location & limited mileage... & you should take advantage of it.... but just remember there is no insurance company looking out for "you"....

 

[tallyho8]

Allstate does this also. I tried it while I had Allstate and saved about $250 a year on insurance. If it records you speeding you are able to set it back to erase that ride. I don't have anything to hide anyway and since I could just erase any ride I didn't want them to see, it seemed like a good money saver to me.

 

[mrmikey]

Why the heck would you ever let your insurance company place monitors in your car. I dont care what discount they give.not going to happen

Agree, not gonna happen, big brother is watching...not

They are only looking for reasons to deny a claim, when & if it comes.... that is the reason for their tracking device. They are not out to save you money, only to save themselves money.

Yup to this too, they don't want to save you money, just a reason to charge you more. I rate insurance companies with lawyers, car salesmen, politicians and the like, actually now that I think of it, maybe a bit a bit lower.....................Mike

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^
I disagree with just part of this statement; the insurance companies are looking for any excuse to raise your rates.


This technology is already available anyways. Any cell phone made in the last 10 or more years has a built in GPS, and I wouldn't dare guess what data the "black box" collects, which is in every vehicle made today. My employer is talking about putting dash cams in all of the vehicles; they already have done so on the big trucks. That's their choice when they are paying me, but I'll pass when on my own dime.