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AUTO INSURANCE HAS been getting more and more expensive in recent years. There are many reasons: New cars cost more, extreme weather, folks seem to be suing more often, and so on.
Our daughter Brenda called me, asking if I could look over her auto policy to see if there was a way to lower her premiums. We have our car insurance with the same company. On the company’s website, I came across something called “Safe Pilot.” Many insurers have similar programs.
What’s involved? You download software to your cellphone that allows the insurance company to monitor your driving. If you’re a safe driver by the insurer’s standards, the company will trim your premium. My company first monitors your driving for about six months and then gives a discount going forward if it feels you earned it.
I told my daughter about the program. My wife Cindy and I decided we’d also try it. The premiums on our two vehicles have been climbing sharply.
Our insurer looks at two key areas: harsh braking and whether you use your cell phone while driving. Harsh braking indicates you were going too fast or perhaps tailgating other drivers. Yes, they can figure that out from your cell phone, even if it’s just lying next to you. The program on our cell phones immediately tells us what we did wrong on each trip and dings our score.
I think we’re very safe drivers. We don’t travel much out of the local area because I’m retired and Cindy only commutes two miles to work each day. We make a few trips each year to visit our kids, who mostly live about 150 miles away. In addition, I’ve only had two insurance claims filed in my 50 years of driving, with one for a cracked windshield. Cindy has had none in her 40-plus years of driving.
A lot of folks don’t like the idea of “Big Brother” tracking them. But Cindy and I don’t mind. I understand why insurance companies want to identify safe drivers, and then keep them by lowering their insurance premiums.
If you spend any time driving, you’ll see some ungodly drivers, especially on the interstate. I’ve seen cars career all over the road, while speeding and barely missing other vehicles. These are the drivers that cause most of the wrecks. I really don’t want to pay for their bad behavior with higher insurance premiums.
After we signed up, I told my other kids about the program. I was stunned to discover our youngest daughter Belle had been on the program for a year. Her current discount is 29%. Ours is projected to be 27%.
I’m sold.
A side benefit of the program: It makes us better drivers. We’re very much aware that someone is watching every move we make when we get behind the wheel, and that’s good for everyone on the road.
The idea of having a wreck and hurting ourselves is bad enough. But the idea of hurting or causing the death of someone else, when it could have been prevented by safe driving, is something you’d have to live with forever.
I’m glad to be a part of the program. Maybe you will, too.
I don’t imagine that hippie Steve Jobs ever thought he invented the tracking device that dictators dreamed of. China doesn’t require you have one but life is (even more) difficult without it.
I participate in USAA’s tracking program. I figure “the man” tracks me with my phone anyway, so might as well get the discount. I found the best discount was comparing insurance offers annually. Loyalty to a company is only rewarded one way and it is not you. I like to keep thinks simple (dealing with one company only) but by going with multiple companies I saved substantially (even with giving up the multi-insurance discount). Insurance companies makes no sense, why one company would charge $1k more for auto insurance vs. another company, but $1k less for home is bewildering.
Wonder if there are loopholes in the system? Like only installing the app on a burner phone you only take with you on casual Sunday drives and long highway cruises?
lol, this is my burner phone…I only use for “long drives”
My wife and I participated in our insurance co. (Safeco)’s version of this, called “RightTrack”, in 2023. They only monitored our driving for 90 days and then we could remove the app from our cell phones. It saved us $335 on our auto premium and Safeco says the discount will carry forward to future years without having to re-do the program. Maybe so, but that didn’t stop our auto premium from increasing 29% at the most recent renewal!
Still and all, it was easy to complete the program and the discount was welcome. For a retired couple like us who don’t drive a lot and are pretty careful, it was worth doing.
Another possible insurance discount worth mentioning: Asking your insurance co. to check (or re-check) your credit score. We saved even more doing that. I wrote about it here: Credit Where It’s Due – HumbleDollar
I’ve never understood why insurance companies can’t infer that you’re a good driver from the fact that you’ve only had two claims in 50 years.
In order for these devices to work, you have to turn on “share your location” within your cell phone settings. It is important to be careful that you have not turned this function on for all apps all the time, or every app on your phone is tracking your location all the time.
My wife found this about a year ago and now we both have it. The software’s not perfect, as evidenced by I have to be extra careful to not get a “harsh braking” in my old truck compared to our much newer suv. I don’t know, but I suspect it’s the stiffer suspension on my truck that’s responsible. That said, I think we’ve never gotten less than a 27% reduction to our premium. My wife and I have also noticed (as you observed above) that we think it’s made us better drivers. Of course, I can understand that some folks won’t feel comfortable signing up for this for a variety of reasons. To each their own.
I signed up for such a program with Allstate to save money. After 6 months, they raised my premium as their reporting indicated harsh stops. I moved my insurance to another company without this requirement. My wife and I have not had an accident in 40 years. Now if we can just get rid of deer and required PIP coverage here in Michigan, my premiums will really drop.
There. Is. No. Way.
I value my privacy. I will not voluntarily give an insurance company that kind of access, whether or not it saves me money. It’s bad enough that when I finally buy a new car the manufacturer will be trying to monitor me, without adding an insurance company.