So I recently asked my agent to requote me as I felt I was getting robbed by Travelers. turns out I was, I can save 90 bucks a month by switching insurance companies. I can save an extra 20 a month if I use one of those plug in devices with Safeco.
so. Anyone done this? what do they look for? is there GPS in it for speeding?
You can save $20 by agreeing but your increases will be based on that info.
Do you drive a lot of miles per year? They will know how many.
Do you typically drive over the speed limit? They will know.
etc.
Avoid, avoid, avoid. They'll use the info from that box to find something to increase your rates over.
You know that quote about the words of an innocent man and having him hanged? Don't give the Cardinal access to your diary.
Insurance companies already know how many miles you are driving. That data is available to them from other sources these days.
The OBD-II device does not know what the speed limit is. It might be able to determine that you are going 55 mph, but the speed limit could be 70 or 35.
They do measure "jackrabbit starts", abrupt braking and stuff like that. My sister had one in her car. I was driving and I had to stop short to avoid a red light runner. The device beeped, and Sis said "Flo is mad at you".
Edit - they did drop her rates after reviewing the data. So if you drive like a little old lady and don't mind Big Brother looking over your shoulder, it could pay off. Otherwise I would avoid.
we'd be putting it on the wifes' Edge. which does not really go over the speed limit. (maybe 5 over). If she works the hours she's been working, she'll not be driving during morning traffic either... and miles are on average ~19k a year. but we commute together as we work together. (the mustang is a "pleasure only" vehicle.)
No way in hell will I voluntarily allow an insurance Co to put the equivalent of a nanny cam in my car. The number of claims filed against me speaks to my driving style that's all they need to know. I realize that sometime in the not too far off future it will not be possible to get insurance without it, but I did say voluntary! My next question is what will they do to me if I choose to drive a non-OBDII equipped vehicle.
bludroptop is on the right track. The data logging device has no clue what the speed limit is. So if you're going 50 in a 25mph zone, it has no clue you're doubling the speed limit. Now if you routinely drive 100mph, you may want to avoid using this thing.
To my knowledge, they record no GPS data. So they do not know where you are driving too/from. Yes, it will know how many miles you drive. The more miles you drive, the statistically higher the risk. As bludroptop said, they can get that data anyway, OBDII device or not.
From what I've been taught, they measure things like heavy acceleration and heavy braking. Things that statiscially have higher rates of loss, or lower rates of loss. You're not going to get your rates tripled the first time you floor it or slam the brakes...it happens to everyone. Rather, it looks for patterns and trends.
If you drive sane, you can save money. If you drive like a shiny happy person, stay away from it.
P.S. I have not worked for an employer that offers one, but I have heard through industry seminars that the rate of loss with those using it is noticably lower. One theory is that the lower rate is attributable to the fact that the driver knows their driving habits are being monitored, causing them to pay more attention to how they drive.
We tried one from Progressive and were very underwhelmed. It was a couple of years ago, so maybe technology has improved. We put one in the Suburban because it is a low usage vehicle now and thought this would help adjust the rate based on limited use. Nope. It only looked at driving sessions, not that there might have been 8 days between events or that it too four times as long to generate enough data for it. In all cars the system was very sensitive and beeped a lot. Speed bumps would trip it, an unclean clutch release would trip it. In the Suburban, for example, it was not uncommon to get 10-20 "beeps" during a day of running errands and doing nothing silly. Any braking over about 0.2g would trigger it. It turns out that its review said we were not eligible for any discounts. So my advice is to go in with low expectations.
You can always bank on your rates will be increased, Insurance companies love to charge light on the front end to lure you to their company, then the next year they increase the rates.
bludroptop wrote: Insurance companies already know how many miles you are driving. That data is available to them from other sources these days. The OBD-II device does not know what the speed limit is. It might be able to determine that you are going 55 mph, but the speed limit could be 70 or 35. They do measure "jackrabbit starts", abrupt braking and stuff like that. My sister had one in her car. I was driving and I had to stop short to avoid a red light runner. The device beeped, and Sis said "Flo is mad at you". Edit - they did drop her rates after reviewing the data. So if you drive like a little old lady and don't mind Big Brother looking over your shoulder, it could pay off. Otherwise I would avoid.
what other sources are providing this info ? (serious question … I'd like to know)
they'd also be able to tell that I'm driving 80 - 85 …and there aren't any speed limits anywhere around here that are that high 
I wouldn't assume those devices don't have GPS receivers, there's no reason they couldn't, and there would be a lot for the insurance company to gain if they did.
http://www.rewindprogram.com/faq.aspx
just looked it up. IT DOES have a GPS. mileage, speed, times, location, etc.
it also uploads the data which means it has basically a cell phone inside...
kind of scary what it records.
and it can be for up to four months...
I switched to Safeco about a year and a quarter ago and it's been fine. They also asked me to put one of those things on my two "primary" cars. I want to say the savings was something like a couple hundred a year and I told them no thanks. They collect a ton of information and there isn't really any regulation around how they store it, what they can do with it, and for how long. Part of my day job is in selling storage to folks who do a lot of big data analytics and things of that nature, and while I know I can't completely avoid being tracked, counted, and turned into revenue, I do what I can to avoid voluntarily signing up. To my knowledge, there is absolutely no requirement that law enforcement, for example, needs to present them with a subpoena to get your data and the company has no requirement that the data has to be "shredded" after a certain period of time. So there's always the possibility that you might be caught up in something that you had nothing to do with. Or if you were involved in litigation over an accident that you were truly not at fault in, they might comb through that data and be able to paint you as a dangerous driver because you liked to take a certain curvy road faster than "average" people.
I don't know... maybe my tin foil hat is just adjusted too tight, but all that data gathering and correlating just seems a little too easy to abuse.
Don't even get me started on ALPR and re-po companies...
My Daughter has it. It's reduced her rates by over $100 per month. Her car mostly sits in the University parking lot though and she is a very careful driver. I've thought about getting one for our farm truck for the same reasons but our insurance on that is already low as well as being tax deductible so I'm not sure we'd see much of a savings.
wbjones wrote: what other sources are providing this info ? (serious question … I'd like to know)
Same way Car Fax does - repair shops, state safety and/or emissions inspection all record mileage.
The OBD-II port on most cars is under the dash, which seems an unlikely place for a GPS antenna to get a usable signal. Not saying it isn't true.
Just throwing this out there...
You do realize that if you drive a newer car, much of this data is recorded/monitored by your car, right? They don't freely provide it to insurance companies, telemarketers, or evangelists, but it's there.
I'm pretty sure my Nissan Leaf transmitted back to Nissan, as it was used to "rank" my efficiency in their Leaf owners' website.
At least your discount offer was better than mine. Got a post card from State Farm two weeks ago about it. It says save "up" to 5% off on your insurance plan to have one installed. I told myself berkeley that and promptly threw it in the trash. To have such device in my car, I expected the savings to be far greater to be seriously be considered.
I have a friend who takes part in stage rally who used it and was saving $60 or so a month, then he put it on the stage car for an event to see what would happen and it went back up to the original rate, but did not exceed it.
bludroptop wrote: The OBD-II port on most cars is under the dash, which seems an unlikely place for a GPS antenna to get a usable signal. Not saying it isn't true.
I intentionally installed my data logger's GPS receiver under the dash, because it's tidy and the plastic dash does absolutely nothing to block the signal.
captdownshift wrote: I have a friend who takes part in stage rally who used it and was saving $60 or so a month, then he put it on the stage car for an event to see what would happen and it went back up to the original rate, but did not exceed it.
Hahaha, brave guy, and an interesting experiment.
FYI the discount is because with the Safeco program it would "rewind" me to prior to my speeding ticket I.E. negate it.
They are also looking heavily at WHEN you drive. If you are driving between midnight and 3 am both saturday and sunday morning, they are assuming you are pretty high risk. Etc.
Personally I'm fine with the progressive one since they measure for 6 months and then take it back forever (until you get another car). My wife and I don't commute much at all, so we actually get discounts from our 'snapshots'.
Also, when calibrated correctly, I think it makes me a better driver. When I hear it beep (maybe once a week for me), it reminds me to think about what just happened and if I could've done something (looked further ahead, followed less closely, etc) to prevent the hard brake or turn or whatever.
I notice that I have many more beeps at the beginning of the 6 months than near the end. and I have done this twice, once about 3 years ago and finishing up one now (moved out of state thus had to re-do it). I really do think it improves my driving, and rate regardless, this is for the better.
Put me in with bentwrench on this one - it will be a cold day in hell before I agree to put one in one of my vehicles.
Throw me in with the tin-foil-hat crowd. I don't want to sign up intentionally to be watched, I think the lack of accidents I've had over the past decade should be proof enough that I'm a safe driver. I don't see how the could possibly gather enough useful data to lower my rates, so I naturally assume they'd try and use that information to raise them in one way or another.
No thanks.
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