[AUTO] Trading Privacy for an Insurance Discount? - Comments Page 2

"Safe drivers save 40%!, safe drivers save 40%! That's the guy, that's totally him!"

No way!

Gene; Why would a veteran ever buy insurance OTHER than USAA? They're a GREAT company.

Nautilusbaja: Agreed. I had an accident about 3 years ago; a woman ran the stop sign right in front of me, and I hit her. Her insurance company didn't want to pay - until I sent them a Youtube link to my dashboard camera recording. They paid up promptly after that.

No, No and No. The hook right now is you save, but once most people have them or they can convince politicians to make them mandatory, I guarantee they will only be used to raise premiums. Have you ever heard of an insurance company loosing money?

A few years ago I was always annoyed that I was paying more for my insurance than a friend.

I had full no claims bonus and drove carefully. He had numerous claims and drove like a lunatic. My car was a compact 1000cc and his a 2000cc. I drove less than 5000 miles a year and he traveled back and fall from Germany to Wales every two weeks.

I was self employed and disabled. He was an NCO in a Guards Regiment.

If I was still driving I would install one of these gadgets like a flash.

I can't really see any profit in anyone but my insurers knowing the details outlined.

They made it illegal in the UK to load disabled people's car insurance a few years ago. BUT the army discount would still apply as would the self-employed loading.

Thanks for the info. I will look for an older model vehicle in the future. With out the black box or edr in a vehicles now. Everybody is spying on and want your personal info. No thanks to the insurance spy network.

re FIXD device: for the $20 US I paid, it does have some value --as a toy during covid lockdown. It did report error codes but may not recognize specific error codes set by your car's manufacturer. Does not report live data. Be prepared for endless emails encouraging upgrade to the next level recommending service shops etc. I shelved it.

The device is an option that must be requested with Safeco and gets a minimum discount of 5%. Users say that if you brake for a light, you will be dinged for excessive braking. To avoid this you must run the yellow/red. If you accelerate to merge or enter traffic, you will be dinged for excessive acceleration. If you drive after midnight you will be time dinged. Difficult for safe drivers to approach the maximum discount. GPS and other data deleted 60 days after the 90 day monitoring they say.

The auto insurance agent talked up a potentially hefty discount, if we plugged their device into our vehicle, to get a short term sample, of our driving routine. There was no app involved and it sounded benign, so we agreed to using it. Overnight, our local drive of less than 10 miles, became an incredibly stressful ordeal.

Longterm, ongoing road construction (that had previously just been annoying), became a nightmare of challenges. Workers often stepped into traffic or drove their equipment out in front of vehicles with minimal warning. Now, just stepping on our brakes moderately, elicited a warning tone from the under-dash device. Pressing any harder, especially while trying to avoid hitting the rear of bad drivers, (usually slapping on their brakes unexpectedly while texting), caused a highly-disconcerting dual-tone. The same was true, when trying to stop suddenly, when encountering several notoriously short yellow lights - mostly at intersections with photo cameras, of course. Accelerating too quickly from stop signs and red lights, was sure to add "an event" to the log. More stress came in the form of the idiots suddenly deciding to turn in front of us, along with the ever-present pedestrians just waiting to step in front of any driver they think they can get a quick settlement from.

You can bet that checking the insurance site record and seeing it littered with numerous line-item "events", was very upsetting. We phoned the insurance company on several occasions, to contest unavoidable hard-braking situations and complained about the system being stacked against anyone navigating the perils of construction-zone mayhem. We asked why we incurred these negatives, when in fact, we had AVOIDED potential accidents? Of course each call, ended up with a different warm, calm voice, assuring us that those "common issues", were ALL factored into consideration, before determining our final rate. Saying that we were NOT HAPPY, would be a major understatement...

As the weeks dragged on, we found ourselves adapting and just as Will did, we too began speeding up to go through yellow lights. We also, became very quick to lean on the horn, at the slightest possibility of someone creating a situation, where we would have to touch the right or left pedal with anything more than prozac-induced lethargy. We re-routed ourselves through side streets and looked to avoid other vehicles, pedestrians, stop signs and intersections with fast-changing traffic lights. Our errands quickly started to take twice as long, so we decided to only drive every other day, to compensate for the additional stress.

The day came none too soon... NOT several weeks down the road, but SIX MONTHS LATER, when we received a box to return the device to the company. The following month, we received a massively underwhelming discount on our policy. In retrospect, had it been four times greater, we would NEVER AGAIN, allow ourselves to be put through that. The thing was VERY distracting, causing us to develop negative attitudes and habits. Our advice? Unless you want to be miserable the whole time, be strong. JUST SAY NO!

We use Metromile. You get better than a discount - they charge you BY THE MILE so you really only pay for what you drive. Saves us 50% and there is a daily charge cap of 250 miles if you are on a road trip. And when we are out of town or in lockdown we pay only the minimum to cover Comprehensive. Also - you can find the location of your car on your app as well - great if it gets stolen. Privacy? Really?? When I am running drugs or visiting the mistress I unplug the ODB gadget :-)