Will you pay to be spied upon? Not me!

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SlimeTime

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Insurers ask car owners to estimate how many miles they'll drive on an annual basis, but tracking technology can now accurately capture that info in real time. Progressive has a program called MyRate that's available in Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota and Oregon and will be introduced in New Jersey today, in which policyholders receive a data recorder that plugs into a car's OBD port and automatically transmits driving info to the company. The device records not only the number of miles driven, but also the time of day, speed, acceleration, deceleration and braking. By letting Progressive ride along, policy holders can save up to 40% on premiums (minus a $30 service fee that's charged each policy period) based on their driving habits.

https://blogs.edmunds.com/strategies/2008/08/technology-accelerates-pay-a s-you-drive-insurance.html
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Looks to me like a bogus way to track someone's movements & travels. Wonder why you can't just have your odometer verified every 6 months or so, when the premium is due? Electronic snooping I'd say. Those who don't agree, will be gouged with higher premiums for non-compliance. Just happen to see this on the news this morning, they said it passed the House unanimously.

ST
 
The funny part is, Progressive (mentioned in the article) isn't exactly known for being "Johnny-on-the-Spot" when it comes time to pay claims.

https://www.badfaithinsurance.org/

ST
 
I took a gps on a road trip one time, was a gift and wanted to check it out. Left it in the window to get good signal. Didnt think about it till we got to destination, my Dad walked by and noticed it, looked at it a couple times then commented about the saved max speed of 93mph. Good thing I didnt get stopped, probally wouldnnt have moved it and left it for the cop to see.
 
You could have just told him you were using it to clock your fast-pitch :wink:

ST
 
sccamper said:
I took a gps on a road trip one time, was a gift and wanted to check it out. Left it in the window to get good signal. Didnt think about it till we got to destination, my Dad walked by and noticed it, looked at it a couple times then commented about the saved max speed of 93mph. Good thing I didnt get stopped, probally wouldnnt have moved it and left it for the cop to see.


Tell them you took it out in your boat to see how fast it would go.
 
my company put driver cams in some of our trucks they were always recording and would save a 1 min clip every time we would hit the brakes hard or hit a big bump or pothole even a sharp turn then when you would drive into the supply yard these clips would down load to our safety reps computer. the camera shows a view of the truck cab and a view out the front window.
They never used the info for discipline but they could have. I saw a guy drive through a red light while looking for his cellphone.
another looking at his computer.
they kept these for a few months and it made you think about your driving habits.
rental cars all have tracking devices and are being used to charge drivers for careless driving, crossing state lines if you don't give advanced notice and other info.
might not be a bad thing to put into your kids car to keep them a bit safer

Wayne
 
Placing something similar into your kids car is one thing. You have control & responsibility for your children. Insurers nor the gov is out parent, and don't have the authority nor the right to treat citizens as such.

This whole thing was supposedly the plan of the government, to "help" citizens offset high fuel costs. It doesn't address the problem, it's just a poor excuse for a reason to invade more into peoples private lives. You think the info recorded by insurers won't be passed right along to the government? I don't need them knowing when or where I choose to come & go....and last I knew I was still free-enough to do that without needing to "report" it to anyone.

ST
 
As far as individual use, those trackers are generally for people who have bad driving records, and have a hard time finding insurance they can afford. They get these devices to prove that they are now "responsible" drivers, and think they deserve to be treated as such. If you have a good driving record, they don't really look at it to see what you are doing - most of the data is gathered anonymously and used to determine driving habits... not where you're going, but how far you're traveling. I'm pretty sure the one's I've seen don't monitor speed, unless you buy the units that offer that - generally for parents with teens who think they already know how to drive. An insurance company can't submit the information obtained without written authorization from the person anyway, so if you do decide to get one of these thing, read the fine print - we're good about adding things in there because we know people never read the stuff, and it covers our butt should something happen to where the insurer could be held liable.

A lot of the companies I underwrite want them for their trucks to limit falsifying logs and times... These companies pay millions of dollars for their auto premium, as well as carry rather high deductibles... so this is just one of the strategies they use to lower the losses and in result, lower their premium. The less time they spend on the road, the less chance that they will be involved in an accident.

And for just a bit of advice.... insurance companies

USAA - the BEST by far.... only you have to be military, and I think retired are eligible as well. It's what I've got, and I've never had a problem with them - auto, home, even banking

Progressive - good prices, bad payouts should you have a claim

State Farm - so so pricing, good coverage - even better if you've been with them for a long time... if you are in a wreck and you have medical payments as a coverage (this pays if YOU get hurt in the accident), the adjusters are some of the worst I've dealt with

Geico - good prices, good service... pay out on claims rather well too - great spokesman too (gecko)

Allstate - you're in good hands my a$$, nuff said

AIG - I work here, but not in personal auto. I started off working there though, and no way in hades would I let the people I see work on my stuff... however, I've got some family members who use them and they are actually really good on paying. They are really geared towards bad drivers, so if you are a good driver with a clean records it may be worth checking them out.

anyways, here's some things you can do to lower your premiums:
when they ask how far you drive - never tell them more than 10,000... even if you drive 40K per year - they don't check odometers
get all discounts available for: auto seatbelts, daytime running lights, security system, airbags (front, side), good student discounts (maintain a B avg - good if you have kids), drivers training courses, defensive driving courses, multi car discounts, being a homeowner, proof of prior insurance (if you change companies, a lot of the time you can get up to a 12% discount just for switching - just send in your old insurance card showing how long you had service, but it must be current) ...

A lot of the time you can talk to the reps on the phone, and they can lower your premium... all it takes is a phone call to tell them you were offered lower rates from another company. If they haven't paid any claims on you, they can drop rates to keep you as a customer - you are a good risk and they can't afford to lose you.
 
Insurance is no more than legalized robbery, and everyone knows it. And the data recorders will record more than you claim, if you read the article :wink: This will be for everyone who drives, and those who don't want it will be forced to pay extra for exercising that right. Also, the government was the one who came-up with the idea, so I'd be leery from the start, just on that accord.

You can have marks against your record by merely calling your agent. Your rates are also based on your credit rating, so because you don't have perfect credit, you're more of a risk? That's discrimination.

Look at the State Insurance Commissioners, they come FROM the insurance industry, and are appointed by the governor to watch-over all the insurers in the state & be sure they're being fair.....right. That's leaving the fox to guard the henhouse, and is the reason so many people get screwed by insurance companies.

The laws require you to buy it, but there's no laws to protect the policyholders, pretty 1-sided, but then again the policyholders aren't the ones greasing the palms of lawmakers.
 
I agree that the credit score is a waste of time... not to mention discriminatory - but they have that crap built into the pricing systems, and there's nothing we can do about it. Most times if you have a score below 550, you can't get certain discounts. Now as far as agents are concerned, I've never heard of you getting negative marks by calling - if that were happening to me, I'd be moving companies because I talk to them occasionally to lower my prices.

Insurance Commissioners as a pain in my A$$ with the underwriting I do - Workers' Compensation, General Liability and Auto Liability. Now I underwrite companies who produce over $700MM in revenue yearly, so I don't deal with personal auto insurance.... but I bet what a lot of people don't know about the cars they have is that they already have "black boxes" installed in their vehicles and they have no idea. Check out this article https://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/wcnc-081408-krg-blackboxes.4876a567.html

I'm not disputing anything you are talking about with insurance... it's a load of malarky, and I work in the industry... The only thing is things are getting worse because a lot of the insurance companies had money in the subprime market, and they lost big... they've got to get the money back from somewhere and it's hurting the people who actually pay - and pay too much at that. Lawyers are one of the big reasons insurance is so high as well - they will sue anybody and anything for a dollar. You wouldn't believe some of the claims that I see when I underwrite policies.. just to give an example - $500,000 paid out to an individual who slipped on a condom in a garage elevator - tell me it can get any better than that.
 
https://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/08/04/3582178.htm

is this the article you're referring to? that's a load of crap... that won't be bought by anybody except for parents of teens and people who don't know any better. Then again, if they don't know what they are doing, maybe they need that kind of thing to make them change their driving habits.

Not sure of what kind of city you guys live in - but I drive 26 miles one way to work each day. I can't stand living in the city, so I drive from the outskirts to downtown Atlanta. It takes me 1.5 hours 1 way on a good day. The last few days with rain here in GA, it's taken me close to 3 hours. Too many idiots think their cars are boats and will fly on top of the flooded streets (all this concrete and no where for the water to go).. .they end up hydroplaning and either spinning out taking a few cars with them, or they flip over and spin on their top. Either way, driving here sucks!
 
russ010 said:
You wouldn't believe some of the claims that I see when I underwrite policies.. just to give an example - $500,000 paid out to an individual who slipped on a condom in a garage elevator - tell me it can get any better than that.

:LOL2:
 
Are you claiming to be unfamiliar with CLUE reports??


The CLUE report and the insurance scoring system are tools insurers use to decide your risk profile, that is, how likely you are to file a claim against your policy. Insurers feed information about paid claims - perhaps even your inquiries about coverage that do not result in a claim - into a national database for use by insurers. Information included in the database, along with your insurance score, makes up your risk profile.

https://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs26-CLUE.htm

I find it odd that when some guy cheats an insurer they call it "fraud", but when an insurer screws someone they doll-it-up and call it "bad faith".....sounds much better doesn't it?

Insurance is so high because it's a racket, and a racket supported by those who make the laws.....and get the kickbacks from it.

I personally spoke to an attorney who told me one of Snake Farms lawyers told hin that they spend over $10K to beat a policy-holder out of a $2500 claim, simply because he "pissed them off". Doesn't sound like a good neighbor to me, sounds like a bully with the money to buy their way & push people around. Now they wannt to add invasion of privacy to their bag-o-tricks. I can guarantee there's no "black box" in my vehicle, and there never will be.

ST
 

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