Big Brother in Your Car To Determine your premium via device

[InkAddict]

that plugs into diagnostics on steering column...I heard a radio commercial about this today...

http://www.progressive.com/snapshot/

Not to worry (MUCH), hehehe, you can opt out if your rate goes up...

[jancantor]

1. It's not big brother

When private industry does it, it's LITTLE Brother.

Fwiw, I am for this stuff. As long as there is choice involved, this gives the insurance company much more robust data on which to base their rate structure on. It also helps the driver by giving them method to display their cautious driving

As a caveat though, it would likely be discoverable by the police given a serious collision if they wanted to get the data to help determine the driver's behavior leading to the collision.

[Crazy Dave]

4. It is "Big Brother"

The insurance companies own our government and tell them what to do and what not to do or we would have single-payer health care in this country.

[jancantor]

5. No, it's not

And it's an important distinction. Little Brother has FAR FAR FAR FAR FAR more information on the average person than Big Brother could ever hope for. They also have far more surveillance cameras and access to personal information.

The difference is that Little Brother is more likely to get information that people volunteer (by getting a shopper's discount card or a credit card, etc.) whereas Big Brother generally has more power to demand and get it.

Little Brother also has far more discretion generally speaking in sharing this data with others. Big Brother often sets up Chinese Walls, etc. that Little Brother doesn't have to do. Many in govt. now take advantage of this by using private databases (Intelius, etc.) to supplement their data when they want to find stuff out about people. I have a friend in BATFE, for example, and he loves these private services. TV stuff aside, the govt. is often far behind private industry in how they use personal data, and how they collect it.

As a local example, Seattle Police Dept. due to city legislation is often reliant on private sources since the city council passed a law that limits their intelligence collection ability. Govt. in general is much more limited in NON-criminal intelligence gathering and sharing vs. private industry.

[Crazy Dave]

6. Excellent point(s)

When you think about it, I'll bet a marketing firm could track down Osama bin Laden better than our government can.

[Crazy Dave]

2. You think they would just go by your driving record...

...and how many claims you've had or not.

Instead your credit score (especially w/Progressive) and now "snap shot" determines what rates you'll pay.

[Rick Myers]

3. Holy crap!!!

This is really bad news. How soon before every company uses it with every policyholder?

[Speck Tater]

7. I drive only very occasionally and I pay $4.33 per MILE for auto insurance.

The lowest monthly rate I could find still works out to over $4.00 per mile because I drive so few miles in a month.

Needless to say I would welcome ANY device in my car that got me a lower insurance rate. I'm sick of paying 4 bucks a mile.

[HuckleB]

8. How many miles a month do you drive? -nt-

[Speck Tater]

11. I am 65 with 49 years of 100% accident free driving and one ticket in 1964.

I usually drive less than 20 miles a months. Last month I drove 12 miles.

I live half a mile from the market, so I walk a lot. If time is not an issue, which it usually isn't, I take the bus into town if I need to. The two biggest malls in town are 15 minutes and 25 minutes away by bicycle when the weather is nice. Plus once a month a group of us carpool into town for monthly grocery shopping. My car is too small for the group so I pay for gas in lieu of my turn driving.

The 12 miles last month was a round-trip to the dentist. I would have bicycled in but it was raining pretty hard that day.

I put $10 worth the gas tank in August and I probably have enough gas left to get me through January.

[HuckleB]

17. Sounds like it might be cheaper to take a cab?

[kelly1mm]

9. Wow! I just did the math on my policies (5 cars, 2 drivers, @ 25k miles

per year total, $1244 premiums per year total = just under 5 CENTS per mile. Are you 16, living in the hood, with no off street parking, and driving a Porsche Cabrio Turbo 100 miles per month?

[Speck Tater]

12. I drive a 93 Mazda 323 around 10 to 20 miles per month.

I'm 65, 100% accident free and my one and only ticket was in 1964.

My premium is around $690/year. Last year (checking the odometer reading on my registration renewal) I drove less than 200 miles which would work out to $3.45 per mile, so my $4.33 (which was just based on August and September) was a little high.

[kelly1mm]

13. thanks for the info. I suppose you are also paying about $1 per mile

for registration as well. When you drive so few miles the flat rate fees seem way out of proportion to the benefit. Sorry you are in this situation. I guess the only consolation I could give you is that you are not paying much for gas and gas taxes at those are a function of fuel economy and miles driven.

[Speck Tater]

16. Registration fees here in Orygun are very low.

As I recall it cost me $30 for two years last time around. Or maybe it was $30 a year and $60 for two years. I honestly don't recall and I'm too lazy to go look up the receipt. :)

[Book Lover]

10. Why do you assume your rates will go down with this tracking device in your car? (nm)

[SoCalDem]

14. Yep... It's a scheme to charge more to "some" people and possibly to cancel them

although canceling the ones who cost them money, "could" drop rates for others...but what business willingly charges less for anything, once they have been getting more?

[Evasporque]

15. I have them in our cars....

They track time and distance along with hard breaking....when the car slows down faster than 7 MPH per second that is called a hard brake. That is a stat from OBDII.

My partner who breaks hard and tailgates...drives on streets with stops signs and runs up fast to them and stops hard...did not get a discount. 35-40 hard breaks per week.

I average one or two hard breaks a week. I got $300 knocked off my insurance for a 6 month period. With the discount that represents a nearly $1000 saving over my former insurance company. Milwaukee is a high risk area...and car insurance is expensive here. I was paying $1400/six months for a 05 Jetta and a 07 Saturn ION Redline. After switching companies and using the snapshot and auto pay...I am now at $822 for the two cars per six months...

The device does NOT track speed or location.

On*Star on the other hand...does track everything and you car can be disabled and unlocked that is creepy.