Just finished the trial for Progressive’s Snapshot discount program

[johnnyhudson]

@mahhko Our discounts have actually continued and we've been really happy with our rate and coverage but I agree that the device is very very flawed.

 

[michaljongkind]

@tjcomedy Agent and customer here.

Im Saving 12%, wife saving 14% did it maybe 6 years ago, been saving since then.

I recommend it to senior drivers and tell them the basic scoop. Most important tell them to not lose sleep over the occasional beep. People get obsessed with that device, it didnt really bother me, but then again I drive like a turtle.

My dad cheated, (sort of) hes a snowbird, ordered it and installed in car A and took car B up north, then ordered it for car B and took A up north... scored perfect!

(Taps finger on side of head)

 

[rodneys]

@tjcomedy I personally don’t like recommending it but I still will as my agent really likes to push it. They can “punish” you for not getting a good rate, but because the “reward” for a good grade is percentage wise it may not quite be worth it for you, it is worth it for others. If 10% is $27 for you, that’s low, 10% of $2300 is a different beast.

I will say that Progressive either recently revised, or will revise, their Snapshot program ALWAYS gives 10% off the rip. Before (I believe) it could give you UP TO 10%, which wasn’t helping agents sell it as there wasn’t much savings.

To anyone else reading this who owns a business, I haven’t gotten a ton of experience with it because it’s relatively new but Snapshot ProView for the commercial auto product seems pretty badass. Only rated on last 3 months of the term, allows vehicle tracking and geofencing and seems to be a great tool to analyze your companies driving.

 

[sylvers]

@rodneys I'm pretty sure they didn't have a 10% cap because when I took advantage of the program nearly a decade ago, I scored really well and have been rocking a 25% discount ever since. I actuality was just checking it out last week because I was curious. It's saved me $500 in the past year alone.

 

[rodneys]

@sylvers Yea I just mean like they give up to 10% off the initial policy it’s added to, the savings is higher afterwards with good score. I have some people complain, others get great scores and are happy they did it for sure. I simply say: it’s not for everyone.

 

[daftendirekt]

@tjcomedy IMO all these programs do is collect data, analyse it, offer you perhaps a pittance for your time and data, while their executives sit in conference rooms devising ways to use it against their customers as a way to increase premiums. God forbid you ever get into an accident, they could include looking at your "B" driving score that they now have on record and use that to help re-assess their "risk" insuring you - you can be sure it won't be in your favor.

Also IMO insurers are also looking to obtain a database of the more granular data on human drivers. If they gave you a "B" score for 0.05 "hard breaks" per week, to justify giving you such a small discount, then they've essentially gotten your data, data that could possibly be used against you someday, for pennies. The money they spent on the monitoring devices is a "business research" investment that will be a tax write-off.

In addition, in the future self-driving cars will become a thing, and it may happen that the insurers will want to charge human drivers higher premiums than those who use self-driving cars. If they already have databases full of the granular data on human driving behaviors, it'll be all ready to present to regulators to support their claim for the premium hikes/pricing structure. Insurers look to make money both coming and going. Any small discounts they may offer now, will be gone as soon as they decide to change "their rules".

The fact they gave you a "B" score tells me they are not trying to help You, but rather to help themselves. If they can acquire the data they seek voluntarily, via these "discount programs" (that they have written all their own internal judgment rules for), then they won't have to look like they are descriminating against humans. They also would probably like to see us all "conditioned" to using these invasive, unregulated devices down the road - along with all their own rules, of course.

 

[partyof9]

@daftendirekt this is also my opinion

 

[bazzapr]

@daftendirekt 100% correct imo

 

[johnpublicover]

@tjcomedy I did not own a vehicle for over a year and therefore had no insurance for a year, so when I bought my Pilot in June, my rates were insane. I signed up for the least expensive I could find, but at the same time did the Root driving tracker to see what would happen - as they say the base your rate off of your driving vs your record. After my whatever # of weeks, Root gave me a quote and it was far less expensive than what I was paying.

That being said, after 6 months of having Root/insurance coverage, I found a far less expensive company, so it worked for the time being.

 

[blindfaith101]

@tjcomedy I still haven't figured out Snapshot but a couple of the other carriers I have it can be well worth it. I know a husband and wife that cut their bill by 38% because they work from home, and that included visiting their family 1000 miles away during holiday.

 

[cindie]

@tjcomedy What did the $27 translate into percentage wise? Does Progressive guarantee a minimum savings of you sign up for the program?

 

[tjcomedy]

@cindie 11%. There’s no guarantee that you’ll get a discount- actually, your rate goes up if you get a C (I think) or worse. You have a short period to decide whether to keep it or not (during which my grade was an A to A+!), but after that period your rate automatically increases if you remove the device early.

 

[mana01]

@tjcomedy if $27 is 11% of your rate, you're already at a rock bottom price. I The impact with a similar % reduction of for most people would be greater.

 

[godlicas]

@mana01 This was my thought too. I have clients that pay $1000+ for 6 months, so saving $110+ for 6 months makes sense.

 

[tjcomedy]

@mana01 Fair! My car is 12 years old and paid off, so rock bottom is what I’m going for. In part because my premium is already pretty cheap, the payoff wasn’t worth the stress. And now that I’m seeing others’ comments, it seems like my rates might go up for no apparent reason even with the “safe driver” stamp of approval.

 

[petersovie]

@tjcomedy I had the same experience, I got an A- I think (or a B+? one of those) and my rates still went up. I guess it was just around a rate increase anyway and I got unlucky, but it definitely pissed me off. And I agree it is straight up dangerous. I just switched to Allstate for their pay by the mile plan (barely drive now since COVID) and opted out, but it looks like the app will tell me all that stuff anyway. I just hope it doesn't beep

 

[neoplastic]

@tjcomedy I had a similar experience. It stressed me out to here the little beeps when I braked slightly too hard.

I think I may have gotten an A grade? But again the benefit was marginal and it annoyed me that in the next round my insurance rates went up, despite no incidents, driving less and Progressive 'certifying' I'm a safe driver.

 

[nhettrick5]

@tjcomedy The ultimate goal (i give it 5 years tops) is to start negatively affecting your premiums when it detects sub-optimal driving behaviors.

 

[gator6343]

@tjcomedy I just signed up with Progressive and snapshot participation was noted on the policy declarations. At this point I don't see where my premium was reduced by a sign up discount for snapshot. Snapshot gibberish policies do not fully explain what is collected, or it is subjective by the wording.

Just using freeways defeats the acceleration clause as you need to accelerate on the entrance ramp in order to merge with the traffic at their speeds, also your score is affected by other drivers actions, and as we all know, 50% of drivers out there shouldn't be driving. Stop and go traffic will also affect your score.

I don't believe I am going to sign up, there is just too much discrepancy within the program

HOWEVER I add: It is appalling how many people use "breaks" instead of the correct word "brakes"

AND: There is no such thing as an "accident". Every occurrence in life has a cause for it happening, or there is a fault for it happening. The word "accident" is a made up word to excuse the fault or cause of the event. Just because you didn't want it to happen, does not make it an "accident" If a tree falls on your house during a storm, it was caused by the storm or the tree was rotted or dead, if someone has a medical condition and crashes, the crash was caused by the medical condition, someone runs a red light and t bones another car, fault lies with the red light runner...follow me with the cause or fault?

 

[jesus4gaveme03]

@tjcomedy I'm 74 years old. I drove about 1000 miles in six months. I had two incidents of "hard breaking "
That was due to traffic ahead of me suddenly stopping.. Nothing else. I didn't accelerate suddenly, speed or even drive when it was dark.
I didn't do anything that could have possibly be recorded as unsafe driving. Progressive reduced my rate by two dollars and increased my premium by a significant amount each six months since then. It all depends on where you live. Florida allows uninsured motorists to drive and the lawyers make a fortune. It is what it is. Just another scam. (At least in Florida).