Big brother watching...State Farm

[Angrybird 12]

Lol

[bb040]

Originally Posted by Scalded Dog

Time for my favorite Allstate story: I had Allstate auto insurance for years... paid the same rate every month.

Never had a claim, always faithful with my payments. No issues... ever.

One month, I did NOT receive the bill in the mail. Nonetheless, I still paid my monthly bill... same price, same time. The next month, still no bill in the mail... big deal, I still paid.

On the third month, I called them. They told me, "Oh, we cancelled you two months ago... for not paying."

Turns out, the month they had not sent me a bill, the rate had risen by $2. TWO DOLLARS. And, since I paid short... paid my "usual" amount, not the new- $2- higher- rate, they cancelled me. Didn't notify me, or make any attempt to contact me. They. Just. Canceled. So I drove around, naked- as- a- jaybird- uninsured, for two months. I cannot imagine how great it would have been to have an accident during that time.

Took some time to recover from that, too, because most (perhaps all) insurers penalize you for having any lapses in your insurance over the previous three years, regardless of reason.

The good hands people got my good finger, and will forever. They'll never see another dollar of mine, and I will spread this gospel at any opportunity.

Did they send the money you sent them back or did they try to keep that too

[SSGUNNER]

I have it and unplugged their device.

[RubyCamaro]

We just switched to Progressive from Liberty yseterday due to rates with Liberty going up so much. We also get a pretty good discount with Liberty through our jobs. We even called our agent with Liberty & let him know we were shopping around & gave him a chance to give us a better rate. He came down a good bit bit Progressive was still several hundred $ less per year (bundled all 4 cars & homeowner's). so it was Bye Bye Liberty. But absolutely no monitoring device for us!

[outlaw88]

Originally Posted by PalmerGA

Right... insurance companies are only interested in your "good" driving habits and in saving you money.

Can't fix stupid. Nowhere in my post did I imply that insurance companies have any interest in good driving habits and saving people money.

Anyway, to the OP, if you're that worried about how insurance companies are going to handle the data they collect from using their device then simply don't use it. Otherwise, it is possible to save money using these devices. I've done it myself and it looks like others have to. Completely up to you.

[hkittrell]

LOL PalmerGA

[PalmerGA]

Originally Posted by PalmerGA

Right... insurance companies are only interested in your "good" driving habits and in saving you money.

Originally Posted by outlaw88

Can't fix stupid. Nowhere in my post did I imply that insurance companies have any interest in good driving habits and saving people money.

Really? You said "They say up front that it won't impact your premiums negatively so I really wouldn't worry too much about it".

Let's see... "it won't impact your premiums negatively". "IT" being the Drive Safe and Save (or similarly named) program that the insurance companies coerce customers into using. Now what does that imply? If "it won't impact your premiums negatively", then it can only impact your premiums positively. The entire program is based on the premise that it may "Save" you money. Otherwise, why would their customers want to have it at all?

The fix is in... but not for naiveté.

[ChrisBlair]

Originally Posted by JacekPSUr1

Just got a letter in the mail from State Farm saying if I sign up for the Drive Safe and Save program, I'll get a discount up to 5% for just signing up....BUT, when I read about it more here, they finally say they'd be using my camaro's "OnStar®, In-Drive®, or SYNC®" communication service to collect basic information about my driving. Aghhh....I'm no street racer, but I'm not too crazy about my Insurance company knowing exactly how I like to drive my car. I guess this is one of those things that could totally back-fire in my face! Anyone on here using this yet? ...or would you sign up to save some $$$?

....what if you were to insure a 1969 Camaro with them?

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by JCunningham

i did this with allstate. just a normal slow down in the camaro is considered a hard stop and I got 0 discount.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the worst part of drivewise or any similar system.

Apparently, Allstate's trigger point for "hard braking" is 8 mph/second, or about 0.35g deceleration, which as you suggest is hardly a hard stop at all (it's about like 40 to zero in half a football field). Even their "extreme braking (10 mph/second, around 0.45g, 45 to zero in half a football field) is still a "nothing-special" level of stopping.

Allstate wants to assume that hard braking is always a consequence of following too closely, and ignores such things as short yellows, redlight cameras, the bouncing ball (and the kid chasing it), the moron who jumps out in front of you from a side street, all manner of real situations where a stop cannot be planned in advance. You get the blame regardless.

http://the-analytical.blogspot.com/2...ailure-in.html

Braking
The braking section of the graphics show two things. "Hard Braking" and "Extreme Braking" are the two categories. According to Drivewise, hard braking is when you decelerate by 8mph in less than 1 second. If you're following a bus that makes frequent stops and you can not change lanes, depending on the bus driver's performance and lack of indication you will have a hard braking event (or two or four), someone walks out in front of you, a dog in the road, you get the idea. Extreme braking is when you decelerate by 10mph in less than 1 second. So if you come up to a short traffic light that has a 3 second yellow (these do exist) from 50mph and begin decelerating, you will likely have an extreme braking event. When you have 4 hard braking events and 1 extreme braking event over the course of 3 weeks this erodes any discount you would expect to receive from the program. I do mean ANY and ALL discounts.

Personally, I'd much rather have the driver behind me be the one who is 100% comfortable braking much harder still, say 0.75g or a bit higher - and without batting an eye - because they stay in practice at that level on occasion when the lack of other traffic permits. I'd really expect an insurer to prefer to insure that guy, absent more serious faults. But drivewise et als have no way to distinguish the good hard braker from the bad one, other than by accident history that doesn't need drivewise at all.


Norm

[Angrybird 12]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

As far as I'm concerned, this is the worst part of drivewise or any similar system.

Apparently, Allstate's trigger point for "hard braking" is 8 mph/second, or about 0.35g deceleration, which as you suggest is hardly a hard stop at all (it's about like 40 to zero in half a football field). Even their "extreme braking (10 mph/second, around 0.45g, 45 to zero in half a football field) is still a "nothing-special" level of stopping.

Allstate wants to assume that hard braking is always a consequence of following too closely, and ignores such things as short yellows, redlight cameras, the bouncing ball (and the kid chasing it), the moron who jumps out in front of you from a side street, all manner of real situations where a stop cannot be planned in advance. You get the blame regardless.

http://the-analytical.blogspot.com/2...ailure-in.html
Personally, I'd much rather have the driver behind me be the one who is 100% comfortable braking much harder still, say 0.75g or a bit higher - and without batting an eye - because they stay in practice at that level on occasion when the lack of other traffic permits. I'd really expect an insurer to prefer to insure that guy, absent more serious faults.


Norm

That discount wouldn't last a 5 minute drive around here....

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by Angrybird 12

That discount wouldn't last a 5 minute drive around here....

Same here, at least back when I was still working and had, literally, a 5 minute morning commute. Two (very) extremes and a hard or two just inside the last minute was normal routine.


Norm

[CamaroCracka]

They should offer a discount because Camaros brake as well as they do.

[vicnkathy]

I will not activate my spystar for this and many other reasons. They can take there free three months and shove it up there ass

[gajagfan]

As stated by Norm:

"Personally, I'd much rather have the driver behind me be the one who is 100% comfortable braking much harder still, say 0.75g or a bit higher - and without batting an eye - because they stay in practice at that level on occasion when the lack of other traffic permits. I'd really expect an insurer to prefer to insure that guy, absent more serious faults. But drivewise et als have no way to distinguish the good hard braker from the bad one, other than by accident history that doesn't need drivewise at all."

Norm, I couldn't agree more. I wonder the percentage of drivers who have ever threshold breaked a car, accelerated their car as hard as it could go, or found the limit of traction in a corner at the point the car went into a four wheel drift. The person is a far better driver and far more likely to handle moron that pulls out in front of him or the kid chasing the ball than the person that passes the driving test for State Farm, Progressive, or Allstate.