Auto insurance discount

[audreyh1]

Handling the phone, phone calls and hands free calls will cost you points that will reduce your discount. GPS by itself won’t penalize you if set up prior to driving. If you’re handling the phone while driving, obviously it will. I can listen to and reply to text messages using my car’s connection to the phone with no points lost.

But hands free phone calls are penalized?

Does your app track you when you are not in the car? How does it know you aren’t driving?

No insurance company phone app for me thanks!

 

[PatrickA5]

But hands free phone calls are penalized?

Does your app track you when you are not in the car? How does it know you aren’t driving?

No insurance company phone app for me thanks!

The phone pairs with a small beacon that stays in the car. If the phone is not in the car, that particular drive won't count. You can also turn off the app on the phone if you're in the mood for some exciting driving. I usually turn mine off if I'm going to do some long-distance freeway driving or two lane roads where I might want to pass a slow-poke. Otherwise, I'm pretty much the ideal driver for such a program.

 

[Dash man]

The phone pairs with a small beacon that stays in the car. If the phone is not in the car, that particular drive won't count. You can also turn off the app on the phone if you're in the mood for some exciting driving. I usually turn mine off if I'm going to do some long-distance freeway driving or two lane roads where I might want to pass a slow-poke. Otherwise, I'm pretty much the ideal driver for such a program.

There’s no beacon with the USAA app. I’ve never had it think I was driving when I wasn’t, unless I was in a car with someone else. Then I can just change it to being a passenger. Hands free phone use is not a severe infraction. Handling the phone will count against you more. But in the end you will still get a nice discount.

 

[Turbo29]

The CSAA Smarttrek app allows me to indicate that I was not the driver for 24hr after a trip. If I don't do it within that time window, I am locked in as the driver for that particular trip. It won't show the driving score until the indication is made so I can't do a "Show me the score and then I'll tell you if I was driving."

 

[PatrickA5]

There’s no beacon with the USAA app. I’ve never had it think I was driving when I wasn’t, unless I was in a car with someone else. Then I can just change it to being a passenger. Hands free phone use is not a severe infraction. Handling the phone will count against you more. But in the end you will still get a nice discount.

I should have noted that State Farm has a beacon.

With State Farm, I was told if two people enter the vehicle with cell phones, the trip will be assigned to the first cell phone connected to the beacon. In our household, it doesn't matter. Having said that, in our case if the passenger wants to play on the phone a lot then we need to make sure the driver is the one that gets in the car first.

 

[ncbill]

Well, the car computers have speed and braking information anyway and the police routinely pull it. Subpoena or not, I don't know

Plaintiff's lawyer could, though, subpoena your driving history back as far as the insurance company retains it. History of speeding, fast cornering, hard braking, etc. will give a good lawyer enough to paint you as a manic even if you were innocent in the case. "average three miles an hour over speed limits" Gasp!

A more fundamental question, though, is the degree to which these measured parameters predict risk. At the inauguration of these programs programs the parameter selection is really just guesses. A few jilliion miles and thousands of crashes from now, it may start to be feasible to understand which parameters are predictors. Another predictive parameter, use prohibited by statute in some cases IIRC, is sex.

Well, that's why you buy umbrella insurance, so the insurer's lawyers handle everything, including the settlement, with the plaintiff's attorney.

Never forget you or a family member on your insurance could be at fault, no matter their intentions or how good a driver you/they think they are, which is why we call them "accidents."

BTW, all modern passenger vehicles already collect plenty of data sufficient to hang you out to dry assuming you were doing something bad like speeding...no need for a plug-in dongle.

 

[djsander]

Saw this thread so DW and I went into USAA and signed up. We went across town and back and looks like it worked as it monitored me and didn’t her. She’s still trying to figure out the catch.
The company I retired from had a small gps device plugged into the diagnostic port of our vehicles. It would monitor speed, hard braking and a few other things. We received a monthly report and a scored card on our driving. It made us more aware of the driving so it supposedly decreased the accidents, which weren’t a lot for a company that had about 1000 assigned vehicles. The biggest deal was not having the correct speed limits which you had to go to fleet management to get corrected.

 

[audreyh1]

I was offered an insurance program but it involved having an app on the phone running all the time. That seemed pretty crude and invasive to me. I opted out.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Which company do you use? With State Farm you get a beacon that is attached to your car windshield and your phone has to be within range of the beacon to record the ride so your issue wouldn't be an issue with them AFAIK.

No beacon, USAA. It was just funny. Once I'm live (trial mode now) I may call them but really if its a bike ride, I should get no violations and them mileage would be minimal so no negative impact.



I did get one "violation" last night for "harsh" breaking. I was curious if it would register, I'd estimate braking at about 75% due to being cut off in a turn lane so harder than normal but far from a panic stop. I thought it might but checked when I got home... glad I got it as I'm curious what the threshold is (the faq has it as IIRC -8.7mph per second).


So far I don't find it to be intrusive or annoying. Battery use is about 1% (iPhone8) and the app doesn't have to be open unless you want to check the trips. I'll be interested in a few months what discount I get. I'm pretty darn conservative driving these days so hoping for closer to the 30%.

 

[REWahoo]

I did get one "violation" last night for "harsh" breaking. I was curious if it would register, I'd estimate braking at about 75% due to being cut off in a turn lane so harder than normal but far from a panic stop. I thought it might but checked when I got home... glad I got it as I'm curious what the threshold is (the faq has it as IIRC -8.7mph per second).

I'm also in the trial period with USAA and was hit with a "trip infraction" for harsh braking when someone pulled out in front of me from a side street. While I understand what USAA is measuring, I can't help wondering if the message it sends is mixed: "we're going to penalize you for avoiding an accident".

 

[Dash man]

I'm also in the trial period with USAA and was hit with a "trip infraction" for harsh braking when someone pulled out in front of me from a side street. While I understand what USAA is measuring, I can't help wondering if the message it sends is mixed: "we're going to penalize you for avoiding an accident".

We’ve thought the same thing. When lights turn as we approach them, we used to stop, but now we go through the light to avoid a harsh braking.

 

[REWahoo]

We’ve thought the same thing. When lights turn as we approach them, we used to stop, but now we go through the light to avoid a harsh braking.

I also got a harsh braking infraction when a light turned. I might have gone through it as you describe had a police car not been in the lane next to me! (It also stopped.)

 

[braumeister]

That's hard for me to understand. "Harsh braking" would usually be due to your trying to avoid hitting something that suddenly appeared, so it means you're driving responsibly. I could understand getting dinged for jackrabbit starts, but the idea of taking a penalty for suddenly braking when a light turns just seems wrong to me.

 

[Dash man]

I also got a harsh braking infraction when a light turned. I might have gone through it as you describe had a police car not been in the lane next to me! (It also stopped.)

Fortunately harsh braking doesn’t hurt the discount much. At the end of my last discount period I had ten harsh braking infractions, a score of 82 and we got a 27% discount.

 

[REWahoo]

Fortunately harsh braking doesn’t hurt the discount much. At the end of my last discount period I had ten harsh braking infractions, a score of 82 and we got a 27% discount.

Good to know.

 

[REWahoo]

That's hard for me to understand. "Harsh braking" would usually be due to your trying to avoid hitting something that suddenly appeared, so it means you're driving responsibly. I could understand getting dinged for jackrabbit starts, but the idea of taking a penalty for suddenly braking when a light turns just seems wrong to me.

I agree. My guess is USAA thinks it may encourage drivers to resist tailgating/following too closely as rear-ending another vehicle is a frequent source of accidents. (Note the "vehicle" qualifier to avoid any possible misunderstanding )

 

[aaronc879]

I'm also in the trial period with USAA and was hit with a "trip infraction" for harsh braking when someone pulled out in front of me from a side street. While I understand what USAA is measuring, I can't help wondering if the message it sends is mixed: "we're going to penalize you for avoiding an accident".

Same thing with stopping for a yellow light. I have gotten a few "hard breaking" violations for that. What do they want me to do, go thru a red light?

 

[freedomatlast]

I can't even imagine voluntarily signing up to have my driving continuously critiqued by some company. If my insurance company wants to know their risk level to have me as an insured, they can look back over my accident free driving record of 46 years and see that there was never a claim for any accidents or for anything. Some of the discounts I'm seeing in this thread for two cars is more than I'm actually paying to insure five cars, so it's hard to imagine what they were paying before their "discount" kicked in. And getting dinged for hard braking if someone pulls out or steps out in front of you is just plain ridiculous. That's all part of responsible driving and staying alert. Maybe the better alternative is finding an insurance company that charges reasonable rates to begin with so you don't have to consider or resort to trackers to get a good deal.

 

[zinger1457]

Same thing with stopping for a yellow light. I have gotten a few "hard breaking" violations for that. What do they want me to do, go thru a red light?

Got that all the time with the Progressive app, my main road into town has a 55mph speed limit with quite a few traffic lights, impossible not to get hard breaking violations unless you're willing run through red lights. To me the hard breaking monitoring actually encourages bad driving more than safe driving and should be removed.

 

[SecondCor521]

Same thing with stopping for a yellow light. I have gotten a few "hard breaking" violations for that. What do they want me to do, go thru a red light?

I'm teaching my son to drive and being extra safety cautious and trying to instill good habits in him, so this is front of mind right now.

Around here - and it may be different where you are - the lights are timed and speed limits are such that if you're going the speed limit and are paying attention to the lights, you can almost always slow down and stop reasonably if the light turns yellow with enough room to do so. Or, in the rarer cases where the light turns yellow when you're close, it's yellow long enough to proceed through the intersection. The only time I've seen harsh braking "required" due to a yellow is if I'm speeding significantly (like >10mph over) or not paying attention, or both.

Similarly with the other situations mentioned - if I'm paying attention to things in front of me and going the speed limit, I generally can easily avoid anyone pulling out in front of me without harsh braking. I give wide berth to people who look like they may do something weird, unexpected, or unsafe.

Not always, of course. I had a teenage male driver [-]change lanes [/-]swerve into my lane without checking his blind spot the other day, and I braked (probably harshly), swerved away, honked, and cursed under my breath. Like others have mentioned, I'll take an app penalty over an accident any day.

But most of the time I think harsh braking is a downstream consequence of some earlier less-than-perfect behavior which, if improved on, both minimizes and nearly eliminates harsh braking occurrences in the app *and* improves overall safety for me and everyone around me.

 

[REWahoo]

Around here - and it may be different where you are - the lights are timed and speed limits are such that if you're going the speed limit and are paying attention to the lights, you can almost always slow down and stop reasonably if the light turns yellow with enough room to do so. Or, in the rarer cases where the light turns yellow when you're close, it's yellow long enough to proceed through the intersection. The only time I've seen harsh braking "required" due to a yellow is if I'm speeding significantly (like >10mph over) or not paying attention, or both.

I resent being accused of speeding or not paying attention.

What you describe is typical of the signal lights here, however, in the case of the harsh braking infraction at the light I mentioned in post #62 above, I was extra careful to be sure I was going the speed limit (45) since there was a cop in the lane next to me. The timing of that particular yellow light wasn't sufficient to allow me (or the cop next to me) to do anything other than brake hard to avoid going through the intersection after the light had turned red.

The light is relatively new so maybe the cop will complain about it to the appropriate agency and get it re-timed. I know I'm going to be 10mph below the speed limit the next time I pass through that intersection.

 

[Dash man]

I can't even imagine voluntarily signing up to have my driving continuously critiqued by some company. If my insurance company wants to know their risk level to have me as an insured, they can look back over my accident free driving record of 46 years and see that there was never a claim for any accidents or for anything. Some of the discounts I'm seeing in this thread for two cars is more than I'm actually paying to insure five cars, so it's hard to imagine what they were paying before their "discount" kicked in. And getting dinged for hard braking if someone pulls out or steps out in front of you is just plain ridiculous. That's all part of responsible driving and staying alert. Maybe the better alternative is finding an insurance company that charges reasonable rates to begin with so you don't have to consider or resort to trackers to get a good deal.

Comparing prices means nothing without apples to apples coverage. Coverage limits, make/model of cars, state of residence, types of coverage and other factors play a large part in determining premiums for an individual, couple or family.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

I'm also in the trial period with USAA and was hit with a "trip infraction" for harsh braking when someone pulled out in front of me from a side street. While I understand what USAA is measuring, I can't help wondering if the message it sends is mixed: "we're going to penalize you for avoiding an accident".

They are monitoring patterns of behavior. If every time you drive you slam on the brakes multiple times it indicates you are likely going too fast for conditions, are distracted, or following too closely, etc. Even in their FAQ they acknowledge as much. Of course, if you know you are aggressive, you probably won't opt in anyway.



There will be times I answer the phone but it's pretty rare and others when I brake hard or floor it to merge safely on a short ramp. I think a lot of us in our self-selected group are probably more sensitive to a "violation" -I'd like to be perfect but these are just metrics. I mostly drive conservatively to maximize gas mileage... the games we play.

 

[38Chevy454]

I can't even imagine voluntarily signing up to have my driving continuously critiqued by some company. If my insurance company wants to know their risk level to have me as an insured, they can look back over my accident free driving record of 46 years and see that there was never a claim for any accidents or for anything. Some of the discounts I'm seeing in this thread for two cars is more than I'm actually paying to insure five cars, so it's hard to imagine what they were paying before their "discount" kicked in. And getting dinged for hard braking if someone pulls out or steps out in front of you is just plain ridiculous. That's all part of responsible driving and staying alert. Maybe the better alternative is finding an insurance company that charges reasonable rates to begin with so you don't have to consider or resort to trackers to get a good deal.

Agree completely, look at my record. No tracking for me by ins co. Even more so no computer black box on any of my old cars. Only the new computer controlled cars have the black box recording. BTW, if driving 5 mph over speed limit or whatever gets you dinged, then *ANY* street around here you will be dinged if you keep up with traffic flow as part of normal driving.

 

[audreyh1]

I'm also in the trial period with USAA and was hit with a "trip infraction" for harsh braking when someone pulled out in front of me from a side street. While I understand what USAA is measuring, I can't help wondering if the message it sends is mixed: "we're going to penalize you for avoiding an accident".

Exactly!

We’ve thought the same thing. When lights turn as we approach them, we used to stop, but now we go through the light to avoid a harsh braking.

I also got a harsh braking infraction when a light turned. I might have gone through it as you describe had a police car not been in the lane next to me! (It also stopped.)

Yeah, more of the same. This makes the driver focus on avoiding penalties rather than safe driving. Not good!

The software or monitoring system is not nearly good enough to second guess the driver yet.