Are you a responsible driver? If you can prove it, and if your car insurance comes from the Progressive insurance company, you might be able to save a little money on your car insurance premiums. All it takes is a “Snapshot”.
Your car insurance premium is determined based on how much risk the insurance company thinks you are going to be for them to insure. They take a look at how old you are, if you are married, what kind of vehicle you drive, and how many vehicles you have. They want to know if you park your car safely into your very own garage every night, or if you leave it parked on the street.
This, and the other information they collect, is assessed. Ideally, the insurance company is looking for safe drivers, who won’t file any insurance claims. Paying out on those claims gets expensive for the insurance company. If they think you are going to cost them money, they are going to charge you a high premium. Do you feel like you are paying too much on car insurance? One way to get the insurance company to lower the cost of your monthly premium is to convince your insurance company that you truly are a safe driver.
One insurance company, Progressive, has implemented a brand new system that can help safe drivers get big discounts on the cost of their car insurance. They call it the “Snapshot” program. The Snapshot is a little piece of technology that plugs into an on-board diagnostic port in your vehicle. This device tracks when you are driving. Is it during the day, or at night? What time of day or night? It tracks how often you drive, and other driving behaviors, (like how often you make sudden stops).
The Snapshot device collects data for 30 days. If the data proves that you really are the safe driver that you say you are, then Progressive could give you a discount on your car insurance. The discount could be as much as 30%, potentially. At this time, the Snapshot program is only available in New York, but Progressive plans to launch the program into other states soon.
Image by Rob! on Flickr