Car insurance company tracker beacon discount?

tnhawk said:

Before I retired my employer used birddogging, babysitting devices to record our speed, braking, location, engine idle time, seat belt use, etc.
I don't need this intrusion into my personal life by insurance companies or the government.

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After I retired from my construction union, I drove large CDL trucks for a few years delivering building supplies.

My employer talked about putting in tracking devices, some super form of GPS. Asked me my opinion. Not being very shy I told him, the second that goes on my truck I will be gone.

He did finely get it but it was a year after I under good circumstances quit and moved up to the lake.

He'll no

1. Get a discount for good driving

2. Have them deny a claim or raise rates because they have proof that you drove fast or maybe caused an accident .

Those few bucks you save a month could cost you thousands when you really need coverage and you gave them the info to deny it.

It's only a TEMPORARY discount! Once they see speeding, hard braking, frequent lane changing your rate will exceed your discount. NOPE - just say no!

Liberty Mutual wanted to put me through that. I said " where does it connect to my car?". They said at the code reading port. I asked my car guru son about it, and he said on occasion they can do damage to your electrical system. I went back to LM, and told them OK if they give written guarantee to repair any damage. They said no, and that was the end of it.

They are after speeding, fast acceleration, hard braking, are you out late at night and some other stuff. I told them I am out late many nights fishing, so I am screwed already.

Got better company

Narragansett said:

Liberty Mutual wanted to put me through that. I said " where does it connect to my car?". They said at the code reading port. I asked my car guru son about it, and he said on occasion they can do damage to your electrical system. I went back to LM, and told them OK if they give written guarantee to repair any damage. They said no, and that was the end of it.

They are after speeding, fast acceleration, hard braking, are you out late at night and some other stuff. I told them I am out late many nights fishing, so I am screwed already.

Got better company

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Oh yes, never connect anything to the OBD port that isn’t a diagnostic device. That’s horribly irresponsible of Liberty Mutual.

If you think about it, in an era of extremely high car repair costs, why would an insurance company want to lower your premiums, unless they are raising someone else’s premiums to balance it out? You might be the one who ends up paying more. Never trust them.

Telecaster said:

I call bs on the concept. If you have a past history of tickets and accidents, your rates should be higher. If you have a clean history, your rates should be lower. It's that simple. Maybe if you're a new driver and have no history at all, it could potentially help establish a rate, but otherwise I don't see any good purpose to it.

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I have a perfect record. No claims or tickets for at least 15 years. But adding this tracking saves me 30% on my rates. Sure I should pay less regularly but it does not work that way. I pay the rate for a good driver but so do thousands of others and some of them will have a claim sooner or later so my rate reflects this. With the tracking they are looking at what I do day to day which can show I am a better driver that the regular Joe. Thus I pay less unless I screw up.

I have the State Farm beacon and my insurance went down 30%.

If the service or product is free or discounted, then you (or your information) is the actual product being sold.

I can appreciate that the insurance rate may go down, but what else are they doing with the tons of data they are collecting on you?

Call me paranoid, sure.

H Richard said:

I recently "shopped" a multi line broker against my State Farm and he couldn't get close to what I am currently paying. The 23 years loyalty and low mileage discounts are plenty, and NO I won't have any tracker on my cars.

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40 years with my first SF agent. He was so good I tried to keep him when I moved but company policy apparently did not allow that. We knew he and his staff personally.

Newest guy, working on 8 years. He is a vette guy, pillar of the community, and runs a charity car show every year for local kids needs. Couldn’t find a more stand up guy.
SF it shall be.
Never asked once about a tracker.

The truck I bought from my son had a State Farm Tracker. I broke it taking it out, whoops. I accelerate too fast for it to work for me. The cost of our insurance is expensive here in South Texas because of theft. The Cartel is alive and well using juveniles to do it.

I had the Allstate "Drivewise" tracker for a while, plugged into the port. I'll tell you exactly how that system works, and it's all against you. They start you out at 30% discount. The system tracks hard braking, speeds over 80, time of day driving. "It will make you a better driver" they claim. BS.

So the little old lady pulls out in front of you, and as a safe driver, you hit the brakes and avoid an accident. Not your fault. No matter, that's still a hard braking. No matter what the reason you brake hard (light changing, drive cuts you off, whatever) you get charged a hard braking. The system encourages you to run the yellow lights.

You try to get onto the rush hour traffic on the interstate going 85, so you attempt to match their speed to safely merge, and whammo! You just got hit with an over-80 point. Passing someone on a two lane road and you speed to hurriedly get around them--legal in FL--whammo, got you again.

Got a doctor's appointment at 11:00 AM? Too bad, that is a predetermined unsafe driving hour. Another point. Picking up the kids after soccer practice? Wrong time again, you are an unsafe driver. Here's your point.

Oh, and the points are accumulative. They don't expire every six months or a year, they are eternal. So over two to three semiannual billing cycles, your 30% discount is now down to 10% and dropping. No tickets, no warnings, no accidents, no claims.

Allstate eventually dropped the plug in--what was easy to cheat--and upgraded to cell phone tracking. It didn't matter if you were driving or a passenger, if the vehicle had a hard braking--here's your point. Fortunately, Neither I nor my agent could get the download to work on my Android cell, so I dumped Allstate and switched to USAA. The price was within a few bucks of my "discounted" Allstate rate.

Well the verdict is in. I got my insurance renewal today and there was ZERO increase. I think the tracker helped.

I understand why people don't like trackers. But I also understand an insurance company has few options on rating risk. It also depends on the level of surveillance. Mine only complains if I'm surfing the web, talking on the phone, or if I go over 80 mph. Other than that I get a "good job!".

Another tracker I had with a different company was much more involved in what I was doing. It would tag me for speeding if I went more than 10 mph over the speed limit. Which I would do often exiting the freeway onto the feeder road. It pissed me off and I deleted it. Of course I also left that insurance company when they jacked up my rate 50%.

But the one I've got now seem reasonable enough.

glenwolde said:

Well the verdict is in. I got my insurance renewal today and there was ZERO increase. I think the tracker helped.

I understand why people don't like trackers. But I also understand an insurance company has few options on rating risk. It also depends on the level of surveillance. Mine only complains if I'm surfing the web, talking on the phone, or if I go over 80 mph. Other than that I get a "good job!".

Another tracker I had with a different company was much more involved in what I was doing. It would tag me for speeding if I went more than 10 mph over the speed limit. Which I would do often exiting the freeway onto the feeder road. It pissed me off and I deleted it. Of course I also left that insurance company when they jacked up my rate 50%.

But the one I've got now seem reasonable enough.

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Don't be afraid to name names.

Not just no, but H-NO.

At work we called that type thing "RATS" for a reason.

Just signed up with state farm and thought got an ok deal. Just before I went out of town this small package arrived from state farm. Called agent and asked whats going on, he said the “ quote” I got was using the tracking device. Told him no way and am sending them back And looking for other insurance, enough is enough. No tickets or crashes in years and do not drive that much so rates should be lower.

Narragansett said:

Liberty Mutual wanted to put me through that. I said " where does it connect to my car?". They said at the code reading port. I asked my car guru son about it, and he said on occasion they can do damage to your electrical system. I went back to LM, and told them OK if they give written guarantee to repair any damage. They said no, and that was the end of it.

They are after speeding, fast acceleration, hard braking, are you out late at night and some other stuff. I told them I am out late many nights fishing, so I am screwed already.

Got better company

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Telecaster said:

Oh yes, never connect anything to the OBD port that isn’t a diagnostic device. That’s horribly irresponsible of Liberty Mutual.

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Interesting…I started work with a new company back in 2018 and it came with a new Ford Transit van that had a GPS tracker plugged into the port. A couple weeks later, the van died suddenly while on a back country Florida road at zero dark thirty. Had it towed to the nearest small town Ford dealer and they said it was a bad ECM module. Spent most of the day there while they had a runner go up to Orlando to pick up a new one. It was installed and I made it home in time for dinner. I didn’t mind, I was on the clock and it made for an easy, but boring day.

About two weeks later, I’m heading home from Miami late in the afternoon. Twenty miles west on Alligator Alley, it dies again. By the time I got it towed to the closest Ford dealer, it was too late to get it in and I had to take an uber to a hotel for the night. Got a rental the next morning and drove home thinking they’d call me in a day or so. Wrong…the van was there for almost three weeks while Ford warranty fought with the GPS hardware provider and my company over fault. They said it was too coincidental that the same failure happened and they weren’t going to cover it. My company ended up buying a new ECM module with installation and testing. Soon thereafter, they pulled the port based hardware from all the company vehicles and went with a cell phone based unit.

Just say NO to being nanny tracked.
Not going there. If they can't decide based upon my driving record, regional risk assessments and credit report then that is their problem.

I said hell no.

I've had State farm for a few years now and they never mentioned any tracking devices. They could be tracking me anyway, with vehicle and telephone net connections. Cars have enough computer issues; I don't need any more.

yeti said:

Just say NO to being nanny tracked.
Not going there. If they can't decide based upon my driving record, regional risk assessments and credit report then that is their problem.

I said hell no.

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Credit report! Grrrr....!!!

This crazy state's insurance commissioner recently dictated that credit reports can't be used to determine rates. It's apparently unfair to "marginalized" groups. Since they can't pay their bills on time this move keeps subsidizes their insurance rates. Whether there's correlation between credit rating and risk, I don't know. I'd guess the insurance company actuaries have it figured out.

In any case, it irritates me that while I have a high credit rating, I'd be penalized by subsidizing insolvent paycheck-to-paycheck people. I can sympathize with their lot in life, but I shouldn't be forced to compensate them for it.

FWIW, State Farm hasn't raised my rates beyond inflation numbers since this occured. I've been with State Farm for decades and have zero complaints about them. But then, I'm not about to buy in to their nanny-dongle thingamajig.