I’ve been playing with Progressive MyRate, formerly Progressive TripSense for about three years. I’ve been pretty cynical of this program and I’m even more so now. Here’s how it works:
If you are a Progressive Auto Insurance customer and sign up for MyRate, you get a sensor, a cable and some software in the mail. You put the sensor in the OBD-II port in your car and it records your driving habits for six months. Every six months or so, you pull the sensor out, use the cable to upload the data to Progressive and you get a discount based off your driving habits. You do not get to see all of the data that is collected but you can view reports of some of the data online after you upload it. They originally launched this program in Minnesota and now it is available in a few other states.
In my experience, I have received the minimum discount: 5%. Considering I pay about $600 every six months for insurance, this comes to about $30 in savings in exchange for giving Progressive detailed reports of every single trip I make with my car. In my opinion, getting that kind of data is worth a lot more than thirty bucks. In order to save more, you need to not drive you car regularly, have very short commutes and avoid driving at night. I see how this would save money if you used it in a second car that you didn’t drive much or if you used public transport most of the time instead of your car – something that is not terribly common in Minnesota.
What Progressive does not tell you is that the MyRate sensor is actually a rebranded Davis Instruments CarChip and you can access all the data that is collected by using Davis’ CarChip Software. No hacking is involved but you should know that you cannot modify any of the data on the chip using the software. Note that there is apparently now a wireless version of this chip that Progressive is providing that may not allow you to use the CarChip software.
Looking at the latest instructions on how MyRate works, I noticed that in some states you can now actually get charged more for your insurance based on your driving habits. I find this very unethical considering the valuable information you are providing Progressive. In Minnesota, unless the terms have changed without me knowing, you will get a minimum of a 5% discount if you submit your data and can get up to a maximum of 25% discount.
In addition to my qualms about Progressive MyRate, my recent experience has been rocky. I got an email notifications letting me know that it was time to upload my data. I lug out an old computer running Windows 2000 and plug it in because this program requires Windows. Honestly, Progressive MyRate is the only reason I even have a machine running Windows in the house. Either way, for some reason it would no longer recognize the sensor. I tested a few things, reset the cables, restarted a couple times then broke down and called support. They said they’d call me back and 3 days later I got a call asking me to try pressing on the cable differently. It didn’t work. Following up later, they asked if my cable had a particular dot on it and it did. They said that the cable will no longer work and I’ll need a new cable. I’m confused why a particular cable would disable itself or stop working. They decide to ship me out a new cable and a week later it never showed. I follow up and they send me a PDF to ship my chip back to them. A bunch of trouble just to get a tiny discount in exchange for details of every single trip I’ve taken in my car in the last six months.
Progressive MyRate is a program that I’d recommend if you rarely use your car, live in a state where you are guaranteed a discount and that your rate won’t increase and if you don’t have any privacy concerns regarding giving your driving habits to your auto insurance company. I’m guessing that isn’t very many people.
For me, while it’s been an interesting experiment for three years I’m now shopping around to see if I can get a better rate without the sensor.
Comments 26
We use the TripSensor / MyRate thing too, it’s nice to know that can be accessed with the CarChip software – I will probably try it out next time I have to bring the chip up from the car. We generally get around 15-18% because we avoid driving late at night and I only commute three times a week – we use public transportation for everything else, which isn’t bad inside the city. For $200+ a year, it is worth it to me. You used to be able to see everything that you were submitting before a recent update I thought, with the speeds and everything. We still have some windows machines around so it’s not an issue – if I was Mac/Linux only it would be much more of a hassle I agree.
Posted 02 Jun 2008 at 13:55 ¶Hey AAron,
Posted 02 Jun 2008 at 20:42 ¶thanks for linking my new kitten..his name is “Boo”,
He’s a red point Birman. He just celebrated his 3 & a half month birthday today!
I love your blog….keep up the twitter!
I would shop around and be sure to tell them that you are planning on jumping ship unless they can make you an attractive offer. Just make sure you have a better rate quote elsewhere else before you pull the trigger.
Posted 03 Jun 2008 at 06:25 ¶Self-imposed monitoring is pretty odd, if not scary. I wonder if down the road you can get a discount to wear an ankle bracelet like they put on people on house arrest.
- Mitch
Posted 04 Jun 2008 at 06:08 ¶Mitch,
While I don’t agree with giving up more of my personal privacy to a corporation for a financial benefit, at least it’s better than mandatory monitoring.
Bill
Posted 04 Jun 2008 at 07:27 ¶Wonder if you can drive your car backwards to shave off some miles…. Nah they probably thought of that…..
Posted 04 Jun 2008 at 21:57 ¶That’s so cool that you have that photo. I love it.
Posted 05 Jun 2008 at 07:49 ¶I took mine with my iphone, I’ll post more later
this morning….
This is nothing. Just wait till OnStar starts submitting all the information to the insurance companies. It will get even worse, when they start reporting data concerning the technical condition of your vehicle: tire pressure, oil pressure, seat belts on/off, whether GPS is in use or not, the volume of your radio.
I will not be surprised if very soon insurance companies will start jacking up rates if they see that you like to drive with your windows down, radio blasting, no seat belts and have a low tire pressure.
Even worse, imagine you get into an accident which is not your fault, but you had all that data submitted to the insurance company. They may deny coverage after the accident has occurred.
Posted 12 Jun 2008 at 11:09 ¶Vasil hate to break this to you but GMAC offers insurance and they do use the OnStar data to help determine rates (voluntary) but OnStar can see your data no matter what. An insurance company can not deny claims if you are found not at fault. Even at fault it’s not likely that data would be used. With MyRate the data is only provided to law enforcement with a court order, period. In theory Progressive would attract more safe drivers with the discount increasing the amount of premium taken it while reducing the amout in claims paid out. Smart actually. Steal the best drivers from other companies by offering the discount.
Posted 24 Jul 2008 at 12:40 ¶Great information! Installing this chip would probably increase my insurance by 1,000%. I have a lead foot
Posted 18 Nov 2008 at 08:42 ¶People complain that their rates aren’t representative of their actual driving behaviour.
Now that there’s an option to show the insurance company how they actually drive, people are complaining that the IC will have accurate data.
Bottom line, only the people who have something to hide won’t wanna join the program.. which is exactly the point. It’s called self-selection.
I drive well, get a big discount and laugh at the suckers who complain about Big Brother.
Posted 25 Nov 2008 at 14:42 ¶I wonder if the chip knows when it is unpluged and pluged back in. That way you could unplug it on long trips and at night.
Posted 03 Dec 2008 at 11:48 ¶Austin-
It does record how many times it is plugged in and removed.
Posted 03 Dec 2008 at 12:06 ¶I just ordered mine…
after what seemed like a short debate. I’m a consultant and usually on the road just once to twice a week, but i’m usually a fast driver; i think this will be a little reminder that i’m being “watched” and should force me to tune it down a bit (more than i’m about to under my own recognizance)…
Between this device and my ez-pass (if progressive had access to that data as well) they could virtually know almost everything about my driving habits. I’m still waiting for when tickets are issued based on your toll entry & exit time (hopefully we’ll never let that happen)… till then…
Posted 17 Dec 2008 at 18:53 ¶Thanks for your post.
Posted 28 Feb 2009 at 13:04 ¶I am considering plugging three of these devices into my cars – just switched to Progressive from Kemper…saving $700 annually. Two of our cars hardly get driven, so maybe we’ll get a discount for that…I do agree that 5% is probably very little…but heck, better than zero that you get from other companies!
My devices seem to upload wirelessly….I will post my experiences in a few months
The lowest discount I have gotten is 24.3% (in Minnesota). I only commute to college and back four times a week though, so that could be why.
Posted 11 Mar 2009 at 21:13 ¶Any of you guys drive a stick shift car? Been driving stick shift for 10 years now; got the Progressive sensor, I start on a slope … bam! They said it was sudden start!!!! Man, if you don’t speed up to change gear, you go backwards … Should I stick with the program or better leave it? I really don’t think it’s fair to manual car drivers … any suggestions?
Posted 12 Mar 2009 at 15:54 ¶Cora – try parking tail-end-in?
I’ve had the sensor going for a few weeks now. The one that doesn’t require manual uploading. It’s very interesting. My commute’s about 7 miles a day and doesn’t involve the highway at all. I can do most of my errands in the “low risk” periods on the weekend. I keep my speed under 55 mph. I’ll be interested to see how a weekend road trip skews things.
Posted 08 Apr 2009 at 00:03 ¶I recently decided to go with the MyRate plan and questioned Progressive on how they determine “Fast Starts” & “Fast Stops”.
In their reply they stated that any start or stop faster than 7mph per second would be flagged.
This seems a little “sensitive” to me….expecially on the stopping part. I don’t have the luxury of driving down deserted roads with no stop lights. Not every stop is your perfect situation where you lightly coast into a rolling stop. People catch yellow lights that require moderate pressure to the brakes….nothing brake neck or something that would cause whip-lash….just a good 35-40% pressure applied to the brake.
So now not only do you have to put 2 car links between you and the person infront of you so that you don’t rear end them…..you have to put 4 car links between you and the person in front of you so that you don’t deccelerate faster than 7mph/second. LOL
Good idea….but the bar set by Progressive in what it deams “Risky” is a little too sensitive IMO. Like the OP said…..probably a good idea for your 2nd vehicle…..but maybe not so good for your every day driver, expecially if you actually have to actually use your brake or gas pedal.
Posted 12 May 2009 at 10:05 ¶Jason, I think you’re overestimating how much you’ll get dinged for those sudden stops/starts. I’ve used TripSense for about a year and have saved 16-18% on my every-day car despite having quite a few fast starts and stops. The much bigger factor seems to be the times that you drive. I almost never drive from 2-4 AM, which seems to really help me.
Unless you routinely drive over 75 mph or in the middle of the night, I’d encourage you to give the program a shot. Here in MI, they guarantee at least a 5% savings from it. If you only end up getting the minimum savings, quit. I truly don’t consider myself to be a conservative driver, and it saves me quite a bit.
Posted 23 May 2009 at 09:28 ¶Just to clarify, I do exceed 75 mph from time to time. Probably once a week or so. Just not every day or for hours at a time. (Since using TripSense, I do find myself locking the cruise in at 74mph for those long drives…)
Posted 23 May 2009 at 09:31 ¶I started off the first few months driving very little, then after a couple of months (horror of horrors) drove my car a couple of times after midnight, then this month I took TWO 500-700 mile road trips over the span of 3 weeks (at speeds under 70 mph). My projected discount has gone from $240 to $80.
Do any of you know if this can be improved if I practice “safer” driving in the next 2 months, before the 6 month period is up, or will my projected discount only decrease with each additional mile that I drive?
Posted 17 Jun 2009 at 20:36 ¶CC-Laugh away. I have nothing to hide, but also feel no need to give over my privacy to any agency for any price.
Amy
Posted 27 Jun 2009 at 11:18 ¶I actually just renewed my progressive insurance and my discount with my rate was 45%. Thats a big deal to me. I do live less than a mile from work and put only around 5k miles a year on my car, but I am now a huge fan of my rate
Posted 13 Jul 2009 at 12:40 ¶Ended up here after finding your Flickr image had one of the top hits for “Progressive MyRate,” which I searched when considering the program.
I was pretty happy with the rate I was given to begin with, and was considering getting the MyRate device. I eventually decided against it.
It’s not just the obvious privacy you’re giving up with this data, it’s the fact that this data could be used against you to impact more than your renewal rate. If you’re involved in a crash that is presumably your fault, the other driver could subpoena you or Progressive for the data contained on the MyRate device, which could be used to prove greater liability or gross negligence (depending on the state that you’re in with regard to ‘no fault’). Of course your car already has on-board data collection, but the less points to subpoena or collect, the more favorable it is.
If there’s a potential that the device could be the center of a suit, is the data on this device immutable and forensics-friendly, or could anyone change the data to make it look like you were speeding up to hit someone?
The other issue is that if you are involved in the same type of situation and Progressive has to make a large payout, what if they could use MyRate data against you in some way. Of course, they’d have to pay the claim either way, but it still makes me nervous about the potential.
The final nail in the MyRate coffin is that the newer versions transmit data wirelessly as you drive to Progressive, so there’s no more taking out a cable. While this might sound more convenient, we have no solid idea on what data is transmitted, if it’s transmitted in realtime or otherwise. I can’t seem to figure out how that data is transmitted either.
This is still a relatively new program and technology and hasn’t been tested in court. I’m definitely not going to move forward the MyRate program, as I don’t want to be their test case. But I do commend them on their innovation.
Thanks for the post!
Posted 27 Nov 2009 at 20:41 ¶What information can they get from this? My ‘98 truck is a diesel and there are very few electronics on it. The accelerator is hooked mechanically to a mechanical pump. I don’t have anti-lock brakes and there are no seat belt sensors. How would it know the time of day your driving? Definitely not from my radios clock. lol I am not even sure it could tell the speed because that is run by a gear, not the computer.
Posted 01 Feb 2010 at 02:43 ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 3
[...] the effect of minimizing aggregate insurance rates, pollution, and accidents. Others, though, are skeptical about the benefits, and argue that to realize any significant discount, one would have to drive quite rarely. [...]
[...] get anything but the minimum 5% discount for my car by just being in the plan. I tend to agree with Arron Landry about the data being worth far more than my 5% discount. I guess I’d be far less skeptical of [...]
[...] – bookmarked by 2 members originally found by mecollin on 2008-12-19 Progressive MyRate http://s4xton.com/1753/progressive-myrate/ – bookmarked by 4 members originally found by nsop on [...]
Post a Comment