Progressive Snapshot

I’ve had Progressive insurance for my car for almost 6 years. I even dressed up as Flo for Halloween a few years ago! Brett made this entire costume!

I promise I’m not obsessed with Progressive, I just thought Flo was a great costume! It was a hit!

I get every discount I qualify for, like homeowner and e-statement discounts, but I’m always on the lookout for new discounts.

When the Progressive Snapshot device was introduced, I was definitely hesitant to try it. The premise is that you plug the Snapshot device into your vehicle and it monitors your driving…the times you drive, your speed and your hard breaks. If, after the monitoring period, they see that you are a safe, low risk driver , they will give you a discount!

Well, my first thought was wondering whether it could go the opposite way…as in, could you be charged more if they find you to be a higher risk based on your driving habits? There also isn’t set in stone rules about what they consider risky and how they determine your discount (if you know where to find this information, please let me know!), and I prefer to know what my goals are or what will be considered bad.

Well, either way, Brett decided that we should give it a try. After all, he is now home with Trent and doesn’t have to drive over an hour a day for work, so he should definitely be considered low risk. However, I’m from New Jersey, the state of risky drivers. This could get interesting.

After talking to our insurance agent, our Snapshot devices arrived in the mail within a few days. We each received one to plug into each of our vehicles.

Setting up the Snapshot is simple and quick; it took Brett less than 5 minutes to plug them in to each of our vehicles. It just plugs into the vehicle’s onboard diagnostic port, typically beneath the steering wheel.

Each day, the device sends your driving information to Progressive to analyze. You can even go online and view the information that has been sent to them.

You can view all of the days and general information from each day, such as your driving time, number of trips and hard brakes. Quick tip: Progressive considers a hard brake a reduction of over 7 mph in less than a second. I found this out AFTER I saw I had 2 hard brakes. Sometimes I question the validity of the information…I swear I didn’t have those 2 hard brakes on the day they say I did, but then there has been other days where I would think I had a hard brake and nothing showed up. Shhhh…don’t tell.

You can also view more specific information from each day, like the times you drove and how fast you were going.

We’ve had the Snapshot for a little over a week and we are definitely more mindful of our driving. I think about how each action will affect my Snapshot information and try to plan ahead for when I know I’ll need to brake. However, I have noticed times when thinking about the Snapshot has negatively affected my driving, especially when braking. For instance, when braking, I will look down at my mph to make sure it doesn’t go down too fast instead of paying more attention to the road or I will start braking too slow so as to not reach that 7 mph threshold, only to not brake fast enough once I finally reach the car in front of me and then I have to brake harder than as if I had just started braking normal to begin with.

I think after a 30 day “test drive”, Progressive will review our Snapshot information and apply a discount if they find us to have good driving habits. Then, we can keep the Snapshot plugged in for an additional 5 months to get even more of a discount…up to 30%.

So far, I think I’m doing pretty good other than driving during medium risk times each day. Brett has only driven about 3 times since we started, but fortunately they have mostly been during low risk times. I’ll keep everyone updated to our progress…I hope we get a big discount baby!!

UPDATE: Click here to find out if we got a discount after the first 30 days!

 

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