Progressive Insurance Snapshot Device

Actually the trick is to switch insurance companies. Safeco's rate is a little over 3,300 for a year, while Progressive is a little over 2,000. Coverages matched 100% so I don't know what the difference is, other than we're paying for somebody's house in the Hamptons. But no longer.
My independent agent switched my home and auto coverage last year. Auto insurance switched from Safeco to Progressive and I saved quite a bit(the Club Sport remained on Hagerty). Homeowners went from Safeco to Auto Owners(go figure) again at a significant savings.
 
An individual who shall remain nameless developed a filter that is inserted between the insurance tattletale dongle and the OBD2 port. It essentially filtered out any hard acceleration or braking and further reported any speed above 55 as 55.
 
How does that thing work, exactly? Does it contain a G meter, or is it relying on the car to provide it with throttle & steering angle and brake system pressure?
 
I have State Farm Drive Safe & Save beacons in both of my vehicles. At least for State Farm, they don't raise your rates, it just determines if you get a discount off your regular rate. Yeah, yeah, I know, but I'm paying less for car insurance than I ever have really. Granted I'm using them for homeowners too, so I get a bundle price.

Sometimes I get $5 off or something, but I get a lot of speeding events which is hard to avoid around here. Typically when moving the flow of traffic here is 10 MPH over the posted limit.
I gave permission for the Cobalt to tattle on me to State Farm via OnStar and the savings are enough to pay for my OnStar subscription several times over.
 
How does that thing work, exactly? Does it contain a G meter, or is it relying on the car to provide it with throttle & steering angle and brake system pressure?
The dongle is just pulling information from the CAN Bus.
 
Have progressive and had snap chat first 6 months wouldn't do their app. If i was still in rush hour driving no way would a get a discount since im retired and live in a very rural area no big deal. Covid has cut our driving by 75% now with the vaccine it will go back up but not at what we were driving.
 
My independent agent switched my home and auto coverage last year. Auto insurance switched from Safeco to Progressive and I saved quite a bit(the Club Sport remained on Hagerty). Homeowners went from Safeco to Auto Owners(go figure) again at a significant savings.
My agent just called to see if I was planning to re-new my Safeco policy. I informed her I got a quote from Progressive for $2060 (substantially lower than $3360). She told me she sells Progressive as well, and asked for a chance to continue as my agent, so I told her to give it her best shot. I haven't read through her quote yet to make sure all things are equal, but I told her 100/300 on everything, all deductibles $750, 10K PIP, no roadside, no rental. She called to say she got it down to $1894 annually. So, if everything's kosher when I get home and read through it, she gets to keep my business. Never thought I'd see insurance more expensive than State Farm, but the quote I got from State Farm yesterday shows Safeco to be very "proud" of their insurance in comparison. Buh bye.
 
I called a used car dealer that I tend to like and asked for a place to get better rates on my insurance policies. He referred me to a brick & mortar place 25 miles from here, so I called them today and they're nice people. I talked on the phone with them for about an hour and they offer me insurance from Erie Insurance Co. He said they will insure both my car and house, and claims they will not insure just anyone, and says they only deal in 13 US states. And the policies he recommends have better coverage for $69 a year lower cost.
I don't think I'm going to get insurance for much less than $514 a year anywhere unless I just get basic liability.
Both of his policies would cost me $1032 a year which saves me $69 over Progressive / Nationwide plus has better coverage. I will get $0 deductible glass coverage, and instead of $50,000 / $100,000 I get $250,000. The deductible lowers by $100 a month if I have no claims, up to $0 deductible. Or I could get the same auto coverage I have now for $44 less per year than Progressive, plus it contains better coverage and less deductibles. He thinks I should get the $250k in case I hit someone with a $50k truck and they tried to sue me. But keep in mind I only drive 4k miles a year, but most of it around town going to buy food.
The home insurance covers theft with a $0 deductible and will cover things like a new heat pump for a $1000 deductible. Also they will pay more to replace my house if need be, about $25k more than Progressive.
I doubt Progressive offers this much, and if they do, they didn't make me aware of it.

He was very enthusiastic about why I should get these policies, and it seemed good to talk to him about this.
It made me realize that I may need this better coverage, even if it happened to cost more, but it doesn't.

Erie is an excellent company.
I have been insured with them for 27 years.
That is a no brainer, and an excellent upgrade from what you have. Make the move.
 
I did Esurance's snapshot version for a discount. It was around $100 or so for 6 months. Their app allowed you to delete negative "events". I learned what it didn't like and avoided those "events". Things like going above 75 and hard braking (THEIR idea of these things). It definitely made me a safer driver, but after that first discount it just wasn't worth it anymore. You had to drive like a paranoid nut to get the discount.

One thing these trackers also take into account is when you drive and where. If you're driving in rush hour traffic in a metro area, for example, you aren't going to save much if any. Can't blame them.
 
Erie is an excellent company.
I have been insured with them for 27 years.
That is a no brainer, and an excellent upgrade from what you have. Make the move.
He got me interested in Erie policies, then Erie decided to refuse to insure my property due to the leaning of the old garage. So the brick and mortar sales rep built me up about Erie, told me Erie accepted my 2 policies, and then a day later told me they refused after I sent him pics of my house and garage, and said the lone car policy would be $702 per year (which is about $100 more as a lone policy). So I decided to stick with Progressive and Nationwide and upgrade my car policy to include 100k / 300k / 100k liability, and 100k /300k /100k uninsured motorist for only about $20 a year more. The B&M office rep thought I should get $250k / 500k / 100k for liability and uninsured motorist, which may or may not be a bit more coverage than I really need. These things don't cost too much to add on. What do you think?
I don't think I'd find much lower policies than this. Insurance costs more these days. It costs more to fix cars, so we all have to pay more to insure these newer cars even if we have a clean record. Things like power mirrors cost more than an old-time, plain mirror. And some mirrors are heated.

How much coverage do you think a 69 YO male with a clean driving record needs?
I don't drink or smoke, no cell phone, and I only drive a 9 YO Prius about 4k miles a year.
 
Don't go with the...
Screenshot_20210421-165512_Gallery.jpg
 
Most of my vehicles are so old they don't even have an OBD-II port. No "snap shot" device possible and the vehicle doesn't know a thing.
Those of us that have at the least an '03 or later, having an XM,Sirrus or a connected cellular vehicle plan that allows hot-spot-2-WiFi connections? You're on the radar.
To keep good rates you have to shop around every 2 or 3 years. Typically the various gangs in the insurance mafia lure you in with introductory low rates and then raise them for no good reason every year.
Same as cable or satellite TV or a cell plan. Not jibing at you, but us poor proletariat types are on the phone the second promotional rates expire.
When that happens shop around for another gang, repeat as needed. It helps to have an agent that deals with multiple companies. My agent approaches me every so often with a better deal and if it looks good I do the switcheroo.
I'm lucky like that too. I've got a good agent that will help me actively to keep costs reasonable with excellent coverage on home, auto and even to a limited extent; home electronics. I'm still out on a limb for my computer(s). I custom build them myself from scratch so there's no one single point for them to wrestle with. But the appliances, central heat-AC, TV's, etc are good to go. 👍
 
He got me interested in Erie policies, then Erie decided to refuse to insure my property due to the leaning of the old garage. So the brick and mortar sales rep built me up about Erie, told me Erie accepted my 2 policies, and then a day later told me they refused after I sent him pics of my house and garage, and said the lone car policy would be $702 per year (which is about $100 more as a lone policy). So I decided to stick with Progressive and Nationwide and upgrade my car policy to include 100k / 300k / 100k liability, and 100k /300k /100k uninsured motorist for only about $20 a year more. The B&M office rep thought I should get $250k / 500k / 100k for liability and uninsured motorist, which may or may not be a bit more coverage than I really need. These things don't cost too much to add on. What do you think?
I don't think I'd find much lower policies than this. Insurance costs more these days. It costs more to fix cars, so we all have to pay more to insure these newer cars even if we have a clean record. Things like power mirrors cost more than an old-time, plain mirror. And some mirrors are heated.

How much coverage do you think a 69 YO male with a clean driving record needs?
I don't drink or smoke, no cell phone, and I only drive a 9 YO Prius about 4k miles a year.

One thing about Erie, I have been told that they are very selective about who they take.
I went through a similar vetting process. My agent came out and took pics of the house.
However, no issues when I went through it.
What if you had your car and house with Nationwide, and insured both with the same carrier? Many times, there is a substantial discount for doing so.
What I would do is find out what companies insure your state, and find another independent agent or several that carry any regional carriers for pricing. These may be lesser known (but solid) companies that may be less expensive because they limit where they write policies to reduce negative exposure. I would exhaust that possibility before I stuck with Progressive.
As far as how much insurance to carry? Carry as much as you can afford. I carry the higher limit, plus I have a million dollar umbrella. There was a day that I said that I didn't need it either, until an independent mailperson plowed into my wife and sued us for 216K. We were in the right, and fortunately justice prevailed (with much help from Erie and the excellent legal representation they provided.) After that, the first thing I did was get the umbrella. Good to have. It is hopefully one of those things that one never has to use. For me, the peace of mind is worth every cent. That was seven years of my life that I never want to go through again.
 
Luke, don’t be surprised if Progressive fires you as a customer after X amount of time even if you keep your driving record spotless and never have a claim. I’ve heard of them dropping customers who’ve had them for years without making a claim or having a driving infraction because they think your time is due to make a claim. Let’s drop you now before it happens.
 
Those of us that have at the least an '03 or later, having an XM,Sirrus or a connected cellular vehicle plan that allows hot-spot-2-WiFi connections? You're on the radar.

Never had anything like that. I've never owned a vehicle that was manufactured in the 21st century. No "connectivity" other than an AM/FM radio.
 
Never had anything like that. I've never owned a vehicle that was manufactured in the 21st century. No "connectivity" other than an AM/FM radio.
I just don't subscribe to Onstar, Sirrus, XM Radio or any other connected car services. I carry a cellphone and that's about it. It alone tattles more than enough.
 
I spoke to another guy at Progressive and I liked him. He sent another Snapshot device to me and I installed it.
All you need to do with those things is stay calm and cool and drive well and you will get a decent discount on your car insurance.
Try not to drive to new places where you might brake too hard.
I'm pretty sure I should be able to drive close to perfect for the next 10 weeks.
 
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Luke, don’t be surprised if Progressive fires you as a customer after X amount of time even if you keep your driving record spotless and never have a claim. I’ve heard of them dropping customers who’ve had them for years without making a claim or having a driving infraction because they think your time is due to make a claim. Let’s drop you now before it happens.
I have been a Progressive customer since 1999 because of one reason. I did not like the insurance agents back then and they were the first Insurance with an online form to get insurance. I have become an "Emerald" customer due to so few claims(2011) and longevity. I never wait on hold but their app works well so I don't bother.

That all being said I pay $800 in full once per year for two vehicles (2018 Tiguan and 2015 Pilot) with topped out insurance coverages including 500k limits. Zero complaints.
 
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