We recently changed car insurance. We did all our research and chose the one that gave the best rates. One of the options when choosing Progressive was to install the Snapshot device in my car and let it track my driving. I was using it for about a month when I realized it just wasn’t going to work for me. I had to take it out and send it back. Why?
Well I found it made me a worse driver. I was so preoccupied with what I could be doing wrong and getting those dreadful “beeps” from the Snapshot device that I wasn’t focusing on just driving. I was afraid to stop on yellow lights because I may stop too quickly. I found that I was so overwhelmed with worry that the Snapshot was going to find fault with my driving.
I didn’t want to remove it at first. I mean, what if I was overthinking those beeps and I would really save money in the end? I started doing some research on others’ experiences. That is when I came upon this user’s post. After reading that, I knew it wasn’t worth the worry and anxiety I felt from the Snapshot. The very next day I took it out of my car and immediately shipped it back. I couldn’t let this device control my mind while driving any longer!
Besides all that, I realized that I just didn’t drive enough. Working in ratios, the more miles you have the less those beeps really mean. If you have 2 beeps over 10 miles that is bad news… but if you have 2 beeps over 100 miles, it means much less. Understand? I use my car for local driving. I don’t have long distances to drive and rarely go more than 10 miles in a week. The Snapshot wasn’t logical for my driving usage and those beeps were really going to hurt me in the end.
Has anyone used the Progressive Snapshot device and had a good experience? I’d love to hear from you. In the end, for me, it was just not worth it. I wanted to focus on driving safely because that is what I do and not focus on this little thing plugged into my car that may beep at me when someone pulls out in front of me and I have to slam on my breaks!
Piper says
I’ve done it several times for different vehicles. I think anyone doing “normal” driving is not going to qualify for big discounts simply because the time of day you drive and how far you drive are big factors in the discounts. If you are commuting to a day job or shuttling kids around to doctors/school/activities, you aren’t getting the big discount :p Perhaps that is why I wasn’t too worried about what data it was collecting on me? My driving didn’t change, most of the time I wasn’t even aware of the beeps. I knew I’d be getting the minimum standard discount and that was okay–its been a few years since I had snapshot plugged in and I”m still getting the discount so I’m happy! My rate is so much lower than any other company I’ve price checked with and that little extra Snapshot discount is nice to add onto my already low rate :p