Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

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F150HD
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Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by F150HD »

Any AmFam customers signed up for and use this? Curious what your experiences have been and what pitfalls there may be to this program.

https://www.amfam.com/insurance/car/knowyourdrive

Being tracked everywhere you go (via app)....

...Recent advances in smartphone technology have allowed some insurance companies like American Family Insurance to only require an app for UBI programs. Through GPS and other location-tracking features, the car insurance monitoring app will record your driving habits while you’re on the road...

Factors like speed, vehicle usage, braking, acceleration, time of day, and other driving behaviors are monitored with your...app. After a period of observation, you may qualify for a discount on your auto insurance premium — depending on how safely you drive.


....Track your distracted driving behaviors like texting while driving and challenging you to earn approval checkmarks when you drive distraction-free

https://www.amfam.com/resources/article ... -insurance

Youtube video: KnowYourDrive: Take control and Save up to 20% on car insurance costs

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criticalmass
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by criticalmass »

It is interesting that they use an app on your smartphone for their data collection. So if I take my phone with me while commuting via bus or train, I get to pay more auto insurance for the privilege?
No, thank you. If they want to measure mileage, read the odometer once a year or whatever.
Last edited by criticalmass on Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
spammagnet
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by spammagnet »

criticalmass wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:06 pm It is interesting that they use an app on your smartphone for their data collection. So if I take my phone with me while commuting via bus or train, I get to pay more auto insurance for the privilege?
No, thank you. If they want to measure mileage, read the odometer once a year or whatever.
The insurance companies want to track acceleration and deceleration. Some offer an ODBC plug-in in lieu of phones. While I won't do either, the ODBC is at least limited to monitoring the car, not you.
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quantAndHold
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by quantAndHold »

Here’s a review: https://clearsurance.com/blog/american- ... ive-review

It all seems super invasive. There is no way I would let anyone collect that much data about me.
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peetsperk
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by peetsperk »

No thank you. I'm not selling my privacy to an insurance company for an implied promise of a discount. In my experience, insurance companies are some of the least trustworthy organizations I routinely encounter. Quite frankly, it's an industry where integrity is often lacking.
spammagnet
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by spammagnet »

quantAndHold wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:18 pm... There is no way I would let anyone collect that much data about me.
While I would not do so voluntarily, do you really think that much data about you has not been collected already?
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dwickenh
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by dwickenh »

This is being offered by multiple Insurance Companies including the internet type like Esurance. I have declined due to a lack of privacy and their ability to increase rates for mileage extremes. They say they won't increase rates based on the information- I don't believe this will be the case after the market is saturated.
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bob60014
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by bob60014 »

spammagnet wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:07 am
quantAndHold wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:18 pm... There is no way I would let anyone collect that much data about me.
While I would not do so voluntarily, do you really think that much data about you has not been collected already?
Also, anyone driving a vehicle that have apps (most major car manufacturers) to remote start, check if the doors are locked, provide maintenance alerts showing your current mileage? Guess what, they likely have your full driving info, hard stops, fast acceleration, etc.. in real time.
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MillennialFinance19
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by MillennialFinance19 »

I was doing this with State Farm until recently. They sent me a letter stating that their conditions have changed, and that they will now use the data to assess fault in accidents. I threw away the tracking beacons and ended the service at that point.
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F150HD
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by F150HD »

dwickenh wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:10 am This is being offered by multiple Insurance Companies including the internet type like Esurance. I have declined due to a lack of privacy and their ability to increase rates for mileage extremes. They say they won't increase rates based on the information- I don't believe this will be the case after the market is saturated.
Same sentiment. I feel the data may be used in directly the opposite way it is intended (eventually if not already)

Was thinking....if you were having dinner/drinks w/ friends at the local tavern, ones risk 'increases' (DUI etc) so I could see this being tallied against you.
MillennialFinance19 wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:27 am I was doing this with State Farm until recently. They sent me a letter stating that their conditions have changed, and that they will now use the data to assess fault in accidents. I threw away the tracking beacons and ended the service at that point.
I wondered as such. If someone is in your car w/ you and using your phone while 'you' drive (i.e. a child), it would look like you're texting and driving for example.
Colorado14
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by Colorado14 »

AmFam has notoriously high auto rates where I live; that may not be the case for you. However I would shop around for more affordable insurance before I would sign up for usage based tracking.
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

I'm looking at my auto policy (not state farm) right now and see that they have pretty accurate annual mileage numbers for all of our cars. I expect they're paying for mileage recorded during annual inspections.
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jpelder
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by jpelder »

I use the one via State Farm. I typically don't speed or break other traffic laws, and I'm not a hard accelerator, braker, or turner. So it's beneficial to me.
spammagnet
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by spammagnet »

Jack FFR1846 wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:24 am I'm looking at my auto policy (not state farm) right now and see that they have pretty accurate annual mileage numbers for all of our cars. I expect they're paying for mileage recorded during annual inspections.
I have GEICO insurance. With that comes a free subscription to a CarFax car maintenance app. Service events at a variety of providers all appear automatically. They know when I changed the oil and rotated the tires or had a recall service done. Mileage is sometimes part of the data. Clearly there's some mechanism for that data being sold on a broad scale.

You are a product. You don't own your data.
talzara
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by talzara »

criticalmass wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:06 pm It is interesting that they use an app on your smartphone for their data collection. So if I take my phone with me while commuting via bus or train, I get to pay more auto insurance for the privilege?
No, thank you. If they want to measure mileage, read the odometer once a year or whatever.
American Family's mileage-based program is KnowYourDrive. It uses a Bluetooth beacon to determine when you're driving your own car.

The OP asked about KnowYourDrive, which is a different program that is smartphone-only. It is easy to tell a car apart from a bus or a train by looking at the accelerometer and GPS data. It's harder to tell a car apart from another car, especially another car of the same make and model.

Instead of mileage, KnowYourDrive looks at how much time you spend traveling in your car. That is actually a better measurement because highways have fewer crashes per mile than city streets.
How does my driving behavior affect my discount?

Listed below are the key driving variables we use to calculate your program discount. Research has shown that these driving behaviors may increase the chance of having an accident. By adjusting your driving habits based on the feedback you receive from the app, you may improve your safe driving behavior and boost your program discount. KnowYourDrive gives you an advantage by helping you learn safer driving habits while empowering you to save on your car insurance.
  • Hours driven – Measures how much the vehicle is driven.
  • Sudden braking – Measures those times when the vehicle stops or slows down very abruptly.
  • Sudden acceleration – Measures those times when the vehicle accelerates very quickly from a stop or while driving.
  • Evening driving – Measures the total driving time that occurs between the hours of 6 p.m. and 12 a.m.
  • Late night driving – Measures the total driving time that occurs between the hours of 12 a.m. and 4 a.m.
  • City driving – Measures the amount of time spent driving at a speed less than 45 mph.
  • High speed – The program uses approximately 80 mph as the threshold for high speed.
https://www.amfam.com/resources/program ... drive-faqs
talzara
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by talzara »

spammagnet wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:13 pm The insurance companies want to track acceleration and deceleration. Some offer an ODBC plug-in in lieu of phones. While I won't do either, the ODBC is at least limited to monitoring the car, not you.
OBD (On-Board Diagnostics), not ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity).

American Family does not have an OBD-based UBI program. In fact, a lot of insurance companies no longer offer OBD-based programs. They don't believe OBD devices are worth the cost for a relatively small discount of around 25%.

Most Pay Per Mile (PPM) companies are still using OBD devices. Metromile and Allstate Milewise charge for every mile you drive, so a car that is driven 1 mile a year could pay 50-90% less than a car that is driven 12,000 miles a year. They need to collect accurate mileage readings because the premium is primarily based on mileage.

When companies switch from OBD to smartphones, the discount often becomes smaller. State Farm Drive Safe & Save used to be an OBD-based program that offered a maximum discount of 50%. It is now a smartphone-based program that offers a maximum discount of 30%.
talzara
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by talzara »

dwickenh wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:10 am This is being offered by multiple Insurance Companies including the internet type like Esurance. I have declined due to a lack of privacy and their ability to increase rates for mileage extremes. They say they won't increase rates based on the information- I don't believe this will be the case after the market is saturated.
They don't have to.

Low-mileage drivers are more likely to opt in to UBI, so the average mileage of the non-UBI risk pool will increase. This will increase rates on non-UBI policies.
realclemsongrad
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by realclemsongrad »

We used similar program from Safeco. Got about 20% discount on the policy. Of course we are trading our privacy.
rtt22
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by rtt22 »

I'm seriously considering switching from an Allstate traditional policy to an Allstate Milewise policy given that I'm driving like 10 miles a week now to grocery stores and back. Here's their FAQ https://www.allstate.com/auto-insurance/milewise.aspx (2nd half of page).

I'm relieved to see that there's a cap on the per-day miles, "What if I take a long trip? No problem. We cap the number of miles that you pay each day for each vehicle. Once you reach your cap, your miles are on us." Agent told me the cap is 40 miles per day.

Billing method: "Trip costs are deducted from your Milewise account after a trip is completed and processed, usually within a few hours. Your credit card on file is charged when your minimum account balance is reached, which depends on how much or little you drive." Almost like a tollway account :)
talzara
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by talzara »

rtt22 wrote: Thu Nov 11, 2021 8:37 pm I'm relieved to see that there's a cap on the per-day miles, "What if I take a long trip? No problem. We cap the number of miles that you pay each day for each vehicle. Once you reach your cap, your miles are on us." Agent told me the cap is 40 miles per day.
That is incorrect. The rate cap is 150 miles per day.

Allstate will charge you 40 miles for every day that it does not receive data from a car. You're only allowed a few disconnections with the 40-mile penalty. If you do it too often, you'll get dropped from the Milewise program for abuse.

Allstate Milewise is mostly a clone of the insurtech startup Metromile. Even the 150-mile cap was copied from the Metromile program.
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by TimeRunner »

Geico is also using a smartphone app. I'd be willing to have my car tracked, but not my phone. Also, they assume that if your phone is used while you are driving, it's the driver using the phone, and that's a strike against you. No thanks. I would expect Tesla, GM (OnStar), etc, to eventually get into or partner with insurance services that use the car data to determine insurance rate and have you subscribe to "insurance per mile driven".
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by jbmitt »

TimeRunner wrote: Thu Nov 11, 2021 9:43 pm Geico is also using a smartphone app. I'd be willing to have my car tracked, but not my phone. Also, they assume that if your phone is used while you are driving, it's the driver using the phone, and that's a strike against you. No thanks. I would expect Tesla, GM (OnStar), etc, to eventually get into or partner with insurance services that use the car data to determine insurance rate and have you subscribe to "insurance per mile driven".
Tesla is already partnered with several insurers. It varies by state but they are linked up with a couple of American Family subsidiaries. GM/ OnStar is also partnered with an AmFam subsidiary as well as several other companies.
biscuit5
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by biscuit5 »

I have American Family and a rep on the phone just brought this up. Is anyone using their app for a discount?

What specific drawbacks have you seen using the American Family app? I did read posts above already.
Last edited by biscuit5 on Sat Oct 08, 2022 10:51 am, edited 2 times in total.
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8foot7
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Re: Usage-Based Auto Insurance AmFam - anyone have? GPS tracking.....% discount

Post by 8foot7 »

I can’t imagine why anyone thinks this is a good idea. It is only but a (probably short) matter of time before this stuff is used against you.
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