Rental car companies have been keeping tabs on how you drive. For the last ten years or so, they have reportedly been checking on how fast you drive, how far and where you go. Not so amazing. But wait. Insurance companies are beginning to take a peep too. "Now insurance companies are beginning to tap into the information that GPS units can reveal about drivers," according reports in the news and at ConsumerTraveler.Com.
And bring your magnifying glass to read all that horrible fine print before you sign the rent-car- agreements to use their GPS system.
Rental car companies have been keeping tabs on how you drive. For the last ten years or so, they have reportedly been checking on how fast you drive, how far and where you go. Not so amazing. But wait, there's more. Insurance companies are beginning to take a peek, too. "Now insurance companies are beginning to tap into the information that GPS units can reveal about drivers, " according to several reports in the news and here, at ConsumerTraveler.Com.
A concept the insurers are calling "pay-as-you-drive" insurance, helps them to accurately target discounts at careful drivers, and charge more spirited customers an appropriately higher amount. That seems reasonable. Certainly good doctors with better records probably have lower malpractice insurance rates, right?
Many programs offered now, including "Snapshot" from Progressive, or State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.'s "Drive Safe and Save" initiative, do promise potential customers that drivers will get only discounts, and no surcharges or extra fees, as a result of allowing the insurance company to watch them drive. These companies say that customers can get discounts of 30%, 40% and even as much as 50% to drivers who do well according to their electronic monitors. The Hartford Financial Services Group has begun using a usage-based program called TrueLane. State Farm says the average customer who signs up for one of State Farm's programs gets about 10% off. Allstate Insurance Co.'s DriveWise program offers a 10% discount just for signing up!
But driver beware. Instead of getting the promised carrots, you may get the sticks--higher premiums attached to not coming up to their standards. Sometimes rental companies could even refuse a new customer based on records shown.
A rental company may actually be able disable the automobile from the main office, if the agency doesn't like the way, or where, the car is being driven. Of courses there are advantages, perhaps. General Motors' roadside assistance service, OnStar, uses GPS to locate subscribers when they call for help. The insurance companies also claim that being able to track you in your car will ultimately lower the prices for everyone...that it will help you win your late-fee arguments, (because you'll have proof), and will help them to get help to disabled vehicles. And - here's a big one - they say it will help find stolen cars.
What is best? You choose. Or bring your own GPS when you travel.
