Car cover news
24/12/2010
Progressive offers GPS car insurance ‘Snapshot'
Drivers in the US state of Virginia are the latest to be offered a new type of GPS car insurance from the Progressive group.
Called ‘Snapshot', it offers an extra discount on existing Progressive insurance policies for customers willing to fit a palm-sized GPS tracker to their cars.
The ‘black box' records mileage data, the ratio of daylight to night-time driving and the frequency of sudden stops over a period of thirty days – referred to as ‘taking the snapshot' – before being sent to Progressive for processing.
The retrieved data is used to provide a more accurate and, hopefully, cheaper car insurance rate.
"The Snapshot Discount is transforming auto insurance," said a Progressive spokesman. "For the first time, drivers can pay for car insurance based on how they drive."
Snapshot discounts are capped at thirty percent for the most conservative drivers, and those whose habits run to more miles and more sudden breaking have been warned that this kind of GPS car insurance may not lower the price of their renewal quotes.