How I Saved 30% with Snapshot

You may remember way back to the end of March when I found out how much I was going to save as my preliminary discount with Progressive for participation in the Snapshot Driving Discount program.

No?  Well, fear not, for I have the hyperlink here: <http://hardinln.blogspot.com/2012/03/30-discount-yes-please.html>

The little device was kept in my car for a total of 5 months.  I recently mailed it back and was awarded the full 30% savings on my Progressive car insurance plan based on my driving habits.  This is a savings that I will get to keep as long as I choose Progressive as my insurer!  The grading rubric, as you could call it, is a savings based on how much I drive (miles), when I drive (time of day), and how aggressive I drive (i.e. hard breaking: a decrease of at least 7 mph per second).

This is a sample of what I saw online.  It defined the areas of
judgement regarding my driving, as well as updating me daily
regarding my mileage and number of hard breaks, which made it
easy for me to mentally keep track of my driving habits. 

Before I signed up for the discount, I read about other people's not so positive experiences posted on other blogs.  I don't know all the details about how they drive, but I do know that I signed up anyway because of how little I drive.  I live in an urban environment and I walk to work almost every day.  I bought my car at the end of September last year and have yet to drive 4,500 miles.  My car will last forever at this rate!

You can ask my friends about my experience though, and they will tell you the only reason I stuck it out was because of the possibility of saving money.  I don't have the greatest driving record...so with two tickets and an at fault accident, this means that my 30% savings was almost $300 for a 6 month plan!  However, knowing that someone would be judging my potential discount based on the little info the device sent to Progressive made me a very paranoid driver.  I avoided driving at almost all costs and was very extremely passive when I did drive.

Overall, all frustrations put aside, it was well worth my energy to have participated in Progressive's Snapshot driving discount, because I will save $600 this year alone!