Before we get started, I feel it’s only fair to offer a full disclosure: I despise insurance. I feel like it’s nothing more than a glorified practice in legalized highway robbery. Just so we’re clear.
If you like the security of having insurance coverage, that’s great. What really gets my goat is being required by the government to have it, but I digress. I suppose it’s necessary to mandate auto insurance in order to protect other drivers on the road. It still doesn’t mean I have to like it.
That isn’t to say that having insurance isn’t helpful; I’ve had to use benefits from my insurance on more than one occasion, and it was nice to be covered when the time came. The hoops you have to jump through, however, and the impact that filing a claim has on your rates hardly seems worth it unless it’s a major, major crisis.
If you like the security of having insurance coverage, that’s great. What really gets my goat is being required by the government to have it, but I digress. I suppose it’s necessary to mandate auto insurance in order to protect other drivers on the road. It still doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Getting Affordable Auto Insurance
f there’s one thing that irritates me more than the government telling me I have to do something, it’s the government sticking its big nose into my private business. If I want to purchase 1985 Mustang Parts online, I don’t think it’s any concern of the government as to my motivation behind it. Again, I digress.
This time, it’s not really the government who’s doing the poking and prodding. It’s the insurance companies themselves. In what I suppose is an effort to be more competitive, some insurance companies are now offering the opportunity to qualify for even lower rates based on usage. There’s a huge catch, though.
In order to get usage-based rates, the company has to know how you’re using your vehicle. This means that you’ll have to agree to install some type of tracking device in your car so that the company can keep tabs on how you behave behind the wheel. It may sound like a great deal if you’re a good driver… until you really start to think about it.
License to Spy
The tracking device doesn’t just monitor how fast you’re going at any given time. It also tracks where you go, how many miles you drove to get there, and even what time you do all this driving. You’ll also have to submit yourself for monitoring on how hard you apply the brakes and how quickly you accelerate.
For some, the potential 30% savings from allowing this tracking may seem worth the total invasion of privacy. For me, well, I’ll just stick with what I have. It’s hard enough to have some semblance of privacy these days as it is, without willingly handing over a license to spy to my insurance company. It isn’t that I have anything to hide; I just don’t like the feeling of knowing someone’s analyzing every move I make.
Michelle is an aspiring writer with a passion for blogging. She enjoys writing about a vast variety of topics and loves that blogging gives her the opportunity to publicly voice her thoughts and share advice with an unlimited audience.
