One woman enrolled in the Progressive Insurance Snapshot program warns that the risk of penalties might outweigh the savings. This month Kailyn Richards (@kailynrichardson1) posted a video to alert other drivers and call out Progressive about the potential rate increases associated with the savings program. Since its posting, the video has garnered over 64,000 views.
Richardson and her husband initially joined the Progressive Snapshot program to secure the quoted insurance rate. She now shares her experiences with the device since their enrollment six months ago.
“So what this Snapshot device does is it pretty much watches how you’re driving, in the sense that it really looks for hard stops—that’s the biggest one. It does like one beep, two [beeps], three [beeps], and I think I’ve even gotten four beeps before, but pretty much that’s like your ‘Oh crap’ beep. Like there goes my insurance,” she began.
Being penalized for avoiding accidents
Richardson identified concerns from two real-life situations, which she details, where she felt the Snapshot device might encourage poor driving decisions due to fear of penalties and the risk of an insurance rate increase.
“But here’s the issue: Example one. So my husband and I […] were going to the grocery store the other day and a light turned yellow and he’s like ‘Oh, gotta speed up’ because he can’t slam on the brakes because obviously, if he slams on the brakes, there goes my insurance. It’s gonna go up,” she explained.
She added, “So we were like joking, like guess if a cop like pulls you over [for] going through the red light, it’s like ‘Sorry sir, I can’t slam on my brakes to make the red light because otherwise, my insurance goes up.’”
In another instance, Richardson recalls a time when her husband had to slam on the brakes to avoid a potential accident.
“[…] We were on like country roads the other day, and there was a car that was passing, like coming straight at our vehicle, like passing like two, three other vehicles in the other lane. It’s one lane both ways and so obviously my husband had to like slam on the brakes immediately, [or] we literally would have crashed into this car going like 65 miles an hour,” Richardson continued.
“Oh, so what happens? It goes off three times. Oh cool! There goes an increase on our insurance, because it beeped at us, because my husband saved our lives, so Progressive, you need to figure your Snapshot out.”
At the end of the video, Richardson issues a warning directly to Progressive.
“So get it together or you’re actually gonna lose a good customer,” she cautioned.
How the Progressive Snapshot works
According to Progressive, the Snapshot program is marketed as a way to “reward you for good driving.” Described as a “usage-based” insurance plan, premiums are determined by personalized data points such as driving speed, braking, and mileage, rather than traditional, generalized factors used to set car insurance rates.
Hard braking—defined by Progressive as “decreases in speed of about seven mph per second or greater”—will trigger a beep from the Snapshot device. This feedback is intended to help drivers improve their driving habits.
The Progressive website lays out a list of tips for maximizing Snapshot discounts and minimizing penalties, including:
- Avoiding hard braking
- Steering clear of late-night driving
- Reducing overall driving time
- Refraining from phone use while driving if using the Snapshot mobile app
However, the fine print does caution potential customers that there is a risk of higher rates due to high-risk driving habits. It states, “Your rate may increase with high-risk driving. But, only about [two] out of 10 drivers actually get an increase.”
Commenters weighed in on the Progressive Snapshot penalties
The comment section was filled with people echoing Richardson’s sentiments.
“I’m an agent and will never put this in my car. The app dings you for streaming music as phone use,” one comment read.
“The hard breaking makes no sense to me. Penalizing drivers for being alert and having quick response time,” another person wrote.
“Incentive to run red lights,” a commenter said, agreeing with Richardson.
“Had them for over 15 years [and] they have been good. I’ll pay a slightly higher premium to not have a tracking device in my vehicles. Google tracking me enough already.”
@kailynrichardson1 Progressive is currently on my 💩 list. #insurance #carinsurance #finances #vehicle #driving #record #progressive #snapshot ♬ original sound – Kailyn Richardson
Nonetheless, despite the penalties she discussed in her TikTok, Richardson has chosen to reenroll in the program. When a commenter mentioned returning the Snapshot device immediately after attempting to use it, Richardson responded: “We’re going on 7 months of it now! renewed again it was the lowest rate out of 15 carriers.”
Richardson did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via TikTik Direct Message. We also reached out to Progressive.
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