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I adjusted my insurance from 12,000 miles to 5000 miles per year and saved a few hundred bucks.
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Did that work for you?
I drive less than 100, haven’t been asked for my odometer reading.
Not sure what you mean. If you are asking if I was able to read the transcript, yes. I had to click the link “transcript” of course. Usually I’m not able to read NY Times webpages, constant whining to read the article I need to sign up first . Thanks for the odometer/insurance feedback. It seems I’m in the minoriity.
Whoops! I can too. I made a mistake. Sorry. I notice I read faster than they talk, but I listen while I’m cooking, cleaning, walking, working out, etc.
My insurance company asks me annually about the mileage on my car. They don’t ask for proof; only what I tell them. However, I suspect when the dealer report to CARFAX on each service visit , insurance company gets this info ? Maybe state inspection also report this info ? Because the insurance guy over the phone could tell me a lot of details about my car, which I found interesting.
Edit: Just found this: Insurance companies can get your mileage without your knowledge. Here's how it may cost you - ABC7 San Francisco
A few years back, I had a different insurance company and they sent yearly surveys for cars that were below their threshold for discounted mileage. You attested to the anticipated yearly mileage in order to receive the discount. I’m sure they were cross checking against the RMV records from yearly emissions testing… My current company does it automatically based on records from annual testing. Methods vary…
When you apply for insurance, you have to submit your VIN to the insurance company. The VIN actually tells the insurance company a LOT about your vehicle, including when and where it was manufactured, the exact model and trim line, engine size and type, the body style, and other possibly unique features of your vehicle.
If you haven’t contacted your insurance company to notify them that you hardly ever drive your car, you’ve likely been cheating yourself out of a discount:
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Yes. I know this. Thanks for the reminder. The details the insurance guy over the phone knows include:
- Current mileage.
- When I took the car in for service.
And a few more.
Thanks. I believe it works in tranches and the lowest for my current insurer is 6,000, but I’ll ask.
American Express wanted me to update income etc. Forget about it. Member since 80 or so, you want to cancel me go ahead. 1 year ago nothing yet. Had to talk to a bank person to order more checks. We shared online screen and he could not figure it out either. He finally put the order through. He suggested going through the smart phone app, Sorry I am an old computer guy and the less avenues of exposure the better.
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‘General Motors Quits Sharing Driving Behavior With Data Brokers’
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/technology/gm-onstar-driver-data.html
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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/technology/general-motors-spying-driver-data-consent.html
Automakers have been selling data about the driving behavior of millions of people to the insurance industry. In the case of General Motors, affected drivers weren't informed, and the tracking led insurance companies to charge some of them more for premiums. I'm the reporter who broke the story. I recently discovered that I'm among the drivers who was spied on.My husband and I bought a G.M.-manufactured 2023 Chevrolet Bolt in December. This month, my husband received his “consumer disclosure files” from LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Verisk, two data brokers that work with the insurance industry and that G.M. had been providing with data. (He requested the files after my article came out in March, heeding the advice I had given to readers.)
My husband’s LexisNexis report had a breakdown of the 203 trips we had taken in the car since January, including the distance, the start and end times, and how often we hard-braked or accelerated rapidly. The Verisk report, which dated back to mid-December and recounted 297 trips, had a high-level summary at the top: 1,890.89 miles driven; 4,251 driving minutes; 170 hard-brake events; 24 rapid accelerations, and, on a positive note, zero speeding events.
I had requested my own LexisNexis file while reporting, but it didn’t have driving data on it. Though both of our names are on the car’s title, the data from our Bolt accrued to my husband alone because the G.M. dealership listed him as the primary owner.
G.M.'s spokeswoman had told me that this data collection happened only to people who turned on OnStar, its connected services plan, and enrolled in Smart Driver, a gamified program that offers feedback and digital badges for good driving, either at the time of purchase or via their vehicle’s mobile app.
That wasn’t us – and I had checked to be sure. In mid-January, again while reporting, I had connected our car to the MyChevrolet app to see if we were enrolled in Smart Driver. The app said we weren’t, and thus we had no access to any information about how we drove.
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Well, here’s a case where “There ought to be a Law!” applies. Companies and government agencies should be required to not keep any data they obtain for only as long as it is useful for their conducting business - and only that data which is essential.
For example, cell phone location. They should keep that data just long enough to know where they need to put new towers or new equipment for volume. Yesa, Yes, I realize it is valuable for the police, but the police only need the data for a short time after the crime.
But I am sure that we just do not have the people in the US Congress who can do this for the benefit of the people, not companies!
I’m not sure how much privacy a person should expect when driving a car. After all it takes place almost exclusively on public property in full public view. Corporate/gov’t spying on person inside their home – like gathering data from their high-tech refrigerator – that is another matter…
Your car IS private property, is it not? So the owner should be able to control what info or,if any info is given out.
How can a third party track your location using your cell phone? Maybe they can locate the phone within a cell tower range, but unless they manipulate the phone to turn on GPS tracking, I doubt that you can be accurately tracked. I have contacted 911 and suggested that they just track my phone to see where I was reporting an incident and the responder said that they can’t track my phone even if I allow it.
An Uber driver and their riders seem to be able to match up their locations. I have no experience w/using Uber or even w/smart phone GPS though. But is the Uber/rider match-up function fundamentally different from a third party tracking your location using your cell phone?
Both the Uber (and the like) driver and the customer have an Uber app on their smart phone… Yes apps can/will use your GPS for tracking…
How do you think google maps can show how heavy the traffic is on all those roads?