Over the years, we’ve seen the launch out of several drive tracking programs from several notable car insurance company. A number of them include Allstate’s Drive wise, Progressive’s Snapshot and even GEICO’s Drive Easy program.
Talking about the Geico drive easy program, we’ve seen tons of queries about how they work, their importance, and if they could hurt their users. This article covers everything you need to know.
Can GEICO drive easy hurt you?
The simple answer is Yes. GEICO drive easy program have a chance of hurting you. And it’s worth mentioning that this is inclusive to almost every other car insurance tracking program.
You might have heard a lot of good stuff about the GEICO drive easy program and how it could potentially provide up to 25% discount in your auto insurance fee.
Probably you’re in the verge of joining of the platform, or already on the platform. At this point, you might want to make proper research, basically to know profitable it is and if there are any potential harm involved. Because, of course, you should.
Can GEICO drive easy hurt you?
Yes. The GEICO drive easy program could hurt you. This can either be directly or indirectly.
But how, you might want to ask?
Well, Geico drive easy could hurt you when:
- Your driving data is used against you
- The Geico drive easy sensor misreads your action
- The Geico drive easy programs increases your insurance rates
Your driving data is used against you
Yes, you heard that right. Inasmuch as the Geico drive easy program is possibly meant for your goodwill, the data extracted from your driving habits could be a threat to you.
When you allow a car insurance company to install a telematics device on your car, via a smartphone or dedicated device, you’re indirectly giving data to resolve a claim in the case of an accident.
We all know how car insurance companies are after minimizing the amount for coverage.
An opposing car insurance company could collect your behavior data and would be like, “you made a sharp turn when crossing,” just to put the claim on you and your insurance company.
The Geico drive easy sensor misreads your action
The GEICO drive easy sensor is not a human being. The worst of it all is that it’s also not a dedicated device installed on cars, rather, an app installed on smartphones.
Even though the company claims how good of an app and how it does detect passengers mode and drivers mode, freely, it’s not always accurate.
In addition, the GEICO drive easy programs only track cars, not minding what is on your way, whether they’re pedestrians, cars, animals, etc.
Take for instance, you were driving on a highway and decided to make a quick turn or hard break due to a sudden sight of a cat few meters away.
While this is the best thing you should have done, the Geico drive easy sensors doesn’t want to know. It’s just going to go straight to penalize you.
The GEICO drive easy programs increases your insurance rate
While, GEICO drive easy program is initially meant to place a discount on customers (as the company claims) you could also end up increasing your insurance rate.
You might be a good driver, however there are levels to good driving, at least from what we’ve seen from a telematics sensor like GEICO drive easy.
For instance, by steadily driving late in the night, you’re tagged risky, hence, a bad driver. As a result, you could get a relatively lower score from the platform.
Below are some of the things the Geico easy program looks into:
- The time of day you drive
- How often you drive
- Braking
- Speed
- Acceleration and braking speeds
- Sharp turns
- Phone usage while driving
Is the Geico drive easy a good idea?
The GEICO drive easy program could be a good idea.
However, it all depends. While it could impressively discount your insurance rate if you follow their driving ethics, it could also increase your insurance policy. So, it’s a two-way thing.
It’s all best if you’re able to know how possible you can maintain their driving ethics of avoiding driving late in the nights, quick acceleration, hard break, driving long hours, sharp turns, etc., for a period of 6 months.
If you can adjust to that, kudos. You could give the program a try.
On the other hand, if you should mess up with a low score for the period of 6 months, you stand a chance of crazily increasing your insurance rate for the rest of your stay with GEICO.
How to cancel Geico drive easy program
Now, you might have already joined the Geico drive easy program but decided to change your mind along the way. Is there a way to cancel the program?
Yes. You can cancel the Geico drive easy program.
In a recent post, we made an article about how to get around the drive easy program. That talks about to how to cancel the program off your GEICO account.
While you can turn off the Geico drive easy program directly from the app which is already installed on your device, the best and safe way to cancel the Geico drive easy program is to contact Geico customer care at 800-841-3000.
At this point, a customer agent would be referred to you.
It’s worth mentioning that if you want to enroll after a period of 30 days of staying on the platform, your telematics driving score may be added to the guage of your auto insurance policy. Plus, this is way more effective when you had a lower score.
Final Thoughts
The GEICO drive easy program could hurt you, from a variety of perspective. You could get hurt when your driving data is used against you, the Geico drive easy sensor misreads your action and when your insurance rates get increased.
