The big data of bad driving, and how insurers plan to track your every turn

 

Did you swipe a card at a gas pump? Insurers frequently buy purchase history data from banks and credit card companies. Nothing new.

They may also be getting something directly from the car, nothing to add there sorry.

 

Did you swipe a card at a gas pump? Insurers frequently buy purchase history data from banks and credit card companies. Nothing new.

I don't see how they can tie fuel purchases by CC to a given car, and even if they could, how they could relate that reliably to miles.

I haven't reviewed my CC providers' privacy policies recently - I should - but I'd be very surprised if they could (or would) sell information at that level of detail.

That seems pretty far-fetched to me. I'd suspect a source like annual inspections as most likely, or maybe a service like CarFax if whoever you use for routine service reports to those.

Fuelly? How much data do they collect from you? Do they ask for a VIN? If they do ask, do you have to provide a valid one? What is their privacy policy?

 

Unlikely they got it from the car. The EDR does transmit information to Starlink. But, Federal Law prevents Starlink from sharing that information with anyone without a search warrant. The only way to get a search warrant is if your car is involved in a fatal accident. The information is considered private. Therefore, the data belongs only to you. Your car insurance company could get the mileage from annual inspections, car service, credit cards, and other public sources (like carfax), etc.


My car insurance company does the same thing. I service the car myself, and use a company credit cards. So, the only source is mandatory annual vehicle inspection. When they called and wanted to know the mileage, I told them I was going to switch to a new insurance company, so it didn't matter. And, yes I was over the limit. They sent me a renewal policy anyway at a great rate. So, I renewed for another year. I guess they like my money.



You can always switch to a different insurance company.

 

Depending on your state...state inspections and annual registrations. It’s also completely possible that’s just a cover letter fishing for premium increase.

 

I received a letter from State Farm this week saying in part, "The calculated estimate of your expected annual mileage, based on available verification information, is greater than the low annual mileage threshold for the rate you are being charges."

Which it is. My rate is based on driving 7,500 miles per year and I'm going to hit 10,000 because of a couple of lengthy road trips. My question is how does SF know this? They have never asked me to estimate my miles driven or for an odometer reading when renewing my premium.

It’s also completely possible that’s just a cover letter fishing for premium increase.

That's always a possibility. Can you write back and ask what their estimates are and where they got the data?

Meanwhile, you may want to be shopping for a new insurer.