Progressive® Insurance Survey: 63% of Drivers Don’t Know They Pay Higher Car Insurance Rates to Subsidize Bad Driving of Others

New “Rate Suckers” national marketing campaign educates, empowers consumers to take control with Snapshot®

MAYFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Would you be upsetto learn you’re paying more for car insurance because of others’ bad driving habits? Progressive® Insurance recently surveyed 500 consumers about their knowledge of auto insurance pricing and found:

• 63 percent of respondents didn’t know that the bad driving of others affected their car insurance rates
• Men were less likely than women to think bad drivers affect everyone’s rates
• At 30 percent, young consumers (ages 18-34) had the lowest awareness of any age group
• 89 percent of respondents said they would be upset if they found out they’re paying more to offset the costs of underpriced drivers

In its new, national integrated marketingcampaign launching today, Progressive brings a problem most drivers don’t know they have into sudden focus. In the ads, which will complement the Superstore campaign currently in the market, “Rate Suckers” jump and attach themselves to passing cars. The solution is Snapshot, which repels Rate Suckers once plugged into the car’s onboard diagnostic port.

“A Rate Sucker is simply an over-the-top manifestation of an underpriced driver and can be anybody—your mom, the guy next door, the waiter at your favorite restaurant,” said Jeff Charney, Progressive’s chief marketing officer. “We all probably know somebody we’re subsidizing. Snapshot helps solve that problem; showing consumers that their good driving can reduce the impact other drivers have on their rate. This campaign is our line in the sand to the industry and a wakeup call to consumers.”

Insurance companies commonly price consumers by comparing them to drivers with whom they share basic characteristics, like age, gender, or vehicle year, make and model. These factors do not directly reflect individual driving habits, but until Snapshot, there wasn’t a simple, reliable way to include how a driver actually drives when calculating a customer’s rate. The result: Rate Suckers paying less than the risk they present, and good drivers paying …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance