Allstate Drivewise Review + Final Results (2020)
I’ve personally had Allstate Insurance for just over a year (I switched from Progressive), which means I’ve been able to go through two full auto insurance renewals using the Drivewise feature on their mobile app. At both renewals, I’ve gotten check back for 27% of my premium (!!!) but there are a few things I’m not a fan about with the app.
What is Drivewise from Allstate?
Drivewise allows you to lower your insurance rates by tracking your personal driving habits through Allstate’s mobile app. The safer you drive, the more you’ll save in the form of cash back on your auto insurance policy renewal.
How much does Allstate pay you for safe driving?
You’ll earn up to 25% cash back if you sign up for Drivewise each renewal when you track at least 50 trips using their mobile app. More specifically, here’s what Allstate pays you in the form of cash back for participating in Drivewise:
- Up to 10% cash back for signing up for the Drivewise program
- Up to 25% cash back every six months on renewal
- Additional rewards points for completing safe driving challenges, which can be redeemed for discounted gift cards
In the year that I’ve been with Allstate Insurance, I’ve earned more than $200 in cash back by using their Drivewise feature. Check it out:
What does Drivewise track?
Allstate needs to track a few things to determine if you’re a safe driver. This sounds creepy, but it is necessary for them to provide you with a personalized insurance premium. When tracking your driving, Allstate is watching the following:
- Speed – do you drive under 80mph? Allstate considers any speed under 80mph to be safe, as long as you’re driving at a reasonable hour and limit hard breaking.
- Hours – do you drive at a safe time? Driving between the hours of 11PM – 4AM on weekdays and 11PM – 5AM on weekend will give you negative marks.
- Stops – do you slam on your breaks? Allstate tracks hard breaking and extreme breaking. Hard braking occurs when you decelerate 8 mph or more (but less than 10 mph) in one second. Extreme braking occurs when you decelerate at 10 mph or more in one second.
Allstate also uses your phone’s GPS to track your location so they know where you’re driving to while using the Drivewise feature. I personally have permissions set so that Allstate only knows my location when I have the app open.
Final Drivewise Results
I’m going to keep using Drivewise. It is an easy way to save money as I typically drive locally. You only need to track 50 trips each policy period so its not like Allstate knows everywhere you go.
I do have a complaint about Drivewise, though…
Allstate’s mobile app isn’t the best, but it is getting better. It regularly crashes and drains my battery FAST! This is likely due to using my GPS to track my location, speed, etc. but it can be annoying.
Overall, if Allstate offers you the lowest priced auto insurance, I recommend adding Drivewise to your policy to save even more money. It is easy to use and I love getting a check in the mail every few months.
4 Comments
Drivewise is NEVER quick to raise percentage refund amount but quick as hell to lower it.
1) Knowing I can turn it off is nice because I can be a passenger at night or driving with a speed demon and how can the app tell I’m not the driver?
2) I often drive on a nightmare of a highway where I am regularly cut off *because* I leave a safe stopping distance between me and the car ahead. So I have to slam on my brakes. So that is a flaw in their thinking.
3) I find the app often turns itself off and I lose ‘credit’ for the trips I have taken.
4) With the pandemic, they gave rebates for a few months, but that has stopped. Not fair.
Ever drive on highways out in the mid-west, where the speed limits are 70mph or greater? Try keeping up with traffic and not go over 80. Remember, the greater risk of an accident is speed variance among vehicles, not merely speed.
We first got DW 4+ years ago before the app. Used it for 6 months, got a great rebate and my driving record matched my behavior. All was fine so for the next year+ I forgot about it until I get an email that said for the past year my refund was 0%!!!!! So looked at the record and had hundreds and hundreds (600+) hard braking events. It appeared that Allstate updated the device to be more sensitive and provide many more false braking events. So I got rid of DW for a while. First I know for a fact hard braking events that happen are NOT events at all – there is no way I get 600 events and not know it. Second I had hard braking events in my yard in my farm truck driving on my own property – NOT! So a year ago I installed the app and same thing happens and I monitor the accuracy of the app weekly and see all the odd times it says I braked hard. I believe they sensitize the app so that they do not have to payout what they promise. Also I will say that type of car might also make a difference. We have a prius which tends to have hard grabbing brakes since the braking energy is used to charge the car and that seems to make the app worse in false braking events too. I have also had hard extreme braking times that did NOT show up on the app. HUH??? So if you use DW be aware the pain and price you pay in the design flaws of the system and do NOT think the data is very accurate.