I’m doing the Root car insurance test drive and on day three. To recap, I started this because I saw an ad for Root and heard there could be some major cost savings. That said, when I downloaded the app and started using it, I also realized my current company, Allstate, has a similar program called Drivewise which could lower my bill a bit too. I did a preliminary cost-comparison, and you can find that here, but the gist is that if I fall into the lower tier cost-wise with Root, they’ll still blow Allstate out of the water—perhaps by as much a $100 per month. So, I actually downloaded both apps and am using them at the same time and reporting the back here what my experiences are like. Both Allstate Drivewise and Root are GlitchyAs of this morning, the Root app says my test drive will take 6-8 weeks instead of 3-4 weeks. Last night, I realized the Allstate app was giving me errors saying there was a problem with the background app refresh. However, each time I’d go into the settings, the app refresh toggle would be set to “on” and faded, signifying I wasn’t allowed to turn it off. That’s pretty weird. I couldn’t do anything about it and repeated resets didn’t fix it. I took two drives this morning and didn’t really look at Root until after I was home from the second one. I think, at most, I spent 30 minutes behind the wheel, all on city streets. When I got home and checked Root, I realized I had the same error I was getting yesterday. It’s a generic error that tells me to fix my Motion an Fitness settings and that my rides aren’t being tracked. That’s a bummer because it means I probably wasn’t tracked during my morning drives. When I click the button to go to settings, everything looks ok. If I close out of the app and go back into it again, it’s fine. So, now I’m starting to wonder if this is an iOS issue; that perhaps Allstate Drivewise and Root are both flaking out because something’s up with the background app refresh- and nothing I can control via settings. Spoiler Alert: They’re unrelated problems. On the day I wrote this, I updated iOS (which did nothing for either app) and enabled background app refresh on Wi-Fi and cellular for all apps. The latter made Allstate Drivewise happy and the error warning disappeared. Root’s error continued on Day #4. I don’t know what’s causing the issue with it and have an email out to their customer service. Bye Bye Battery Life and DataMy home internet connection can sometimes flake out for a minute or so at a time, and when I can’t use the net well, I shut off Wi-Fi. Alas, I forgot I shut it off and now I’ve burned through a month of data in 3-4 days. Boo. Also, my phone used to go a whole day without a charge. I’m now having to charge it at least two, sometimes three, times a day. Double Boo. A Wired article says Root no longer tracks you once you’re insured, whereas Allstate’s program requires your tracking to remain on. So, it seems that for the sake of battery life and data, Root may be the better choice. Worse yet, the most I can hope for is a $38 savings per month with Allstate Drivewise, and most or half of that would probably go to paying for extra data, meaning Drivewise would be a wash at best. Boo. Allstate Drivewise Recognized My Afternoon Trip… Sort Of…Because of the errors and my delayed download, Allstate had not been tracking me thus far. However, I took an afternoon trip to a store that’s normally 15 minutes away via freeway, and one of my kiddos convinced me to stop for fast food on the way. The Allstate Drivewise app keeps a record of your trips and you can actually view them. Oddly enough, my trip record shows the trip to the fast food joint a mile away from my house, but not the second leg of the trip. I was really interested to see the data from Allstate because their app will tell you if you’ve done any hard braking or sped, whereas Root does not, and some of the Root reviews complain that they got denied because they drove on freeways in stop-and-go traffic and hit drive-throughs. Personally, I’m calling BS on those reviews. I’m betting those are the people who tailgate and drive like racecar drivers, sliding in and out of lanes, or drive aggressively. I don’t drive like that, so I’m eager to see if any rush hour traffic kills a score and those folks are right, or if they’re just bad drivers who got disqualified from Root because of that. Obviously, the two companies are unrelated, so their algorithms are going to be different, but I’m betting they’re similar enough that if Allstate tells me I’m driving bad, Root will have a problem with me as well, and vice versa. Time will tell. Follow Me on My Root Test DriveI’m documenting my Root test drive as I go. I don’t know at this point if I’ll even get a quote from them or if what they say will be compelling enough for me to make the switch from Allstate. However, I think sharing my story will help others, so I’ll continue journaling until I have enough info on both Allstate Drivewise and Root car insurance to make a decision. I’m also accepting guest posts and reviews from others who have tried Root or Allstate Drivewise, so if you’ve got something worthwhile to say, click “Share Your Story” on the main menu.
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