Root Car Insurance Reviews

Are you one of those careful drivers who has never been in an automobile accident? Do you rarely drive but are tired of paying $100 or more each month for basic auto insurance coverage? There is a new startup called Root Insurance that wants to shake up the auto insurance landscape and take on established providers like Geico. Let’s take a close-up look at how Root Car Insurance works and how it could save you serious money. Enter your zip code to compare online quotes. Check out why so many top Root Car Insurance reviews.

Better Rates for Low-Risk Profiles

The premise is simple, reward good drivers with better rates based on their lower risk profile. While some direct insurers offer savings up to 15%, Root car insurance can save drivers over 50%. So exactly how do they do it? The tech startup strictly focuses on excellent drivers who own smartphones and have lower-risk driving profiles. 

Root Auto Insurance began offering its service on October 25th, 2016. Customer rates are data-driven, based on a set of metrics. Using Telematics via a person’s smartphone, Root can provide cheaper rates than nearly any insurer in the U.S market for those drivers who pose the least risk of filing a claim. With a high degree of certainty, Root can predict which drivers are less likely to get into an auto accident by using complex metrics. 

Root Auto Insurance Only Sells Policies Through Smartphones

Root Auto Insurance has an advantage over other larger competitors because they only sell policies through smartphones. It eliminates massive infrastructure costs like renting costly buildings and hiring expensive agents. Founder and CEO Alex Timm states, “We only sell auto insurance on smartphones. This allows us to get the best drivers at lower rates.”

The company targets what is known as low-risk motorists. By downloading the Root Auto Insurance app, you can begin the qualification process. Currently, the Root Insurance app is on Android and the iPhone, and it only takes a couple of minutes to download. 

Once you’ve installed the application, the next step is to take your driver’s license and scan it in. After that, you will wait for about two weeks while your data, including your driving record, address, and other metrics, are analyzed.

Root Car Insurance Analyzes Your Driving Behavior

During the same two-week period, Root will comb through your personal information. Also, the app is actively analyzing your driving behavior and assessing your risk profile. Each move you make behind the wheel, including frequency of lane changes, stopping, and speeding, is critiqued and run through risk analysis from stopping and acceleration levels. Once the data gets crunched, Root will give you a price quote. One of Root Insurance Company’s differences from other competitors is that rates are calculated based on driving metrics, not a person’s credit rating, marital status, education, etc., like other carriers. Root can help drivers with bad credit get cheaper auto insurance because they do not base their rates on a driver’s credit rating.  

Root uses a Rigorous Criteria Process

So what happens to all the people who do not qualify for Root’s rigorous criteria? The answer is simple and what you would expect. They are referred to other mainstream insurers like Progressive or Esurance.

While the company did not state what percentage of applicants were approved, the number is probably around 20% or less. With about 223 million licensed U.S motorists, that is still a huge market the small insurer is going after. The startup is in Texas, Utah, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Kentucky, Arizona, Illinois, and Indiana.

In the following year, Root ins plans to roll out its coverage nationwide. Anyone not in the currently served states can sign-up and get notifications when the company begins covering their area.

Root Insurance Company History

Alex Timm’s insurance experience dates back to when he was 14 years old. He has always had a passion for the industry and sought ways to improve it. One way he decided to do so was by lowering premiums through recent advancements in technology.

Just like Uber can use smartphones to track driver’s behavior, Timm sought out the same technology to find good, safe drivers that deserved cheaper rates.

Lowest Risk Pool of Drivers

Alex started out at Nationwide after graduating from college but grew frustrated inside the large bureaucratic insurer. He was inspired to start his own company by harnessing technology’s power to create fairer, lower-priced auto insurance for drivers’ lowest risk pool. Fairness is at the core of Root auto coverage. This is one of the reasons why customers offer good Root Car Insurance reviews.

Alex says, “It’s all about giving fair deals to the safest drivers.” CEO Alex Timm first received his initial funding from a local venture firm, Drive Capital. They used the money to roll out service in Ohio initially and develop their app. Recently, Root has acquired further financing to roll out its service nationally.

Pros and Cons of Root Auto Insurance

The question now is whether motorists will want to have their driving regularly monitored to save on coverage. There are some obvious pros. For those that don’t mind, the savings can be as much as 50%.

$ 12 a month rates

The cheapest rates are $12 a month, which is about the best deal you can find anywhere. To get this rate, you need to have no accidents, drive safely, and not much. Getting Root can save you $700 or more per year, based on the national average for premiums. Root offers liability, collision, and comprehensive insurance, making its coverage compared to other large carriers.

No Root for high-risk drivers

The cons are the service is not currently available in all states, and you must be a very safe driver. If you like to drive fast and brake hard, Root is not for you. You can go to other sites like Good To Go Insurance and get covered cheaply.

Overall, the company should gain traction from technology-focused drivers, such as millennials, and gain market share as they build out nationwide. As long as they can offer rates that are 50% below other mainstream competitors, they will not only get noticed but get lots of new customers and good Root Car Insurance reviews. To get free comparison quotes, enter your zip code and fill out an online application.