Insurance giants offer perks like Starbucks discounts and Prime subs for safe driving
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Going 50 in a 30… Forget the free cold brew. Safe drivers can now earn discounts at Starbucks through a data-sharing deal between life insurer John Hancock and car insurer Allstate. Hancock customers already earn discounts on life insurance, Starbucks lattes, and Amazon Prime subs for making healthy lifestyle choices. Think: getting 10K steps in or eating kale. Now they’ll also get perks for driving safely.
- Different datasets: Hancock uses health data from Apple Watches and Fitbits to inform life-insurance prices, and Allstate uses driving data from GPS systems to help set car-insurance prices.
- But safer drivers don’t just crash less… they also live longer. That’s why Hancock is incentivizing its life-insurance customers to enroll in Allstate’s tracking program to earn rewards for not speeding.
- Win-win: Both insurers hope to gain access to each other’s customers by giving them more ways to earn rewards.
Surveillan-surance… is becoming more popular as data collection gets easier. In 2018, Hancock became one of the first major US life insurers to use personal health data to set all its prices. Today many insurers like United Healthcare, Oscar Health, and CVS-owned Aetna also use interactive systems to track and reward customers for risk-reducing behaviors. Like: jogging or getting a mammogram.
There’s a trade-off between savings and privacy… Data-tracking programs let Hancock customers save money on insurance premiums and lattes. But those savings come at a cost — in some cases nearly constant surveillance. Critics of data-driven-pricing programs worry they could be problematic for other insurers too. Think: health insurers denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions. As connected devices increase, so will the prevalence of consumer data.