Progressive Name Your Price Auto Insurance

Progressive has fired another shot in the auto insurance wars, as the company introduced "Name Your Price" this week. It is similar in concept to Allstate's Your Choice program, as Name Your Price gives the customer some control over the tradeoff between coverage and price. (I know, I hear you chuckling "I would like to pay $0." Very funny.)

While Allstate has you choose from a menu of packages (e.g. Silver, Gold, Platinum, etc.) each with its own price, Progressive's program allows you to vary the price almost continuously, by using a cool little slider tool. As the price goes up, the coverage goes up as well. You can also choose between paying all at once or in installments. (Hint: If you have the money, pay all at once - the "service charges" are effectively interest payments for the "loan" the company is making you, and have very high (20%) effective rates.)

So, is Progressive's program a good deal? I think it can be, but only for someone who wants to "fine tune" their coverage. I'm sure that the rocket scientists that set the prices set each option to have the same profit margins (or at least the margins that they want - if they want more "full coverage" customers, then they might cut the price a little at the high end of the sliding scale.)

Like I always say - don't settle for one quote, get several quotes from good companies and take the best deal from there.

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