Big Brother Progressive

Progressive gets to monitor your driving.Starting next month, Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. will let New Jersey drivers lop as much as 60% off the nation's highest car insurance bills...If you let them monitor your driving.

The Program is called MyRate, Progressive's Pay-as-you-drive system.

The system is simple. The company gives a driver a small device that plugs into the data port built into all cars made since 1996.

That device tracks all the parameters of travel, including speed, time, mileage and distance, as well as how frequently the brakes are used and how quickly the car stops.

The device then wirelessly transmits the data back to the company, which adjusts your auto insurance rates based on how you drive.

While the company said some drivers could see auto insurance rates increase by 9%, Progressive said most drivers would expect to see 10 - 15% savings. There is no penalty for not participating in the program.

New Jersey Auto Insurance Rates

New Jersey drivers pay more for auto insurance than drivers in any other state.

NJ drivers paid an average of $1,184 in premiums and expenditures to insure each vehicle in 2005, down only about $10 since reforms aimed at increasing competition in the state's auto insurance market were implemented in 2003.

In Pennsylvania, the average auto insurance cost climbed from $726 in 2001 to $850 in 2005. In Delaware, auto insurance premiums increased from an average of $851 in 2001 to $1,028 in 2005. The nationwide average was $829, up from $726 in 200.

Underwriting costs, driving locations, accident rates, traffic density, auto theft statistics, repair costs and state laws can all affect a state's expenditures premiums, which make direct state-to-state comparisons difficult.