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My Review of the TD MyAdvantage App

A shrewd way of collecting information on clients. Is it worth using?

By Brian AnonymousPublished 5 years ago 5 min read
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I’ve been using the TD MyAdvantage app for the past week and I learned a lot about my driving habits and general driving habits in my neighborhood. This app has opened my eyes to a lot of different aspects of driving that I never really contemplated. Ultimately my goal is to have the app help me save money on car insurance but time will tell how much of a benefit it really it is.

You must be wondering how I fell upon this app. Like many legal drivers on the road (you have to have insurance to drive in my province), I wanted to save money on my car insurance. Here in Canada, car insurance is dependent on what area you live in, the car that you drive, and various aspects about you as an individual. Never before has an insurance company actually sat in the car and actually observed how you drive. So this app is a little bit of a surprise. Anyways, I was doing my annual haggling with my car insurance broker when they mentioned to me that if I use their TD MYAdvantage app, I could save a few more dollars. I consider myself a relatively good driver. How bad could it be?

So I downloaded the app onto my phone and for weeks I couldn’t get the thing going. I finally called the company and asked them what the heck was wrong with their app. I told them that I have a Sony brand phone and they replied that the app doesn’t work with Sony phones. Wow! I guess certain phones have priority over others despite the fact they are all have the same Android operating system. There were no plans to fix this issue and I had complained for probably a good month. I thought I was out. Then I realized I had an old Motorola cell phone laying around. I downloaded the app onto that dinosaur Motorola phone and it worked without a hitch! Great! I’m back in the program!

I take the app out for my first trip. I wasn’t exactly sure how to start the thing. I remembered that the broker told me that I’d just have to leave the app turned on and it would record automatically. I didn’t think nothing of it since big brother is always checking down on us. So I took my first drive and that was a hell of an experience.

I knew the app would be able to check my speed and where I was driving so I recognized that I normally drive at least 10 km/h over the speed limit wherever I go. I also noticed everyone driving around me was driving at least 10km/h over the speed limit. Did I learn this habit or do I normally drive this way to keep with traffic? I had no idea. I became cognisant of this and slowed down to the speed limit to get a good score on the app. Oh, boy… I have to say a lot of drivers were not too pleased with me. A ton of drivers would speed right by me and some would cut me off. I kept with the speed limit, continuously apologizing under breath to whoever was driving behind me.

It’s particularly bad since I’m an Asian driver and I hate to perpetuate people’s stereotypes of Asian drivers. With my peripheral vision (being Asian I should have good peripherals, huh? Bad joke…), I could see and feel people staring me down. I could only imagine them thinking about how I’m another horrible Asian driver on the road. I had to stick to my guns, though.

I received my results after the trip and it told me to do a few things to get a better score. It asked me to accelerate more gradually, brake longer, and take corners even slower. Great! The other drivers are really going to hate me now! I became worried about having people with road rage coming after me. I had to do it to save money, though! Also this is a pretty interesting social experiment. So I decided to continue.

After this I started to really slow down. I’d take longer gradual stops, leaving even more space between me and other cars. I’d also slowly accelerate to the maximum speed limit. On occasion, I wouldn’t even reach the speed limit because the app is really sensitive about the speed I go. I wanted to get a better score for the app and it worked. I could feel the aggression of the other drivers around me. They did not like it at all. Some would accelerate full speed past me. Cars would be bumper to bumper on my tail. Sweat would drip down my brow and I would be constantly apologizing and asking for the other drivers to go around me. They couldn’t hear me of course. Single lanes were the worst because you’d see a line of cars behind me. I’m starting to get really great scores on the app. Even the app didn’t think that it was really me. It asked if I was actually the one driving and another prompt asked if I was taking a bus.

I did notice a few things while driving under these conditions. Mentally, driving was stressful because I was aware of all of the things around me but physically it was really easy. It felt like I was playing a game on super easy mode. I felt like I was going in slow motion but it allowed me to be aware of all my surroundings and think a little more. In addition to this, I saved around 10 percent on my gasoline. I wasn’t driving my car nearly half as hard as I used to. Normally I would be at around 150 km on a quarter tank, now I’m getting 165 km or more. I think my car is thanking me for driving the way I do now.

It’s still early but I have to get at least 1000 km worth of information to my car insurance before I quit the app. I feel sort of like I’m in some sort of probation period of driving. It feels very restraining and because of this I think it would be very interesting to drive if everyone had one of these apps on when they drive. I wonder if the roads would be slower and calmer. Would there be as much anxiety when driving “safely?” I don’t know but I do know that a ton of people aren’t going to want to use the app. Saving 20 percent on your car insurance might not be worth feeling so much anxiety driving around town and feeling so restricted. Driving is supposed to be freedom. As I said in the beginning, time will tell how much this app will truly benefit me. I’ll have to write another article next year when I get my new quote.

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About the Creator

Brian Anonymous

I have tons of opinions that change constantly. I watch a lot of movies and play video games. There are some articles on my struggles with languages and dance as well.

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