7 reasons to use a dashboard camera

Car insurance companies are slow to embrace new technology.

Insurers want proof that an item -- whether it's air bags, a collision-avoidance system or a dashboard camera -- will help decrease crashes, or otherwise improve their bottom line, to extend a discount to motorists. Sometimes that takes a while.

Once the data show that a particular safety device will save car insurance companies money if used by its customers, they begin to roll out discounts.

That gives current and future dash cam owners in U.S. hope: A few car insurance providers in the United Kingdom have recently started to offer customers a 10 to 15 percent discount if a dash cam is installed in their vehicles.

Dash cams start well under $100. Most record hours of video in a continuous loop, with recent video replacing older footage, when the car is started. Fancier cameras can record even when the car is off - triggered by motion sensors - or come with GPS sensors that overlay the time, speed and location. Some offer two-way video of the road ahead and of the driver and passengers inside the car.

A dash camera is not yet offered in the U.S., so it can't directly affect your premium, but there are advantages to placing one, or more, dashboard cameras in your vehicle. And some of the benefits indirectly affect your premium, which in turn helps keep your car insurance rates down. (See "What you need to know about dash cams.")

While merely owning a dash cam may not lower your car insurance rates, the footage that the camera provides may turn out invaluable in certain situations.

1. Have a record of your accident

Drivers often have completely different memories and descriptions of an accident. With video proof that you weren't the driver responsible for a car crash you can save yourself from being found at fault by a car insurance company -- and receiving the higher auto insurance rates that go with that finding.

Your dash cam footage can also expedite your claim, as it may prevent you from having drawn-out discussions with insurance companies about who was at fault.

2. Get out of a ticket

If you're stopped for a traffic violation you didn't commit, offer up your dash cam footage to the law enforcement officer before the ticket is written. If the officer won't watch it, bring the footage to court to contest the ticket.

Moving traffic violations will normally give you points on your state driving record and raise your car insurance rates. Not receiving a ticket -- or beating a ticket in court due to video proof of no wrongdoing - will keep you from a nasty auto insurance surcharge.

Recently in New York a two-way dash cam saved a driver from receiving a ticket for using his cellphone while driving. The officer let the driver go without a ticket after viewing dash cam footage showing the motorist wasn't talking on his phone, but merely scratching and tugging on his ear.

3. Help fight insurance fraud

If you have a feeling the accident you were in, or just witnessed, may have been a “crash for cash,” turn over your dash cam footage to the insurance companies involved, or to the state insurance fraud unit, to investigate. Catching a fraudster in a staged accident, can indirectly lower your rates. (Watch a video compilation of Russian scammers caught at work.)

The FBI estimates that the cost of insurance fraud is more than $40 billion per year. When auto insurers unknowingly settle fraudulent claims, all motorists pay hundreds of dollars extra each year because companies divide the cost of claims among consumers.

Mercury Insurance's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) often uses video to fight insurance fraud. For example, a car collision captured on a dash camera showing a driver making a sudden and unnecessary stop helped the Mercury SIU team defend their insured in a personal injury claim. The dash cam evidence directly resulted in the claim and pending lawsuit against Mercury's customer being dropped.