Buying auto insurance is the least exciting of all shopping experiences.
You pick your company, you pick your level of coverage, and you hope your teenager doesn't get into an accident that will jack up the price.
Allstate hopes to bring more variety to car insurance shopping with a new product called "Your Choice Auto" -- set to come to Illinois in the middle of the year.
Paul Newsome, an insurance industry analyst with A.G. Edwards & Sons, said the new product ties into Allstate's increasing segmentation of the market.
The second-largest U.S. auto insurer already places customers in narrower and narrower price categories based on "price points" like credit history, driving history and age.
Standard is regular Allstate auto insurance -- where customers can win reductions for having a safe driving history, or pay more if they have teenage drivers.
The value policy costs 5 percent less than the standard policy, and is simply the standard policy with payments taken directly out of a customer's bank account, to save money on billing.
The gold policy costs about 7 percent more than the standard policy, but comes with a number of innovative features, explained Allstate spokesman Michael Trevino.
One feature is called the safe driving deductible award.
For every year of accident-free driving -- a customer is eligible to receive $100 in the collision insurance deductible.
A customer who starts with a $500 collision deductible immediately gets a $100 reduction by taking the gold package, and has it reduced by $100 for every year without an accident.
Platinum coverage costs about 15 percent more than the standard policy, and provides the same features as the gold coverage, with some extras.
For every six-month policy period a driver is accident-free, he or she will receive a 5 percent credit on the next six-month premium.