Are Dash Cams Worth the Cost? A review of the benefits to installing a dashboard camera

Dash cams are onboard cameras that record a vehicle’s front or rearview ( or sometimes both! ) continuously, often in short, segmented videos to protect against data corruption and file loss. You may sometimes hear different terms used for a dashcam on the internet, namely driving recorder, event data recorder, or onboard camera. Either way, these terms are used to describe vehicle cameras, a tool used by the police as far back as the 1980s for their own protection. In the following article, we’re going to look at the benefits of dashcams and see how they can be of value to any car owner’s life and safety while out on the road.

SHOULD I GET A DASHCAM?

There are several benefits to having a dashcam in your car. For starters, it’s a fantastic tool for personal or commercial applications, which will prove to be extremely useful in many situations both on and off the road. Let’s take a deeper look into a few common circumstances where a vehicle camera comes in handy.


PROVIDES EVIDENCE IN THE EVENT OF A CLAIM

Providing evidence in the event of a claim is one of the main reasons for having a dashcam fitted in your car, truck, or van. Once installed, you’ll be able to prove who is at fault in an accident that may occur out on the road, whether you’re involved in the accident or not. One of the biggest issues surrounding car accidents is: who is at fault? And who is the victim? Having a dashcam installed ensures that you’ll have the evidence, either way when trying to process an insurance claim. If you’re in an accident, and a police officer shows up, you’ll immediately be able to show him or her what happened at the scene of the accident, which again helps prove who was at fault.

MONEY SAVER

Your car is valuable, and nobody wants to spend money fixing it due to scrapes, dings, or other small damages caused by someone else. But a vehicle camera can provide video evidence of who is at fault, which means you may not be required to pay a deductible with your insurance company in the event of a claim. It also simply helps speed up the whole claim process. Therefore, having a dashcam is also beneficial for your personal or commercial insurance as well. What some insurance companies will even do, as a reward, is to offer their customers a discount off their annual premium if they have a dashcam. So if you’re thinking about a dashcam, you’ll not only get the peace of mind knowing that you’ll have evidence in the event of an accident; you’ll also be able to save yourself some money while you’re at it!


TRACK HOW FAMILY MEMBERS AND EMPLOYEES DRIVES 

It’s essential to have dash cams fitted into all your cars in the case of any accidents, but there are other more casual reasons that you may enjoy having a vehicle camera. A vehicle camera can come in handy if you lend your car to a younger teenage driver or if multiple people have access to the company car. Some models even have built-in GPS loggers, recording the exact physical location of where they are while recording the scenery. Having a dashcam installed gives you peace of mind knowing that the driver will be less likely to drive erratically. Plus, you’ll be able to review the footage afterward to see how they drive or even where they've been if you've installed a GPS logging model. So if you’re lending your car to your teenager, you’ll be able to guide them in their driving skills or restrict their use of the vehicle for undesired behaviors, if necessary. On a company vehicle, this can make all the difference in consideration of raises if it's seen that the driver has been taking their sweet time getting out to the job site or back to the office.

HOW TO PLAYBACK YOUR VIDEOS

Dash cams are vehicle cameras that are typically quite simple to operate. Once power is received, they are designed to turn on and start recording! Beyond that, each model carried by SpyCentre.com has a built-in screen for menu control to adjust any particular settings to your desired specifications. All you need to do when you want to playback your videos is take the micro SD card out of the camera and plug it into your Windows or Mac computer at home. Depending on the available ports on your computer, you might need to use a USB or a USB-C to USB adapter. However, once you’ve plugged in your SD card, you’ll instantly be able to access, manage, and view your recorded video from your computer. Some dash cams also allow you to watch the videos on the camera itself with onboard digital displays, which is the greatest part about having them - instant playback at the scene of an accident! Dash cameras are designed to know that you do not really need to hold onto so very much video footage. Most of your drive will go by without excitement. When a dash cam’s memory card reaches its capacity, it will usually automatically delete older segments to make room for new recordings.


ARE DASH CAMS WORTH IT?

Dashcams can help to protect you from fraudulent insurance claims and lying drivers trying to protect themselves. Insurance companies recognize this to be a common problem, and in some cases, there may be an insurance discount for using a dashcam. Ancillary benefits include the ability to manage your vehicles' use, watch how family members or employees drive so you can provide life-saving advice or properly reprimand them for improper use or bad driving behaviors. A good camera will let you record accidents and have the evidence readily available at the scene to help any responding police officers to write up their incident reports. Unfortunately, many people wait for an accident to occur before they buy their first dashcam. Don’t make that mistake. Install a dashcam as soon as possible, and save yourself a lot of time, money, and worry!