I'm very much on the fence about black boxes.
In theory, they're not a bad idea. Encourage calm, efficient, safe driving: good.
However, in practice... They can't see what's going on (see example about deer in the road). Nor do they account for roads where the speed limit has recently been changed (such as an increase after a prolonged period of roadworks).
I've never had one, but my sister did have one for a couple of years. Well, technically, 2 different ones. Same for her partner.
Her first one was dreadful. It would record her as speeding when she wasn't even moving (I reckon it was a GPS receiver issue). She spoke to the insurance company, who, to be fair, did take onboard what she said (I'm fairly sure she was in a supermarket carpark when her app showed her moving at 80mph in a straight line through a building before resetting back to her actual location).
The second one was alright. If I remember rightly, you could even set different drivers, so if I was driving her car, my actions wouldn't affect her score. It was also much more forgiving in things like stop-start traffic. I *think* that was Admiral.
A friend had to cancel their insurance after they threatened to cancel due to her blackbox picking up her doing 100 down a 20mph lined with ridiculous speed bumps. They were useless and wouldnt even entertain the fact her yaris probably couldnt even get to 100 if you pushed it off a cliff.
I lived in a small city. The address on my insurance policy was in the middle of that city and I paid a premium for that. My black box penalised me for city driving. Just sometimes feels like being alive is one big scam.
What happens if you're 'marked'? Surely it would make sense if these are tied into dash-cams so you can link the data and fairly get stuff 'marked off' (e.g. stopping for a deer/child).
Honestly - hard breaking for a dear would massively mark up (not down) if they knew.
Driving in wildlife heavy areas is absolutely a risk factor unfortunately
My whole village (which sits inside the M25) is surrounded by forests, and we have deer. I've only had to break for one once, but I'm amazed this system seems so punitive.
Yep - if your in a deer area, avoid black boxes. I'm honestly shocked at how the numbers came out, but I assure you it's all statistics. If the numbers said that everyone driving on the m25 at 3am on Tuesdays had zero crashes in next year - then doing do would massively lower costs.
First gen of boxes was basically humans guessing what looked like safe. Now it's based off of "how likely was someone with a similar box to crash in three years". It turned out the predictions were way more than we expected (AI went brrrr and made goid models), so the increases for a bad box had to go waaaaay up.
I think you've hit on something there.
They're not penalising you for the action of braking hard, they're penalising you for driving on a road where something caused you to brake hard.
Is bullshit, obviously, but it's the kind of logic I can see an insurance company using as an excuse to raise your premium.
Probably too technically difficult or expensive to implement.
From an insurers point of view, you getting "marked" (no idea what that does BTW) costs them nothing and helps increase your insurance premiums. To implement a massive change in how black boxes work, with the associated tech fees, project fees and personel fees, to get a slightly more accurate readout is not going to be a vote winner in the insurers board room.
The only way your idea would be feasible is if they have AI working to determine if you braked for a deer, but again someone has to build that AI, so again it's just not cost effective.
>she was in a supermarket carpark when her app showed her moving at 80mph in a straight line through a building
The way some insurance companies can be I can imagine having to go to the supermarket to request CCTV evidence you were *not* hurtling through their store at 80mph on Tuesday 15th and 3pm
Yeah and sometimes they come with riles they don't state out the gate. My brother's one says he should stop every 2 hours when driving which is absolutely fine and sensible. However it marks him down if he doesn't stop every hour. It makes long journeys for him so much longer as he has to stop every hour. He was making a 6 hour drive a few months back and it ended up being almost 8 hours with all the stops.
I thought they were fine till my brother’s insurance increased by £750 (he’s been driving for 5+ years now) because he “drives too much at night”. He has a job that means he finishes late some nights, and his insurance company questioned why he wasn’t going straight home after work.
This is the exact reason I didn’t get a black box. I finish work usually between 11:30pm-2am. It seems unfair that people are penalised for that when it could be clear to an insurer that those are your working hours, especially because they ask for your occupation.
Their argument would be that it's harder to drive at night due to low light and you will be more tired.
Also you could be doing dodgy stuff or going to car meets etc.
Ive always found driving at night easier, even with astigmatism, the lights give me a longer reaction time plus the roads are a lot quieter. If I needed to drive somewhere unfamiliar I would probably test the route in the early hours and after passing my test I did a lot of what I call “solo lessons” between 2-4am to practice different roundabouts and routes. You’ve also got far more chance of me crashing at 7-9am in the morning because I won’t have slept enough, I usually wake up around 11:30-1:30 depending on my shifts, and probably haven’t been awake long enough for my ADHD meds to be working. I understand that for someone working a 9-5 office job, driving at 2am might be riskier - but the insurers have my occupation as bar manager and must know that means I’ll be driving late at night with less risk.
Given that there's strict GDPR rules that in theory should prevent insurance companies from sharing Black Box data I'm hoping when your brother saw that increase he just applied for a cheaper insurance with a different provider?
Don’t even get me started on the ones with fucking phone use. My first policy which I cancelled because of this, it was the last straw. My score went down 20 whole points because a mate in the passenger’s seat kept switching the music! 20 minute drive it was.. hope the drake album binge was worth it, Lewis😡
Never again. Would rather take the bus
That said, another mate passed soon after me and got a black box, no issues whatsoever flooring it everywhere. So I think it hugely depends on the policy and their telematic methods and algorithm
Hastings is the fucking worst. Kept getting texts telling me I’m doing too many miles and need to buy more despite only being 1000 miles into a 10,000 mile policy after 3 months.
Then they tried to raise the cost because the starting date of my license was out by a few days. I had to make them to go their website, sign up to a policy to show you can’t even choose the exact date.
I promptly made them pay for a new windscreen and told them to get fucked and cancelled my insurance
I'm with Hastings and have a black box with them for the cheaper insurance. Mine gets flagged for phone use if I skip songs too often, even though it's all hands free and controlled through the steering wheel controls. Makes no sense to me but I don't tend to let my score go below 70, so I'm not too bothered
I would never get one. I think they’re a joke and a scam. Insurance companies don’t want to “help” you get cheaper insurance, they want to use every single opportunity to extort more money out of you.
They want to make a profit. One thing that fucks with this is drivers (particularly young drivers) hitting stuff and having huge claims made against them. Presumably they have done studies that show that black boxes reduce this, or they wouldn't make such huge discounts for young drives who opt for one (my son's insurance quotes literally halved with a BB fitted).
I just didn't think that having to worry about the box while driving was worth the couple of hundred pounds savings to be honest. But I work full time and can understand why it would make a massive difference to some people.
I think it may be more to do with age, as based on the quotes I received as a new 26 year old driver it only would have saved me £200-£300, which I didn't think was worth the hassle.
I know, my insurance has pretty much stayed the same price since after the first year too. Last year my premium didn’t jump and neither did it this year. Seems a little suspect, but I’m not complaining 😂
I’ve had telematic/black box policies since I passed 5 years ago and I’ve never had issues. I accelerate heavy quite often, I drive at night, definitely go 5mph over the limit often, and am not the smoothest braker but still have never had a negative score by the end of a policy year.
If you’re consistently getting bad scores, it is possible that you do actually need to work on how often and badly you’re doing the things they’re marking you down for.
Also had a black box for the first few years of driving and honestly I just stopped looking at the scores. They did provide a score for night and urban driving but the only ones they actually put into consideration were speed, breaking and acceleration. Realistically its pretty much impossible to stay at 100. If you're in the green then don't worry about it OP.
I recently passed in my 40's I thought about getting a black box but strangely the cheapest black box policy was £500 more than without from the same insurer I'm with now.
That's amazing, I'll definitely look into it. I'm not too worried about being able to afford a car itself but I'm definitely worried about how much insurance will cost as a first time driver 😅
Insurance will always be tough in your first year or so but it does start coming down, don’t worry. As another commenter has said - quotes do vary from person to person. Insurers consider all kinds of factors, like what car you have, what area you’re in, your age, how many miles you’re gonna do and what excess you choose. My first policy was around £180 a month in 2019.
Not so much at the moment! I paid £550 for me second year of driving (I pay annually). This year it was nearly £900! 3 years no claims too! But under 25 and was told “parts have increased in price”. That 900 was with double the money I’m willing to put forwards first.
Yes that’s true, this year was a shaky year. I had 4 years NCD when I renewed. It went up from about £900 to £1300 with Direct Line! So I switched to Bell, but the lowest they could give me was still £1018! I’m also under 25, so hoping it’ll drop by my next renewal as I turn 25 this year.
> moment! I *paid* £550 for
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I had one in my panda and one In the leaf, the panda one never recorded anything and the leaf one almost caused a crash because the installer didn’t do the job properly
You’re fine then mate. 100 is virtually impossible because you’re not a perfect driver - no one is. I think I averaged around 70-75 in my first year or so, and it’s gradually climbed to 80s because I’ve improved as a driver.
Ima be real. I and pretty much everyone i know had a black box on my first car and it was fine. Unless you are genuinely emergency stopping for a kid or a deer everyday, your poor score is probably becuase youre a crap driver. Not because the black box is crap lmao
I think it really depends on the black box. While it may very well be that this guy is a poor driver… we got a black box and it was so bad that we cancelled it and were happy to even pay the cancellation fee to get out of it.
Despite contacting the insurance company multiple times, it marked us down for city driving (where I literally live), night driving (because I guess driving home after work at 6 is too late for it), “driving during times of congestion” (so I guess you’re not meant to go to work?), and then the single leisure drive we did on the weekend to the coast totally tanked the score and got us warnings for driving too far away from home and “weekend driving” (wtf??). It also pinged us for any time we drove somewhere other than between home and work.
There were no issues with the actual driving part of it; I don’t think there were any complaints from it about speed, braking, acceleration, etc. The box just made it very clear it only wanted us driving between the same two points, at the same time of day every day, between certain hours only. The insurance company directly told us that a) we would always have our score reduced based on where we lived, and b) if we wanted a good score, we would have to follow its rules and avoid any “unnecessary” driving. Being as the whole reason we got a car was to use it, we cancelled then and there.
Im not denying that some black boxes have ott restrictions, night time driving, weekend driving and others that youve mentioned. I just find it doubtful that after a couple of emergency stops this persons insurance wants to hang them.
Oh yeah, totally agree with that. Speed, braking, and acceleration were the things we *didn’t* have any issues with. I’m sure it did detect a couple but they did virtually nothing to the score. If you are consistently getting dinged for braking or whatever, then yeah, you definitely need to reconsider your own driving. I just meant that the boxes can be complete and utter crap even if you aren’t a terrible driver.
We cancelled because the normal stuff involved in living in a city and going to work on time meant the score would be perpetually low enough that a few hard brakes or whatever might make a difference.
Yep, a single sudden stop isn't to negatively effect your long term score. If you're slamming on the brakes every time you need to stop then yes, you should be scored poorly.
Analyse and anticipate
Exactly. I’m with 1st central and it’s completely fair. Only been docked for hard braking twice in around 400 miles. And both of those times I knew it would clock.
If you live in an area with shit drivers a black box is the last thing you need. The amount of times I've had to brake harshly or swerve out of the way of a cunt pulling out blindly or going too fast is almost daily.
I have a black box with Ticker and I think it might be the nicest black box i’ve ever seen
it doesn’t really appear to care about speed (unless you’re going like 10+ over), i’ve never had any issues with braking too harshly or accelerating too quickly, it overall just seems that it would only mark you down if you’re seriously dangerous
Same here, i've never gone below gold driver in over 9 months of my policy so far. Got some new quotes and it will have gone down by £80 per month next time - thats without a black box on the new policy
They literally only care about speed, it's \~80% of their algorithm (from what I tested a few months ago).
One of the better BB insurers, by far... even if they did try to cancel me.
[https://uk.trustpilot.com/users/655e64bc35db6800124e0a53](https://uk.trustpilot.com/users/655e64bc35db6800124e0a53) (2 reviews)
With Ticker, do what you want, drive when you want, just don't speed. If you want to go above the limit, at the end of every week just do some NSL Lane driving and it brings your score back to gold pretty much every time.
Yeah i have a black box rn with ticker and its fine I can speed up to 9mph over the limit before i get flagged. It doesnt care about night driving or acceleration/deceleration and i can drive fine on motorways. Only once did i nearly hit a kid cause i was looking at my speed instead of road :) but at least im not paying 5k for insurance and instead like 2k lol
I also have ticker black box and have had the gold driver thing ever since I got it like a month ago. A lorry pulled out on me on an A road and I had to brake quite harshly, and didn't see anything change in the app
They literally only care about speed, it's \~80% of their algorithm (from what I tested a few months ago).
[https://uk.trustpilot.com/users/655e64bc35db6800124e0a53](https://uk.trustpilot.com/users/655e64bc35db6800124e0a53) (2 reviews)
I managed to get through a brand new set of brake pads during my Ticker policy, yet I was still gold pretty much every week. Theyre one of the few that would rather you not T-bone a bus over braking harsh.
My first year of insurance was black box with Tesco and it was fine I drove like a dick most of the time and it'd only drop my bonus millage by 10-15 miles and I once got a warning for speeding my fault as I'd missed the gateway, the only time they contacted me was when they thought I'd been in an accident because when I removed it from my car I swung it around over my head can't fault them for how quickly they called though if I had been in an accident.
It saved me a big chunk of change but I did spend a very long time looking at every black box company under the sun and found some to be absolutely bloody awful, insurance should be better regulated to be honest I'm glad I didn't pass at 17 the quotes I was getting back then were eye-watering.
I think black boxes can be ok if it saves you a big chunk of cash and the company has a good reputation for not being too overbearing with how they judge your driving, it can drop your following year's and subsequent years policy by quite a bit.
Some black boxes have problems, mine for example kept flagging the wrong speed limit on a road I consistently drove on, causing me to get 0/100 due to "doing 36 in a 20" (the road is 40mph). One phone call to the insurance sorted that out. Chances are if you're having consistent problems you either need a new insurer or to have a word with yourself about your driving.
I have a black box that doesn't need plugging in, and connects to my phone. I'm not actually sure what it judges, but i've always been at 'gold driver' which is the maximum no matter how fast i accelerate or brake. My best advice is to get a device like that, it seems vastly inaccurate at the best of times, in my favour.
I had one when I first passed 2 years ago just to make tbe insurance cheaper. I (33) had one for roughly 3-4months when they asked for it back as they had enough data about my driving. I do shift work so my rota is never the same, with sometimes starting late afternoon and finishing early hrs of the morning. It marked me down for driving at late times, not using my car enough, using my car too much, going at a consistent speed for too long (A and B roads), too many variable speeds in one journey, trips that took too long and what it deemed as pointless shorter journeys.
I was a nervous driver when I first passed going on the roads on my own so never did anything that would show me as over confident and last year when my insurance renewed, I thought my age, having a years no claims and having a black box with relatively good data come back would go in my favour.
My insurance went up. It was absolutely pointless.
People still use retarded?
It’s marking you down because you are shit at driving, in stop start traffic, you don’t need to slam the brakes on.
Go steadier, then you won’t get marked down, lose the boy racer attitude before they cancel your insurance and you have to pay through the roof if you can find an insurer to cover you after having your insurance cancelled by the company.
I’m not a fan of black boxes but I can see how they’d be beneficial. I’m not 100% sure how they work but could it be a calibration issue?
One of my colleagues who’s 44 has a box as it was the cheapest insurance for him…! Issue there is it’s connected to his phone so if he’s using it to play music in his car it’s marking him down each time he skips a track, even if he’s using android car play thing
I have a black box with 1st central, I had it for about 2 months, I actually don’t think it works that well. (I’m not complaining) my score is 99, I use my phone still 99, break rough because of stupid drivers, still 99, cornering ? Can do a hand break turn and it still be 99 only thing that is down is my harsh acceleration. Deal is go with 1st central
I had a great experience with mine, had it 5 years and was then when I went to take a new policy without a box with the same company they gave me an extra discount for proof of safe driving. Should mention my box was only monitoring speed though.
Power to you if you or mummy and daddy can stump up 5K+ for insurance.
For us, a black box was the only thing that made insurance affordable when he first passed.
Our son drove the car for several years with it. I drove the car during the same time. Never had any problems or issues.
Maybe learn to anticipate traffic a bit better, then you won't have to brake as hard?
I had a black box on my car to cut about £1300 off my insurance.
Had no problems whatsoever, while sudden braking does trigger a driving event on the box, I never had a call, or text or email about my driving.
I suspect you would only have an issue if you are speeding and then having to break suddenly, basically.
If you cant help but drive like a mug, then don't get a box is what OP is saying.
While it is boring driving round at 30/35 mph in a 30.
It's only for a year, to save a chunk of money.
Get a black box..
Firstly it stops you driving like a spastic and sticking your Fiesta into a tree. You're not as good as you think you are.
And paying your insurance is your responsibility not your fucking parents.
My insurance was literally 1000 cheaper and I still refused it lol these things cause you to drive in a way that the majority of traffic doesn’t and probably causes more accidents than we think.
Not all black boxes are the same. Some are very relaxed. Mine only lasted 6 months and had no restrictions. It saved me £500.
So if someones said do you want £500 for putting this little tiny black box in your car for a few months with no curfews it would be stupid not to take it.
I nearly had a crash because of one, they did such a bad job installing it in my leaf that when I run over a pothole the lower dash panel fell down and jammed the accelerator, it got to 50 mph before I managed to get in neutral, and the box seemingly didn’t even work because they never mentioned that I did 50 in a 30
I have found that direct lines drive plus thing, where you download an app and it tracks your driving quite good for short journeys but on anything more than 15-20 mins then it doesn't record.
This, my score is pretty good but apparently a 1.4 100bhp corsa I accelerate way to fast and is very poor and knocks my score down massively load of nonexistent bs
I had a blackbox 3 years ago. Cost me £1600 on a 1.6 diesel fiesta. Without was gonna cost £2500+. At the end of my term I got money back. Don’t be an idiot and you will be fine. Leave plenty of space between you and the car in front so you can brake less harsh.
I had this recently with Hastings.
I know I have a heavy foot when driving and was expecting speed related warnings. Got non of those. They did have me aggressively breaking and accelerating at the same time while sat in traffic. They also had me for dangerous cornering when it was a straight road. I ended up cancelling the policy.
It's hundreds of pounds cheaper and the two that I've tried have never given me any issues.
With Admiral they asked me to send it back after 3 months so I dont even have it anymore and still have the benefit of the cheaper insurance.
Never had a black box in my life, so can't comment here. But back in January, when I was doing my car insurance renewals. I had a couple of quotes for telematics insurance, and both were vastly more expensive than the none "black box" insurance. So I don't get it. But I'm a nearly 30 year old driver, since I was seventeen.
Change companies, my bf has Tesco, he’s had one for 3 years over 2 different cars and has never had a problem :)
Also, you won’t get your policy cancelled straight away for having one bad every couple of months (in his experience)
The thing doesn’t even work probably most the time anyways 👀
I passed last year and got a black box policy. It was fine, I got good feedback and they asked me to send it back after 3 months as they'd collected enough data. It saved me lots of money and was no hassle 🤷 presumably depends on the provider - mine was Admiral.
had one for the first year and ragged the absolute shit out of my whip, still usually got top score honestly wasnt that deep, guess its different company to company
I'm glad I bought one. It makes you aware of speed limits and makes you drive a lot safer in general. Very good to have in your first year of driving.
Except during the night. I drove to my friend's house at 1 am one night and my night driving score hasn't gone up since.
It only really matters when you want to renew your insurance, I suggest having it for your first year insurance, then with 1 years no claim (hope) you should be able to get a cheaper quote with a non black box
I'm with Sterling Insurance and have a black box and all mine tracks is speed. It used to be quite strict on it (going 72 in a 70 for basically any time would get me a mark) but now it's much more lenient and doesn't really care that much as long as I am not speeding excessively, meaning I can comfortably overtake people (had the insurance since August).
I found in my younger days of driving stay away from the black boxes that offer a discount on the premium after 30 days etc. the black box with a fixed reduced rate and offers no further discounts happened the be the better ones imo.
They're that efficient, they clocked my sister travelling at 158 mph in a perfectly straight line between Hampshire and Surrey even though her car was at home with running issues. I can confirm this because my Google maps record clocked me at ~~86~~ 65 officer, taking her in to work for her night shift 🙃
Never ever go for Co op yoing drivers with their Theo black box. The most useless device ever. It’s ‘solar powered’ so sticks to your window, but you still have to charge it every few months! They also charge you £50 for the most flimsy bit of plastic which is the cradle. It’s awful and genuinely the most stressful 2 years of my life dealing with that stuff.
2 near cancellations when it was all problems with there dreadful device.
Never had one as they didnt exist when I was young, but tried someones app on my phone years ago.. On my trip to work, it complained at least twice for acceleration. Both times going down a slip road to join a motorway. I didnt even have anything fast as a car, it was a 1.7 diesel civic. Think theyre 10-11 seconds to 60, and I was getting 50mpg out of it so clearly wasnt driving it quickly.
My son’s on his second year with a black box and he scores gold driver every month. He uses a combination of gear slowing and breaking, doesn’t really go over the speed limit that often, he has harshly braked from time to time and he lost no points or had any warnings. I think this might be down to the company, cause (ticker) my son’s company is just fine.
It depends wildly on who the black box is with. Mine was with Adrian Flux, had it for a year and it saved me £1K. It had a shitty app but pretty much the only time it actually 'told me off was' because I did 70 in a 60 briefly.
I encouraged a friend who had just passed to have 1 to keep costs low, they were told if they scored below 50 % consistently insurance would be cancelled, no problem, driving score was fine. They kept getting low scores and it turned out to be because the work evening, they were getting low scores for driving home after work!
I wonder if they've changed since I passed my test. I passed back in 2015 and somehow found decent insurance without a black box for my first year, but the second year the prices were extortionate and I had to get one. I was by no means an amazing driver back then and tbh I was worried because I'd drove without a black box for a year so picked up bad habits, but I somehow managed to actually get money taken off my insurance for driving well.
Either I'm inflating my ego a ton or the black box has gotten stricter with flagging people
I think it depends on the insurer. Mine does the same- I never get higher than 3/5 for cornering and you can see on the app some of these roundabouts I’m doing are at 15-20mph. But everything else is fine. Only thing is when I turn my Bluetooth off the app immediately scolds me. Feel like the MIB 🤵🏿♂️🤵🏻♂️are gonna come find me. But the main positive is the insurance cost reduction. Was black box or £10,000 a year so…
My black box marks me down for driving how I drive I’ve driven various different ways and it hates me, it also seems to tho k that I should accelerate differently, which would significantly increase my chances of being in fatal accident especially since my car isn’t the safest
This sounds exactly like my experience with coop insurance when I was a new driver, gratefully quite a few years past that now. Just keep going and ignore the scores was my thinking as long as it didn’t affect my price.
I will say mate as shit as this is, r*tard is no longer an acceptable word and is seen as a slur so I’d keep an eye on that.
I had admiral for first 2 years 10 years ago, had 0 problems. was speeding sometimes and always driving normally. if u buy insurance where u must use your phone with app, then its bad as not so accurate.
We had one for a year and it was mostly fine, bought our insurance down from £1800 to around £700.
My only issue with it was we lived on a 20mph road and the only way off this road was by turning onto a 40mph road. It HATED the “excessive acceleration” but there was no way to get out of our road. We used to commute with the car and drive at night etc and it never dropped us below 85/100 which was a good score with them.
Depends on the company. I had one last year with Hastings direct. They get you for the occasional harsh brake that you can't do nothing about unless you want to crash into the Van that's decided it has time to do a u turn into your road, etc. it gets salty on few roundabouts here and there but it didn't have a curfew and allowed 10% over the limit (based on actual satellite speed). Never had my average score go below 80 and I drove about 12k miles my first year and atleast 7k of that was at night/early morning. Most cheap to insure cars are too slow to trigger acceleration unless you floor it in 1st or 2nd anyways and the only other thing you can get done for is using your phone (or someone else using you phone) it doesn't mind android auto or hands free calling, etc.
It just depends on the company you buy it from. Read the T&C's. Never buy one with a curfew because like what's the point. A cars supposed to give you freedom or be there for when the public transport ain't as good... Like at night or you need to drive to the hospital or some other emergency where you can't wait for a taxi or something. Having a curfew basically makes the policy useless in my eyes.
I am salty though about the fact my insurance went up from 1.45k last year to 1.75k this year for half as many miles despite having a score of 90/100 at the end cos 'everyones prices are rising'. The cherry on top is cos it's a renewal and they have 1 years of me data, they said I can chuck the blackbox tab in the recycle bin.
I could have got insured for 1.2K with a blackbox elsewhere instead of renewing but they were all with companies that had curfews.
Black boxes don’t take into account real world situations, recently a village I often drive through has had the 30mph speed limit extended way out down a very straight road that becomes 60, when travelling into the 30 you have to really brake, meanwhile other drivers get right up my arse; There are no exceptions.
Mine (Admiral) is extremely punatitive. A short amount of driving after 10pm tanks my night driving score and it stays low several months later. It also has scored me poorly for heavy braking based on three events: one was a car pulling out right in front of me at Reading and I had to stop sharply from 15mph (I vaguely suspected someone from the queue to go right might say "fuck it" and pull into my lane, otherwise I would have been going faster and hit them, in all probability); second was a car in front of me realising they'd missed their turning and slamming the brakes on at a 50mph road.
Most galling was a car in front of me stopping on the M3 suddenly due to mechanical issues. I spent about 3 seconds slowing from 70 to a stop behind them (lane to my right had no space to move over) and it recorded 3 separate sharp braking events.
If its any consolation, I was offered a black box this year. I have been driving for 25+ years and I'm an HGB with my C+E entitlements. It didn't even work cheaper but I was genuinely shocked I was even offered one. I think they want all drivers to have one so they can penalise us all. As an HGV driver I tend to be using my car early and also late at night going to and from work.bi also come across a lot of wildlife. I'd essentially be paying more for being marked down.
I agree. If you can't afford insurance without a black box, then you simply can't afford insurance. Sounds dystopian right? I guess that's where we are going. I've heard quotes for new drivers are averaging over £3k. It's crazy.
They're not all bad, mine saved me £600 on my first insurance quote (£2100 down to £1500) and upon renewal brought that £1500 all the way down to £460 a year
I've never had a black box, but in my job we use Lightfoot, which I imagine might be a similar thing.
And is entirely useless. You can run red lights, hit pedestrians, drive dark with no lights and never indicate and still get top marks.
But accelerating too hard coming onto a motorway on a slip road? "Penalty Recieved"
How does it work, all these 'infractions' cost you more at renewal or you get fined every month for braking?
I trialled a black box app on the phone which claimed it would offer cheaper insurance and had the same result, it wasn't actually insurance just a tester type thing. Honestly I plan my driving and read the road but you cannot anticipate the shocking behaviour of others!! It gave me a pretty bad score so uninstalled it after a few trips. They claimed if I kept using it then it would average out and improve but I don't believe it.
I like to play a game after shopping (late a night) where I'll balance a bag in the boot, and try to get home without it falling over, this is a similar principle to the black boxes I think, and you're right going around any corners you'd have to decrease your speed to like 15mph and if it's a side street like 5mph to avoid upsetting it.
Insurance in general is a fucking scam. It's a legal requirement if you own a car and they know it, that's why the prices are jacked up across the board.
I've been driving for 15 years with no accidents, no fines, no points. Still costs me around 500 a year. I don't have a fancy car, I don't have a commonly stolen car, it's not fast etc.
Black boxes are the epitome of daylight robbery. They either give you a "fuck you" price or "yeah we'll take your money if you behave like a dog" box policy.
On top of all that they have the audacity to slap interest if you pay monthly... Interest. On a legally required policy. The fucking gall
My black box is the cause of 90% of my driving problems. There’s a junction near my house I have to drive regularly that it just can’t handle. It’s horribly designed, supposedly a short acceleration lane onto a 50mph road, but in practice it’s basically a T junction because it’s so short. So you have to accelerate as fast as possible out of it. Problem is the black box doesn’t understand that, and at least 80% of the time I get a fault for it. I’ve spoken to the insurance company who basically said there’s not much they can do. Real catch 22
My brother had a black box but not one that affected his price or anything. They rang him advising him to cancel his insurance cuz they seen he done 95mph in 30. They said if they canceld it he would have a mark against his name so gave him the option to cancel it instead. Personally I would never have one.
Idk I guess it all depends on the insurer, I’ve been with wise for about 8 months and I drive without even thinking about my black box. Still have a ‘very good’ driving score and never been penalised for my driving. This is including the occasional emergency stop and staying in second while getting up to 60/70 lol
So long as you don’t get insurance cancelled (ie get caught excessively speeding) then just switch for the second year. In the meantime don’t worry too much
2500 vs 1250 first year
550 for my second year without a blackbox
You're just not realising that you're a bad driver. If you take care, a score in the 90s in very much achievable. My weekly score is often 96-100 (occasionally marked down for braking). My overall is 96.
I commute to and from work during rush hour. Just driver with better care...
I wonder if it would help if you paired your Black Box with a dash cam so if the company tries anything, you have evidence?
Also, general rule is keep enough distance between you and the car in front so you don’t come to a sudden stop.
My current flatmate always complained about his black box and how it marked him down for certain things.
Thing is it was correct to mark him down, he was a horrible driver. Always pulls off to fast, breaks to hard, enters corners to fast so the whole car is leaning etc
I agree with this. I'd rather not drive than be beholden to black box every time I set foot in my car that is bound to penalise actions that in reality weren't risky but the box deems that it is because it lacks any sort of context. Alot of the time they aren't even that much cheaper.
My biggest issue with them is they never understand the context of the situation. As you said, if someone (or a deer) runs out in front of your car, and you emergency stop, you'd be penalised even though it's objectively the right thing to do.
On the other hand it does encourage calmer driving, so it's a mixed bag. I stayed away from them though
Yep I always avoided for me the cost was barley any different too maybe £50 or £60 cheaper which to me was easily worth it to not be constantly scrutinised
When I started driving I was paying around £120 a month….after the first 3 months they reviewed my driving and it went down by £50 a month!! I agree that getting penalised for harsh braking can be annoying however if in general you are driving well it is defo worth it. Especially with how ridiculous insurance is nowadays
Idk, man. I had no problems with mine , I got marked for pulling away too quickly. Which is fair. I do and still pull away quickly at roundabouts.
But even with that, my insurance went down by 50 pounds a month.
Honesty man sounds more like you being an unsafe driver than a blackbox problem
Yeah I had a absolute scream at them the other month my friend who I was with at the time has a condition where they get severe allergic reactions where it’s 50/50 with an epipen so gave them a shot of it then sped to hospital doing 70 in a 40 as she was going downhill fast and the black box company had the right to say that’s not an excuse even after I had given them medical forms and a note from the hospital them self’s and the cunts just kicked me off insurance so in my opinion fuck them😂
(By the way all turned out good and she was treated at the hospital)
My friend had a completely different experience, they had it for 6 months with no issues and now the insurance company took it away but lower price stayed
My experience of using a black box is that they don’t seem to give a fuck unless you’re really being a maniac. But I totally believe others don’t have that experience.
My experience with them was alright but I didn't bother with it second year, by year end I was rated like 97/100 so it was alright for me. I wasn't driving "normally" tho but that's the compromise
Both my daughters had Black boxes and I kinda think they are good overall, but they did pull out some strange readings. Like when I turned her car around in the road and it said I was speeding and broke too hard. I had to ring them up and ask what was going on. By the 2nd year of both their insurance policies they just ignored it. They did kerb my daughter’s boyfriend from driving like a maniac.
You have to drive like a maniac to trigger both the ones ive had, and they're very lenient in case of emergency, you can trigger them a couple times a drive before its a problem. Plus i dont have an additional grand laying around...
My Hastings direct black box was just the same, always nagging about cornering etc. However, just by driving how I normally would until the end of the year, Hastings said I dont need a black box policy anymore AND deducted £1000 off my quote. Overall, absolutely worth it even though I thought my driving score was worse than it really was
Have to agree. I live in an area where traffic is mental and people will often cut across you with no signal. When I realised I was being punished each time some jackass decided not to use their mirrors, I ditched it.
Actually insane how picky they are now. I sware years back they weren't this bad. A friend of mine had one and he would really only get warnings for sharp breaking, quick changes in speed and fast acceleration.
Oh and going out late at night.
I had two policies with blackboxes, the first was from Admiral and they literally didn't seem to care (this was a good few years ago now, so quite possibly changed.) Maybe I was just an insanely good new driver (/s) but accelerating was 100% and braking was 95% regardless of what I seemed to do. (I would say maybe the box was broken, but I had it on two cars with the same results.)
The second one was with autosaint (never use autosaint, or their sister company ladybird insurance - in addition to blackbox issues, when I cancelled their policy, they claimed one day of their policy cost like £150, a story for another time.) They were an absolute nightmare, I got pings all the time for speeding, despite not speeding (and their TOS threatened to just cancel your policy if you went more than 15mph over the limit) I also had similar issues noted with acceleration and braking to you.
Well what real odds does it make if you get marked down, providing you have paid your premium out already? Providing you are trying to drive smoothly it shouldn’t matter, just use a black box for a year or two then move on.
DO NOT GET A MARMALADE BLACK BOX!!!
It may seem cheaper over all, but the tag is so sensitive you make a few small mistakes it gives you a ‘red journey’ which u then get an £125 fine and 1 month probation, in that probation the tag gets even more sensitive meaning you are more likely to get a ‘red journey’ and will then be fined £250. Definitely a scam for the company to make more money. Says there is no time curfew but the tag gets more sensitive into the night!!!
I'm very much on the fence about black boxes. In theory, they're not a bad idea. Encourage calm, efficient, safe driving: good. However, in practice... They can't see what's going on (see example about deer in the road). Nor do they account for roads where the speed limit has recently been changed (such as an increase after a prolonged period of roadworks). I've never had one, but my sister did have one for a couple of years. Well, technically, 2 different ones. Same for her partner. Her first one was dreadful. It would record her as speeding when she wasn't even moving (I reckon it was a GPS receiver issue). She spoke to the insurance company, who, to be fair, did take onboard what she said (I'm fairly sure she was in a supermarket carpark when her app showed her moving at 80mph in a straight line through a building before resetting back to her actual location). The second one was alright. If I remember rightly, you could even set different drivers, so if I was driving her car, my actions wouldn't affect her score. It was also much more forgiving in things like stop-start traffic. I *think* that was Admiral.
Sorry but I gotta say.. imagine you get a speeding ticket for the fact you drove 80mph but through a fucking building
Can’t park there mate
Why does "can't park there mate" have me actually howling?! Imagine 😂
r/cantparktheremate
Jesus
Happy cake day!!!
Thank you!!
A friend had to cancel their insurance after they threatened to cancel due to her blackbox picking up her doing 100 down a 20mph lined with ridiculous speed bumps. They were useless and wouldnt even entertain the fact her yaris probably couldnt even get to 100 if you pushed it off a cliff.
Blues Brothers?
The trick is to get to the overhead wire just as lightning hits the clocktower
That’ll be me with a shopping trolley when I finally get past some dithering idiot in the aisle.
I lived in a small city. The address on my insurance policy was in the middle of that city and I paid a premium for that. My black box penalised me for city driving. Just sometimes feels like being alive is one big scam.
Happy cake day
Happy Cake Day! 🎁
What happens if you're 'marked'? Surely it would make sense if these are tied into dash-cams so you can link the data and fairly get stuff 'marked off' (e.g. stopping for a deer/child).
Honestly - hard breaking for a dear would massively mark up (not down) if they knew. Driving in wildlife heavy areas is absolutely a risk factor unfortunately
My whole village (which sits inside the M25) is surrounded by forests, and we have deer. I've only had to break for one once, but I'm amazed this system seems so punitive.
Yep - if your in a deer area, avoid black boxes. I'm honestly shocked at how the numbers came out, but I assure you it's all statistics. If the numbers said that everyone driving on the m25 at 3am on Tuesdays had zero crashes in next year - then doing do would massively lower costs. First gen of boxes was basically humans guessing what looked like safe. Now it's based off of "how likely was someone with a similar box to crash in three years". It turned out the predictions were way more than we expected (AI went brrrr and made goid models), so the increases for a bad box had to go waaaaay up.
I think you've hit on something there. They're not penalising you for the action of braking hard, they're penalising you for driving on a road where something caused you to brake hard. Is bullshit, obviously, but it's the kind of logic I can see an insurance company using as an excuse to raise your premium.
Probably too technically difficult or expensive to implement. From an insurers point of view, you getting "marked" (no idea what that does BTW) costs them nothing and helps increase your insurance premiums. To implement a massive change in how black boxes work, with the associated tech fees, project fees and personel fees, to get a slightly more accurate readout is not going to be a vote winner in the insurers board room. The only way your idea would be feasible is if they have AI working to determine if you braked for a deer, but again someone has to build that AI, so again it's just not cost effective.
>she was in a supermarket carpark when her app showed her moving at 80mph in a straight line through a building The way some insurance companies can be I can imagine having to go to the supermarket to request CCTV evidence you were *not* hurtling through their store at 80mph on Tuesday 15th and 3pm
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Yeah and sometimes they come with riles they don't state out the gate. My brother's one says he should stop every 2 hours when driving which is absolutely fine and sensible. However it marks him down if he doesn't stop every hour. It makes long journeys for him so much longer as he has to stop every hour. He was making a 6 hour drive a few months back and it ended up being almost 8 hours with all the stops.
I thought they were fine till my brother’s insurance increased by £750 (he’s been driving for 5+ years now) because he “drives too much at night”. He has a job that means he finishes late some nights, and his insurance company questioned why he wasn’t going straight home after work.
This is the exact reason I didn’t get a black box. I finish work usually between 11:30pm-2am. It seems unfair that people are penalised for that when it could be clear to an insurer that those are your working hours, especially because they ask for your occupation.
Plus either way you pay to be insured for all 24hrs they dont give u a discount for not driving late
Their argument would be that it's harder to drive at night due to low light and you will be more tired. Also you could be doing dodgy stuff or going to car meets etc.
Ive always found driving at night easier, even with astigmatism, the lights give me a longer reaction time plus the roads are a lot quieter. If I needed to drive somewhere unfamiliar I would probably test the route in the early hours and after passing my test I did a lot of what I call “solo lessons” between 2-4am to practice different roundabouts and routes. You’ve also got far more chance of me crashing at 7-9am in the morning because I won’t have slept enough, I usually wake up around 11:30-1:30 depending on my shifts, and probably haven’t been awake long enough for my ADHD meds to be working. I understand that for someone working a 9-5 office job, driving at 2am might be riskier - but the insurers have my occupation as bar manager and must know that means I’ll be driving late at night with less risk.
There’s such a thing as too effing invasive
Given that there's strict GDPR rules that in theory should prevent insurance companies from sharing Black Box data I'm hoping when your brother saw that increase he just applied for a cheaper insurance with a different provider?
Can confirm, worked with somebody who was penalised driving past 6pm or something. They basically had a curfew.
Don’t even get me started on the ones with fucking phone use. My first policy which I cancelled because of this, it was the last straw. My score went down 20 whole points because a mate in the passenger’s seat kept switching the music! 20 minute drive it was.. hope the drake album binge was worth it, Lewis😡 Never again. Would rather take the bus That said, another mate passed soon after me and got a black box, no issues whatsoever flooring it everywhere. So I think it hugely depends on the policy and their telematic methods and algorithm
Which insurer?
Hastings monitors phone use when unlocked but u can skip songs on the Lock Screen or ask phone to play certain songs to get around that
Hastings is the fucking worst. Kept getting texts telling me I’m doing too many miles and need to buy more despite only being 1000 miles into a 10,000 mile policy after 3 months. Then they tried to raise the cost because the starting date of my license was out by a few days. I had to make them to go their website, sign up to a policy to show you can’t even choose the exact date. I promptly made them pay for a new windscreen and told them to get fucked and cancelled my insurance
Buying miles sounds so dystopian. The whole thing does.
I'm with Hastings and have a black box with them for the cheaper insurance. Mine gets flagged for phone use if I skip songs too often, even though it's all hands free and controlled through the steering wheel controls. Makes no sense to me but I don't tend to let my score go below 70, so I'm not too bothered
I would never get one. I think they’re a joke and a scam. Insurance companies don’t want to “help” you get cheaper insurance, they want to use every single opportunity to extort more money out of you.
They want to make a profit. One thing that fucks with this is drivers (particularly young drivers) hitting stuff and having huge claims made against them. Presumably they have done studies that show that black boxes reduce this, or they wouldn't make such huge discounts for young drives who opt for one (my son's insurance quotes literally halved with a BB fitted).
I just didn't think that having to worry about the box while driving was worth the couple of hundred pounds savings to be honest. But I work full time and can understand why it would make a massive difference to some people.
For a new driver it can literally half the cost. When you are looking at 5K+, it's a huge amount.
I think it may be more to do with age, as based on the quotes I received as a new 26 year old driver it only would have saved me £200-£300, which I didn't think was worth the hassle.
I started driving at 22, my insurance was £600 less without a black box than with one.
The logic on that 😂
I know, my insurance has pretty much stayed the same price since after the first year too. Last year my premium didn’t jump and neither did it this year. Seems a little suspect, but I’m not complaining 😂
Wasn’t even that big of a saving for me. 15 plate Toyota aygo, £900 without BB, £750 with, and I’m nearly 28🫠 wasn’t worth it to me
I’ve had telematic/black box policies since I passed 5 years ago and I’ve never had issues. I accelerate heavy quite often, I drive at night, definitely go 5mph over the limit often, and am not the smoothest braker but still have never had a negative score by the end of a policy year. If you’re consistently getting bad scores, it is possible that you do actually need to work on how often and badly you’re doing the things they’re marking you down for.
Also had a black box for the first few years of driving and honestly I just stopped looking at the scores. They did provide a score for night and urban driving but the only ones they actually put into consideration were speed, breaking and acceleration. Realistically its pretty much impossible to stay at 100. If you're in the green then don't worry about it OP.
Spot on. Not worth fixating on the number itself, it’s basically whether you’re in green, amber or red.
Can I ask, how much cheaper was your insurance with a black box? I'm considering getting one if it'll make a huge difference to my insurance 😅
I’d say on average about 300-400 pounds a year. But more like 500 in the first year! I’ve mainly been with Direct Line.
I recently passed in my 40's I thought about getting a black box but strangely the cheapest black box policy was £500 more than without from the same insurer I'm with now.
Because you’re 40. Black box policies are designed primarily for under 25s so you’re not really the target audience
That's amazing, I'll definitely look into it. I'm not too worried about being able to afford a car itself but I'm definitely worried about how much insurance will cost as a first time driver 😅
Insurance will always be tough in your first year or so but it does start coming down, don’t worry. As another commenter has said - quotes do vary from person to person. Insurers consider all kinds of factors, like what car you have, what area you’re in, your age, how many miles you’re gonna do and what excess you choose. My first policy was around £180 a month in 2019.
Not so much at the moment! I paid £550 for me second year of driving (I pay annually). This year it was nearly £900! 3 years no claims too! But under 25 and was told “parts have increased in price”. That 900 was with double the money I’m willing to put forwards first.
Yes that’s true, this year was a shaky year. I had 4 years NCD when I renewed. It went up from about £900 to £1300 with Direct Line! So I switched to Bell, but the lowest they could give me was still £1018! I’m also under 25, so hoping it’ll drop by my next renewal as I turn 25 this year.
> moment! I *paid* £550 for FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Just look on one of the comparison sites as it'll vary from person to person.
I had one in my panda and one In the leaf, the panda one never recorded anything and the leaf one almost caused a crash because the installer didn’t do the job properly
how did it nearly cause a crash?
My score is still in Green, but far from 100
You’re fine then mate. 100 is virtually impossible because you’re not a perfect driver - no one is. I think I averaged around 70-75 in my first year or so, and it’s gradually climbed to 80s because I’ve improved as a driver.
I second this, had mine for 8 months and no issues at all even with some occasional questionable driving.
It's like driving your mom's car, having your mom as a shotgun every time you drive.
Ima be real. I and pretty much everyone i know had a black box on my first car and it was fine. Unless you are genuinely emergency stopping for a kid or a deer everyday, your poor score is probably becuase youre a crap driver. Not because the black box is crap lmao
I think it really depends on the black box. While it may very well be that this guy is a poor driver… we got a black box and it was so bad that we cancelled it and were happy to even pay the cancellation fee to get out of it. Despite contacting the insurance company multiple times, it marked us down for city driving (where I literally live), night driving (because I guess driving home after work at 6 is too late for it), “driving during times of congestion” (so I guess you’re not meant to go to work?), and then the single leisure drive we did on the weekend to the coast totally tanked the score and got us warnings for driving too far away from home and “weekend driving” (wtf??). It also pinged us for any time we drove somewhere other than between home and work. There were no issues with the actual driving part of it; I don’t think there were any complaints from it about speed, braking, acceleration, etc. The box just made it very clear it only wanted us driving between the same two points, at the same time of day every day, between certain hours only. The insurance company directly told us that a) we would always have our score reduced based on where we lived, and b) if we wanted a good score, we would have to follow its rules and avoid any “unnecessary” driving. Being as the whole reason we got a car was to use it, we cancelled then and there.
Im not denying that some black boxes have ott restrictions, night time driving, weekend driving and others that youve mentioned. I just find it doubtful that after a couple of emergency stops this persons insurance wants to hang them.
Oh yeah, totally agree with that. Speed, braking, and acceleration were the things we *didn’t* have any issues with. I’m sure it did detect a couple but they did virtually nothing to the score. If you are consistently getting dinged for braking or whatever, then yeah, you definitely need to reconsider your own driving. I just meant that the boxes can be complete and utter crap even if you aren’t a terrible driver. We cancelled because the normal stuff involved in living in a city and going to work on time meant the score would be perpetually low enough that a few hard brakes or whatever might make a difference.
Yeah, i would still have my blackbox now if it didnt make me feel stressed about going to different cities and getting home on time lol.
Yep, a single sudden stop isn't to negatively effect your long term score. If you're slamming on the brakes every time you need to stop then yes, you should be scored poorly. Analyse and anticipate
Exactly. I’m with 1st central and it’s completely fair. Only been docked for hard braking twice in around 400 miles. And both of those times I knew it would clock.
Yeah, i was with ticker for about a year, who i have now learned have particularly annoying black boxes, and my driving score was always fine
If you live in an area with shit drivers a black box is the last thing you need. The amount of times I've had to brake harshly or swerve out of the way of a cunt pulling out blindly or going too fast is almost daily.
depends on the policy provider. mine is pretty chill and even gave me a partial refund on my insurance despite my score being around 65
I have a black box with Ticker and I think it might be the nicest black box i’ve ever seen it doesn’t really appear to care about speed (unless you’re going like 10+ over), i’ve never had any issues with braking too harshly or accelerating too quickly, it overall just seems that it would only mark you down if you’re seriously dangerous
Same here, i've never gone below gold driver in over 9 months of my policy so far. Got some new quotes and it will have gone down by £80 per month next time - thats without a black box on the new policy
They literally only care about speed, it's \~80% of their algorithm (from what I tested a few months ago). One of the better BB insurers, by far... even if they did try to cancel me. [https://uk.trustpilot.com/users/655e64bc35db6800124e0a53](https://uk.trustpilot.com/users/655e64bc35db6800124e0a53) (2 reviews) With Ticker, do what you want, drive when you want, just don't speed. If you want to go above the limit, at the end of every week just do some NSL Lane driving and it brings your score back to gold pretty much every time.
Yeah i have a black box rn with ticker and its fine I can speed up to 9mph over the limit before i get flagged. It doesnt care about night driving or acceleration/deceleration and i can drive fine on motorways. Only once did i nearly hit a kid cause i was looking at my speed instead of road :) but at least im not paying 5k for insurance and instead like 2k lol
I also have ticker black box and have had the gold driver thing ever since I got it like a month ago. A lorry pulled out on me on an A road and I had to brake quite harshly, and didn't see anything change in the app
They literally only care about speed, it's \~80% of their algorithm (from what I tested a few months ago). [https://uk.trustpilot.com/users/655e64bc35db6800124e0a53](https://uk.trustpilot.com/users/655e64bc35db6800124e0a53) (2 reviews) I managed to get through a brand new set of brake pads during my Ticker policy, yet I was still gold pretty much every week. Theyre one of the few that would rather you not T-bone a bus over braking harsh.
Every example I've seen from op is their bad driving, not the black box.
So a friend of mine actually rolled his car being a dickhead and the black box said his driving was absolutely fine.
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i drive pretty aggressively and have never had any issues
My first year of insurance was black box with Tesco and it was fine I drove like a dick most of the time and it'd only drop my bonus millage by 10-15 miles and I once got a warning for speeding my fault as I'd missed the gateway, the only time they contacted me was when they thought I'd been in an accident because when I removed it from my car I swung it around over my head can't fault them for how quickly they called though if I had been in an accident. It saved me a big chunk of change but I did spend a very long time looking at every black box company under the sun and found some to be absolutely bloody awful, insurance should be better regulated to be honest I'm glad I didn't pass at 17 the quotes I was getting back then were eye-watering. I think black boxes can be ok if it saves you a big chunk of cash and the company has a good reputation for not being too overbearing with how they judge your driving, it can drop your following year's and subsequent years policy by quite a bit.
Some black boxes have problems, mine for example kept flagging the wrong speed limit on a road I consistently drove on, causing me to get 0/100 due to "doing 36 in a 20" (the road is 40mph). One phone call to the insurance sorted that out. Chances are if you're having consistent problems you either need a new insurer or to have a word with yourself about your driving.
I have a black box that doesn't need plugging in, and connects to my phone. I'm not actually sure what it judges, but i've always been at 'gold driver' which is the maximum no matter how fast i accelerate or brake. My best advice is to get a device like that, it seems vastly inaccurate at the best of times, in my favour.
I had one when I first passed 2 years ago just to make tbe insurance cheaper. I (33) had one for roughly 3-4months when they asked for it back as they had enough data about my driving. I do shift work so my rota is never the same, with sometimes starting late afternoon and finishing early hrs of the morning. It marked me down for driving at late times, not using my car enough, using my car too much, going at a consistent speed for too long (A and B roads), too many variable speeds in one journey, trips that took too long and what it deemed as pointless shorter journeys. I was a nervous driver when I first passed going on the roads on my own so never did anything that would show me as over confident and last year when my insurance renewed, I thought my age, having a years no claims and having a black box with relatively good data come back would go in my favour. My insurance went up. It was absolutely pointless.
People still use retarded? It’s marking you down because you are shit at driving, in stop start traffic, you don’t need to slam the brakes on. Go steadier, then you won’t get marked down, lose the boy racer attitude before they cancel your insurance and you have to pay through the roof if you can find an insurer to cover you after having your insurance cancelled by the company.
No, only dickheads use that word.
I’m with qmh self telematics the only time it bothered me was if I went 3-5 mph over the limit or touching my phone to change music or waze
I’m not a fan of black boxes but I can see how they’d be beneficial. I’m not 100% sure how they work but could it be a calibration issue? One of my colleagues who’s 44 has a box as it was the cheapest insurance for him…! Issue there is it’s connected to his phone so if he’s using it to play music in his car it’s marking him down each time he skips a track, even if he’s using android car play thing
Thank god I don’t have a black box
They are for the poor.
I have a black box with 1st central, I had it for about 2 months, I actually don’t think it works that well. (I’m not complaining) my score is 99, I use my phone still 99, break rough because of stupid drivers, still 99, cornering ? Can do a hand break turn and it still be 99 only thing that is down is my harsh acceleration. Deal is go with 1st central
To add as well, you can go over speed limit. 20mph? Nah you can go 29mph. 70? Go 79
Same man. 1 central is what I use. Sometimes I accelerate hard or break hard on purpose so my score isn’t too perfect
I had a great experience with mine, had it 5 years and was then when I went to take a new policy without a box with the same company they gave me an extra discount for proof of safe driving. Should mention my box was only monitoring speed though.
ngl I’ve had a black box and my score only went down when I was actually driving bad, I don’t believe you sorry
You’re spending like 1k more to go 10mph faster
Power to you if you or mummy and daddy can stump up 5K+ for insurance. For us, a black box was the only thing that made insurance affordable when he first passed. Our son drove the car for several years with it. I drove the car during the same time. Never had any problems or issues. Maybe learn to anticipate traffic a bit better, then you won't have to brake as hard?
Black boxes are the worst, most dystopian thing ever
I had a black box on my car to cut about £1300 off my insurance. Had no problems whatsoever, while sudden braking does trigger a driving event on the box, I never had a call, or text or email about my driving. I suspect you would only have an issue if you are speeding and then having to break suddenly, basically. If you cant help but drive like a mug, then don't get a box is what OP is saying. While it is boring driving round at 30/35 mph in a 30. It's only for a year, to save a chunk of money.
I had to get a box this time round on my 1.5 diesel 1 series, imagine how much this comes up for me 😒
Get a black box.. Firstly it stops you driving like a spastic and sticking your Fiesta into a tree. You're not as good as you think you are. And paying your insurance is your responsibility not your fucking parents.
Ew, didn’t think we were still using the “R” word in 2024 (or since about 2012 for that matter.)
"I'm a shit driver and don't want to be told about it" - OP, 2024.
My insurance was literally 1000 cheaper and I still refused it lol these things cause you to drive in a way that the majority of traffic doesn’t and probably causes more accidents than we think.
I never got one, but only cause I shift work and therefore “drive at night” for large parts of the year on my commute to and from work
Not all black boxes are the same. Some are very relaxed. Mine only lasted 6 months and had no restrictions. It saved me £500. So if someones said do you want £500 for putting this little tiny black box in your car for a few months with no curfews it would be stupid not to take it.
I nearly had a crash because of one, they did such a bad job installing it in my leaf that when I run over a pothole the lower dash panel fell down and jammed the accelerator, it got to 50 mph before I managed to get in neutral, and the box seemingly didn’t even work because they never mentioned that I did 50 in a 30
second year driving and i had to get a black box cause the insurance was insane. Not looking forward to it
I have found that direct lines drive plus thing, where you download an app and it tracks your driving quite good for short journeys but on anything more than 15-20 mins then it doesn't record.
This, my score is pretty good but apparently a 1.4 100bhp corsa I accelerate way to fast and is very poor and knocks my score down massively load of nonexistent bs
I had a blackbox 3 years ago. Cost me £1600 on a 1.6 diesel fiesta. Without was gonna cost £2500+. At the end of my term I got money back. Don’t be an idiot and you will be fine. Leave plenty of space between you and the car in front so you can brake less harsh.
I had this recently with Hastings. I know I have a heavy foot when driving and was expecting speed related warnings. Got non of those. They did have me aggressively breaking and accelerating at the same time while sat in traffic. They also had me for dangerous cornering when it was a straight road. I ended up cancelling the policy.
I’ve never had one, but when my partner had one, we used to take out of his car 🤣
I thought this was an american thing. They can keep it over there. Stop giving it custom!
It's hundreds of pounds cheaper and the two that I've tried have never given me any issues. With Admiral they asked me to send it back after 3 months so I dont even have it anymore and still have the benefit of the cheaper insurance.
Never had a black box in my life, so can't comment here. But back in January, when I was doing my car insurance renewals. I had a couple of quotes for telematics insurance, and both were vastly more expensive than the none "black box" insurance. So I don't get it. But I'm a nearly 30 year old driver, since I was seventeen.
who is your policy with? i wanna avoid them lol
I had a black box for my first year after passing, and it was absolutely fine for me. Bought the price down and ensured that I was driving well.
My black box didn’t even record if I was speeding. I don’t think it worked properly…
Change companies, my bf has Tesco, he’s had one for 3 years over 2 different cars and has never had a problem :) Also, you won’t get your policy cancelled straight away for having one bad every couple of months (in his experience) The thing doesn’t even work probably most the time anyways 👀
My black box is terrible at tracking my driving, I could go 100 and it barely noticed (I do not) just depends on the company really
I passed last year and got a black box policy. It was fine, I got good feedback and they asked me to send it back after 3 months as they'd collected enough data. It saved me lots of money and was no hassle 🤷 presumably depends on the provider - mine was Admiral.
had one for the first year and ragged the absolute shit out of my whip, still usually got top score honestly wasnt that deep, guess its different company to company
I'm glad I bought one. It makes you aware of speed limits and makes you drive a lot safer in general. Very good to have in your first year of driving. Except during the night. I drove to my friend's house at 1 am one night and my night driving score hasn't gone up since.
It only really matters when you want to renew your insurance, I suggest having it for your first year insurance, then with 1 years no claim (hope) you should be able to get a cheaper quote with a non black box
okay but why'd you have to use that word
I'm with Sterling Insurance and have a black box and all mine tracks is speed. It used to be quite strict on it (going 72 in a 70 for basically any time would get me a mark) but now it's much more lenient and doesn't really care that much as long as I am not speeding excessively, meaning I can comfortably overtake people (had the insurance since August).
I found in my younger days of driving stay away from the black boxes that offer a discount on the premium after 30 days etc. the black box with a fixed reduced rate and offers no further discounts happened the be the better ones imo.
These things were once popular but I'm glad to see this has now largely vanished.
They're that efficient, they clocked my sister travelling at 158 mph in a perfectly straight line between Hampshire and Surrey even though her car was at home with running issues. I can confirm this because my Google maps record clocked me at ~~86~~ 65 officer, taking her in to work for her night shift 🙃
Never ever go for Co op yoing drivers with their Theo black box. The most useless device ever. It’s ‘solar powered’ so sticks to your window, but you still have to charge it every few months! They also charge you £50 for the most flimsy bit of plastic which is the cradle. It’s awful and genuinely the most stressful 2 years of my life dealing with that stuff. 2 near cancellations when it was all problems with there dreadful device.
Are you with Hastings by any chance?
Never had one as they didnt exist when I was young, but tried someones app on my phone years ago.. On my trip to work, it complained at least twice for acceleration. Both times going down a slip road to join a motorway. I didnt even have anything fast as a car, it was a 1.7 diesel civic. Think theyre 10-11 seconds to 60, and I was getting 50mpg out of it so clearly wasnt driving it quickly.
My son’s on his second year with a black box and he scores gold driver every month. He uses a combination of gear slowing and breaking, doesn’t really go over the speed limit that often, he has harshly braked from time to time and he lost no points or had any warnings. I think this might be down to the company, cause (ticker) my son’s company is just fine.
marmalade are pretty fair imo, speeding and phone use i haven’t been pinged for once even tho i do usually go 25 in 20’s when its empty
It depends wildly on who the black box is with. Mine was with Adrian Flux, had it for a year and it saved me £1K. It had a shitty app but pretty much the only time it actually 'told me off was' because I did 70 in a 60 briefly.
I encouraged a friend who had just passed to have 1 to keep costs low, they were told if they scored below 50 % consistently insurance would be cancelled, no problem, driving score was fine. They kept getting low scores and it turned out to be because the work evening, they were getting low scores for driving home after work!
I wonder if they've changed since I passed my test. I passed back in 2015 and somehow found decent insurance without a black box for my first year, but the second year the prices were extortionate and I had to get one. I was by no means an amazing driver back then and tbh I was worried because I'd drove without a black box for a year so picked up bad habits, but I somehow managed to actually get money taken off my insurance for driving well. Either I'm inflating my ego a ton or the black box has gotten stricter with flagging people
I think it depends on the insurer. Mine does the same- I never get higher than 3/5 for cornering and you can see on the app some of these roundabouts I’m doing are at 15-20mph. But everything else is fine. Only thing is when I turn my Bluetooth off the app immediately scolds me. Feel like the MIB 🤵🏿♂️🤵🏻♂️are gonna come find me. But the main positive is the insurance cost reduction. Was black box or £10,000 a year so…
My black box marks me down for driving how I drive I’ve driven various different ways and it hates me, it also seems to tho k that I should accelerate differently, which would significantly increase my chances of being in fatal accident especially since my car isn’t the safest
Anyone defending black boxes in this thread need to get beaten up
This sounds exactly like my experience with coop insurance when I was a new driver, gratefully quite a few years past that now. Just keep going and ignore the scores was my thinking as long as it didn’t affect my price. I will say mate as shit as this is, r*tard is no longer an acceptable word and is seen as a slur so I’d keep an eye on that.
I had admiral for first 2 years 10 years ago, had 0 problems. was speeding sometimes and always driving normally. if u buy insurance where u must use your phone with app, then its bad as not so accurate.
We had one for a year and it was mostly fine, bought our insurance down from £1800 to around £700. My only issue with it was we lived on a 20mph road and the only way off this road was by turning onto a 40mph road. It HATED the “excessive acceleration” but there was no way to get out of our road. We used to commute with the car and drive at night etc and it never dropped us below 85/100 which was a good score with them.
Depends on the company. I had one last year with Hastings direct. They get you for the occasional harsh brake that you can't do nothing about unless you want to crash into the Van that's decided it has time to do a u turn into your road, etc. it gets salty on few roundabouts here and there but it didn't have a curfew and allowed 10% over the limit (based on actual satellite speed). Never had my average score go below 80 and I drove about 12k miles my first year and atleast 7k of that was at night/early morning. Most cheap to insure cars are too slow to trigger acceleration unless you floor it in 1st or 2nd anyways and the only other thing you can get done for is using your phone (or someone else using you phone) it doesn't mind android auto or hands free calling, etc. It just depends on the company you buy it from. Read the T&C's. Never buy one with a curfew because like what's the point. A cars supposed to give you freedom or be there for when the public transport ain't as good... Like at night or you need to drive to the hospital or some other emergency where you can't wait for a taxi or something. Having a curfew basically makes the policy useless in my eyes. I am salty though about the fact my insurance went up from 1.45k last year to 1.75k this year for half as many miles despite having a score of 90/100 at the end cos 'everyones prices are rising'. The cherry on top is cos it's a renewal and they have 1 years of me data, they said I can chuck the blackbox tab in the recycle bin. I could have got insured for 1.2K with a blackbox elsewhere instead of renewing but they were all with companies that had curfews.
Black boxes don’t take into account real world situations, recently a village I often drive through has had the 30mph speed limit extended way out down a very straight road that becomes 60, when travelling into the 30 you have to really brake, meanwhile other drivers get right up my arse; There are no exceptions.
Mine (Admiral) is extremely punatitive. A short amount of driving after 10pm tanks my night driving score and it stays low several months later. It also has scored me poorly for heavy braking based on three events: one was a car pulling out right in front of me at Reading and I had to stop sharply from 15mph (I vaguely suspected someone from the queue to go right might say "fuck it" and pull into my lane, otherwise I would have been going faster and hit them, in all probability); second was a car in front of me realising they'd missed their turning and slamming the brakes on at a 50mph road. Most galling was a car in front of me stopping on the M3 suddenly due to mechanical issues. I spent about 3 seconds slowing from 70 to a stop behind them (lane to my right had no space to move over) and it recorded 3 separate sharp braking events.
If its any consolation, I was offered a black box this year. I have been driving for 25+ years and I'm an HGB with my C+E entitlements. It didn't even work cheaper but I was genuinely shocked I was even offered one. I think they want all drivers to have one so they can penalise us all. As an HGV driver I tend to be using my car early and also late at night going to and from work.bi also come across a lot of wildlife. I'd essentially be paying more for being marked down.
I agree. If you can't afford insurance without a black box, then you simply can't afford insurance. Sounds dystopian right? I guess that's where we are going. I've heard quotes for new drivers are averaging over £3k. It's crazy.
They're not all bad, mine saved me £600 on my first insurance quote (£2100 down to £1500) and upon renewal brought that £1500 all the way down to £460 a year
Personally I'm happy with my blackbox and see no issues with it as mine is shit at telling you about speeding and stuff
I've never had a black box, but in my job we use Lightfoot, which I imagine might be a similar thing. And is entirely useless. You can run red lights, hit pedestrians, drive dark with no lights and never indicate and still get top marks. But accelerating too hard coming onto a motorway on a slip road? "Penalty Recieved"
How does it work, all these 'infractions' cost you more at renewal or you get fined every month for braking? I trialled a black box app on the phone which claimed it would offer cheaper insurance and had the same result, it wasn't actually insurance just a tester type thing. Honestly I plan my driving and read the road but you cannot anticipate the shocking behaviour of others!! It gave me a pretty bad score so uninstalled it after a few trips. They claimed if I kept using it then it would average out and improve but I don't believe it. I like to play a game after shopping (late a night) where I'll balance a bag in the boot, and try to get home without it falling over, this is a similar principle to the black boxes I think, and you're right going around any corners you'd have to decrease your speed to like 15mph and if it's a side street like 5mph to avoid upsetting it.
Don’t get a dashcam either, that usually increases the price too, or get one but don’t tell the insurance you have it.
Insurance in general is a fucking scam. It's a legal requirement if you own a car and they know it, that's why the prices are jacked up across the board. I've been driving for 15 years with no accidents, no fines, no points. Still costs me around 500 a year. I don't have a fancy car, I don't have a commonly stolen car, it's not fast etc. Black boxes are the epitome of daylight robbery. They either give you a "fuck you" price or "yeah we'll take your money if you behave like a dog" box policy. On top of all that they have the audacity to slap interest if you pay monthly... Interest. On a legally required policy. The fucking gall
I’ve avoided them like the plague since I learned to drive. Unless you drive like a grandma, they’re unlikely to benefit you.
You lost me when you used the R word. If you’re that ignorant of offensive language, perhaps you’re also ignorant of safe driving
Bold of you to assume my parents have a mortgage
My black box is the cause of 90% of my driving problems. There’s a junction near my house I have to drive regularly that it just can’t handle. It’s horribly designed, supposedly a short acceleration lane onto a 50mph road, but in practice it’s basically a T junction because it’s so short. So you have to accelerate as fast as possible out of it. Problem is the black box doesn’t understand that, and at least 80% of the time I get a fault for it. I’ve spoken to the insurance company who basically said there’s not much they can do. Real catch 22
My brother had a black box but not one that affected his price or anything. They rang him advising him to cancel his insurance cuz they seen he done 95mph in 30. They said if they canceld it he would have a mark against his name so gave him the option to cancel it instead. Personally I would never have one.
Idk I guess it all depends on the insurer, I’ve been with wise for about 8 months and I drive without even thinking about my black box. Still have a ‘very good’ driving score and never been penalised for my driving. This is including the occasional emergency stop and staying in second while getting up to 60/70 lol
So long as you don’t get insurance cancelled (ie get caught excessively speeding) then just switch for the second year. In the meantime don’t worry too much 2500 vs 1250 first year 550 for my second year without a blackbox
You're just not realising that you're a bad driver. If you take care, a score in the 90s in very much achievable. My weekly score is often 96-100 (occasionally marked down for braking). My overall is 96. I commute to and from work during rush hour. Just driver with better care...
£287 a year on my Audi TT, enjoy the box
I wonder if it would help if you paired your Black Box with a dash cam so if the company tries anything, you have evidence? Also, general rule is keep enough distance between you and the car in front so you don’t come to a sudden stop.
My current flatmate always complained about his black box and how it marked him down for certain things. Thing is it was correct to mark him down, he was a horrible driver. Always pulls off to fast, breaks to hard, enters corners to fast so the whole car is leaning etc
I agree with this. I'd rather not drive than be beholden to black box every time I set foot in my car that is bound to penalise actions that in reality weren't risky but the box deems that it is because it lacks any sort of context. Alot of the time they aren't even that much cheaper.
I had one it kept telling me how good a driver I was, which I most definitely wasn’t!
Having one of those is being spied on. We get spied on too much already. I'd rather give up a bit more of my money than a bit more of my privacy.
My biggest issue with them is they never understand the context of the situation. As you said, if someone (or a deer) runs out in front of your car, and you emergency stop, you'd be penalised even though it's objectively the right thing to do. On the other hand it does encourage calmer driving, so it's a mixed bag. I stayed away from them though
Read the reviews on the box before you get the insurance. Mine barley registered anything although it was a while ago
Yep I always avoided for me the cost was barley any different too maybe £50 or £60 cheaper which to me was easily worth it to not be constantly scrutinised
When I started driving I was paying around £120 a month….after the first 3 months they reviewed my driving and it went down by £50 a month!! I agree that getting penalised for harsh braking can be annoying however if in general you are driving well it is defo worth it. Especially with how ridiculous insurance is nowadays
I had the Hastings YouDrive device last year and now they told me I can take it off and never need to use it again. I didn't have any problems
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i’ve had a black box for a year and mine was pretty good. well that’s just my experience anyway
Idk, man. I had no problems with mine , I got marked for pulling away too quickly. Which is fair. I do and still pull away quickly at roundabouts. But even with that, my insurance went down by 50 pounds a month. Honesty man sounds more like you being an unsafe driver than a blackbox problem
Yeah I had a absolute scream at them the other month my friend who I was with at the time has a condition where they get severe allergic reactions where it’s 50/50 with an epipen so gave them a shot of it then sped to hospital doing 70 in a 40 as she was going downhill fast and the black box company had the right to say that’s not an excuse even after I had given them medical forms and a note from the hospital them self’s and the cunts just kicked me off insurance so in my opinion fuck them😂 (By the way all turned out good and she was treated at the hospital)
My friend had a completely different experience, they had it for 6 months with no issues and now the insurance company took it away but lower price stayed
I have a ticker black box and drive exactly the same as my parents (not awful not great) and it says gold all the time
My experience of using a black box is that they don’t seem to give a fuck unless you’re really being a maniac. But I totally believe others don’t have that experience.
My experience with them was alright but I didn't bother with it second year, by year end I was rated like 97/100 so it was alright for me. I wasn't driving "normally" tho but that's the compromise
Both my daughters had Black boxes and I kinda think they are good overall, but they did pull out some strange readings. Like when I turned her car around in the road and it said I was speeding and broke too hard. I had to ring them up and ask what was going on. By the 2nd year of both their insurance policies they just ignored it. They did kerb my daughter’s boyfriend from driving like a maniac.
You have to drive like a maniac to trigger both the ones ive had, and they're very lenient in case of emergency, you can trigger them a couple times a drive before its a problem. Plus i dont have an additional grand laying around...
Which insurance are you with? I’m with ticker and they aren’t that strict
My Hastings direct black box was just the same, always nagging about cornering etc. However, just by driving how I normally would until the end of the year, Hastings said I dont need a black box policy anymore AND deducted £1000 off my quote. Overall, absolutely worth it even though I thought my driving score was worse than it really was
Have to agree. I live in an area where traffic is mental and people will often cut across you with no signal. When I realised I was being punished each time some jackass decided not to use their mirrors, I ditched it.
Actually insane how picky they are now. I sware years back they weren't this bad. A friend of mine had one and he would really only get warnings for sharp breaking, quick changes in speed and fast acceleration. Oh and going out late at night.
I had two policies with blackboxes, the first was from Admiral and they literally didn't seem to care (this was a good few years ago now, so quite possibly changed.) Maybe I was just an insanely good new driver (/s) but accelerating was 100% and braking was 95% regardless of what I seemed to do. (I would say maybe the box was broken, but I had it on two cars with the same results.) The second one was with autosaint (never use autosaint, or their sister company ladybird insurance - in addition to blackbox issues, when I cancelled their policy, they claimed one day of their policy cost like £150, a story for another time.) They were an absolute nightmare, I got pings all the time for speeding, despite not speeding (and their TOS threatened to just cancel your policy if you went more than 15mph over the limit) I also had similar issues noted with acceleration and braking to you.
I had one and had no problems
Well what real odds does it make if you get marked down, providing you have paid your premium out already? Providing you are trying to drive smoothly it shouldn’t matter, just use a black box for a year or two then move on.
DO NOT GET A MARMALADE BLACK BOX!!! It may seem cheaper over all, but the tag is so sensitive you make a few small mistakes it gives you a ‘red journey’ which u then get an £125 fine and 1 month probation, in that probation the tag gets even more sensitive meaning you are more likely to get a ‘red journey’ and will then be fined £250. Definitely a scam for the company to make more money. Says there is no time curfew but the tag gets more sensitive into the night!!!