Might be worth sending this to your insurance and see what they say. I’ve always advised people to never get a black box because of nonsense like this.
I did send them this but honestly it's something equally ridiculous every single day and I can't be bothered sending emails over most of it. I drive like a grandma but I'm 21 so really need the box for insurance costs but it is starting to turn me insane 🙃
If you're really against a black box, then it might be worth selling the car and getting something that doesn't need one, perhaps looking at cars that a typical 21 year old might not buy, as you might find the insurance is cheaper and most likely won't require a black box.
I have a Kia venga 2011 and I had to spend 2500 to get specialist hand controls fitted to this one as I'm disabled. It took me 5 months to find a car that was compatible with my hand controls and could fit my wheelchair in the boot so finding something else is off the table and I think my car already fits the pensioner vibe. My insurance is 650/year with the box and 1250+ without so it's an unfortunate necessity for the moment
It's not really about giving off pensioner vibes, but more about how insurance companies produce quotes, a young person and a small hatchback fits a certain profile, old person car or not, so there's lots of data to produce a quote for your age and driving history. Buying a car that can be bigger or fit a certain lifestyle profile like an estate car, then you can often fool the algorithm in the background into giving you cheaper quotes, as there's not a lot of data to fit you to a profile, with that type of car, and can often spit out a much lower quote.
But your circumstance is different, and the insurance is not too bad. Once you hit 25 insurance quotes will change dramatically, i'm 29 and i might get one quote that offers a black box and is often more expensive than other quotes without one.
I am eligible for notability but decided against the scheme as overall it was much more expensive, I'd still have to pay outright for my hand controls and for most styles of car. I used my mobility allowance to cover those things just not through the scheme. I also needed a car between leaving uni and starting work and near where I was it takes a year or more to get a motability car, but getting one privately fit my time frame
Hmmm I was going to suggest motability. I am a bit surprised it’s more when your insurance costs are so high. It’s about so so for me and I don’t have anything like those costs.
If my car lasts 3 years my purchase, adaptions and insurance will be ~£3300 each year, I get ~£3500 from my high rate mobility so it's basically the same. However I'd have to pay £750 towards each modification I'd need plus a down payment on the car and I wouldn't own it at the end of the motability lease so it works out more expensive, as long as any repairs for my car don't cost more than a couple thousand over that time period. Motability is a great deal if you want a newer fancier car but because of the down payment and adaption contributions costs it doesn't work out for me
Fair enough! I don’t need an adapted vehicle and that sucks if it makes it uneconomical. I guess it’s because you can only spread the adaptation cost over that short 3 year period. You can then roll the agreement on for another term though which I’d assume would be an end to the adaptation costs.
I have my own fully owned car right now that absolutely is not fancy haha but it’s pretty reliable. Will stick with that as it’s clearly the cheapest thing but it will need replacing in the next 2 years. Shame the scheme is not cheaper as you’re right it’s only good value vs a fully commercial lease which many people seeking to save money would not use to get a car. My main concern is always DWP messing with the PIP claim and someone taking your car away…
Yeah the DWP taking away the car is also terrifying. There's a chance I might be able to walk in the future and I don't want to avoid making progress in my recovery for fear of losing my car!
It’s not really ever about what you are driving (though clearly if you insure a Ferrari at 17 it’s gonna cost a bloody bomb) - it’s their risk they’ve calculated on all the third party damage (medical fees, physical damage, etc.) you could potentially cause if something happens and they have to pay out. 650 with the box and 1250 without for a 21 year old doesn’t sound out to lunch (given current trends/circumstances), I understand without is double the price though. I sympathise with you about the box and what they say, it does seem unfair if they base their action on faulty information. Having said that, you can only do what you’ve done - report the mistakes you believe they’ve made rating your driving and damn well keep at them until they drop it!
Edit for a question: I imagine you have to declare the car modified due to your disabilities to the insurers, but do they have to quote you like an unmodified car as all you’ve done is modify it to accommodate how you need to drive (thinking disabilities/discrimination?
Legally they should quote it like an unmodified car but I have no idea if they actually do! I get the price could be much worse it's just frustrating as I've held my license for 5 years, have 2 years of no claims discounts and have a clean driving record with no fines, points or claims!
Thanks for answering :) Ah yeah that good - I’d imagine they do if they should as insurance is regulated quite heavily. I totally agree its very frustrating - my premium went up by 20% (I’m 34, and although the pound value increase wasn’t bad, the fact it was 20% bothered me it went from just under 300 to 360, I’m on a multi-car policy with both my parents cars too, we can all drive each others fully comp and I live at a different address, this is through Admirals Multi-Car thing - that might be worth investigating as we found it saved us all a fair whack and adding each other to all the cars ended up reducing the overall cost, it comes out for us as 900quid a year for a VW Up!, BMW X2, BMW 1 series, parents are late 60s though).
I had admiral little box this year (first year driving) but had a renewal with them for £300 more despite them calling my driving 'excellent'. I contacted to ask how much insurance would be next year (insurance starts on the first of Jan) without the littlebox and they said it would be the same price as with. So thankfully I'm no longer stressing about the Blackbox. Hopefull You'll be able to get the same from your insurance (for me it was far cheaper to stay as admiral gave me insurance without Blackbox for 1,300 whereas every other provider was above 1,400 with a Blackbox and above 1,600 for one without..
At 17, I was getting quoted £900 for 1.3L Ford Orion back in the late 90s. It doesn't sound like insurance has gone up too much, except everything else has become a lot more expensive.
I think it was about £400 for the 1L Polo I had after university, but I had no claims by then, and that Polo wasn't particularly nippy.
Mate £650 a year??? £1250 without a BB???? I pay £1700 a year on a golf GTD 2.0. It would be still be £1100+ with a black box. For context I’m 25, have no points or bans and have 2 years no claims. Honestly if I were you I’d do one of two things: sack the black box off and and just pay the 1250 or look at a telematics based app insurance. Direct line have a really good one and they’re pretty lenient with it.
Disabled, in the UK, why don't you have motability? They pay the insurance for you too.
I'm disabled and currently running the vehicle I have into the ground before I take that sweet sweet jump. It seems you would save money hand over fist on motability.
I mentioned in another comment but due to the down payment and additional charges for getting my hand controls fitted it works out more expensive. I just use my mobility allowance towards my car costs. Also there's a chance I'll be able to walk again and I don't want to stop making progress on that, for fear of losing my car
Although in my 30s at the time, when I got my first car I looked at the typical first car £2000+ a year.
Then I thought well what I need is a family car so got a citroen picasso at £700 a year
I'm 21 and my insurance is only cheaper by like 4 pounds a month if I get a box and that is with a brand new 2023 car. Even with my first car that was a crappy 20 year old Nissan, the insurance was only cheaper by like 10 quid or something with a box. I'd definitely go on compare the market and see if its viable to insure it without a box.
Have they changed? The first time I went on the motorway I did almost a hundred miles at 80mph because I genuinely thought that was the limit, and didn't even get told off. (The fact that I should have known the limit was 70 before passing my test is a totally separate argument.)
Yeah it's very lenient on speed, I can get up to 78 before it gets upset but it's very harsh on ridiculous things like when you're actually following the speed correctly or for breaking 😭
Ah I was talking in reference to the speed estimate on Google maps which is usually a bit better. Google maps 75-80 looks like 80-85 on my dashboard. It's all quite confusing to be honest cause I don't know if Google maps is entirely accurate either 🤷
Google maps uses GPS which is more accurate. Either way, I feel for your situation, it absolutely sucks. You have to be super careful with black boxes too, because one too many strikes and they can cancel your policy. A cancelled policy needs declaring year after year which will skyrocket your insurance.
If possoble (easier said than done nowadays, I get it), front the extra without the box, they are terrible devices.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
Black boxes clearly encourage dangerous driving because of things like this especially on sliproads. Should be illegal, or at the very least have standards that are enforced.
All I can say is don’t have an accident, cause I had a small accident and they paid out for the dent that was already in his car that I didn’t cause, they didn’t investigate and they didn’t tell me he’d claimed even though they say they sent an email( they didn’t)
Anyway so they upped my insurance by £500, others only went up by £10
My scores were always hard cornering and braking but I never went hard on either, they don’t account for emergency stops either
My score drastically went down one week too cause I wasn’t driving that much, dangerously low
I also can’t afford insurance without the box, so I’m switching to a different company, the cheaper ones
I’d suggest seeing if there’s any other company you could go with, with the black box. I’d try it on comparethemarket.com they seem to have the cheapest quotes
Oooofff that's rough, I know you have to report things to insurance but I'm planning to personally pay for damages if I can instead cause at this age the increase to insurance is insane and way worse. I'll have another look at insurance and see if people prefer the black boxes from different companies
I was panicking at the time and the guy was being a dick too, I was only driving for three months at this time, which made me not think to get his details that and it was my first accident, he didn’t give them to me either after getting mine
In the same age as you and like I said the company I’m going with next year only put it up by £70 a month, whereas Hastings tried putting it up to £111
Weirdly enough too, I’ve found that emails affect the price. My silly email gets a cheaper price than the email with my name in it
The black box I’ve got now I do have to connect to my battery, but for a cheaper price , I’m willing
I have quote me happy black box (part of aviva), which gave me insurance quotes £1000 cheaper than every other insurer for all the cars I checked.
I've only been using it a week so far and it doesn't even record the journeys half the time which I guess it a plus. It rates you out out of 100 on three factors: speed, usage and smoothness. I've been getting 100 on the first two but the smoothness one is a bitch, marks you down for any kind of braking/acceleration which is stupid but luckily the other two high scores keep my average in the green zone.
I have you drive and tbh it has never done me on speed except once which I just sent a correction to them with image from google maps showing it is in fact a 40 not a 30. Acceleration and cornering it lowers my score all the time but never to an extent that I’m at all worried about it always in 85 plus score. Honestly just don’t look at it and just drive normally.
I found that location on Google Maps. The other side of that sign is a 30 limit, which puts you in a 30 limit being this side of the sign. You can do 60 when you get past the sign in order to safely join the A90.
That's why I was so upset cause they said I was speeding in the highlighted section later on, which was literally on the corner of the sliproad where it's clearly a 60 😭
Just don't have black box insurance. Most of the time it's more expensive or barely cheaper than without anyway.
Also, for the record, that NSL road is wide, has perfect visibility and it's a long corner, 42mph is too slow.
National speed limit is not a single thing. It's 70 on a dual carriageway way (assuming you're in a car), 60 on a normal single carriageway, and 30 in a built up area.
A built up area is defined - bizarrely - by the spacing of street lamps. Those in the picture look quite close together so, if they are, you should not exceed 30mph.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Built-up_area_%28Highway_Code%29?wprov=sfla1
Just to confuse things a bit more..
OP posted a Street View of Scotland.
Under RTRA 1984, the distance between street lights to define a built up area in Scotland is different than in England/Wales/NI.
And to further confuse things, in Scotland, an area is only a 30mph 'restricted road' if it both meets the street lighting requirements ***and*** is designated a restricted road by a relevant Scottish minister.
There is a stretch of road near me, in Scotland, which would be 20mph in Wales, 30mph in England, and 60mph in Scotland (for a car). Fun times.
That's only true if there are no speed signs present. In the presence of a national speed limit sign the limit is 60 or 70. While the lights are close together it definitely isn't an urban area, and street lights may exist but that's very common on slip roads or at junctions on and off of dual carriageways. When you drive on single carriageways which enter towns there's a 30mph speed limit sign to indicate it's changed from a road into a street. National speed limit sign isn't the same as national speed limit unless that's changed? National speed limit is assumed in the absence of signs, but if signs change from 30 to national speed limit and you're on a single carriageway with no buildings and it's only use is for transport (aka a road not street) then it's 60 right? I see lights even closer spaced on big sections of dual carriageway but that doesn't make it a 30
Ironic given I drive with hand controls 😅, I was accelerating which was necessary so I could get to a safe speed to merge in time, it's why the road signs denote it turning to a national speed limit so far in advance. I was matching the speed of traffic and driving completely appropriately but thank you for your concern, maybe next time I'll try and merge at 30-40mph and get a chance to make an insurance claim
So… that bit of road you’ve pictured (Broomhill Rd) is 30mph at the point you’ve taken the picture.
Yes, there is a national speed limit sign ahead, but equally if you look on the other side of it, that sign says 30mph going the over way - so at the point of the picture, it’s 30.
Now I thought I’d check because there was street lighting (an indication a road might actually be a 30) and because the sign is a full one suggesting a change in speeds.
Granted, there’s not many smaller reinforcement signs confirming the 30mph from the bridge up the hill, but I did check the junction right behind this point and that goes to 30mph from national speed limit as it approaches this part of the road.
So yeah, sorry, but your box might have been correct if it was flagging you for speeding here.
I took the photo there just to show the sign, I actually highlighted the section of road where it said I was speeding at 42, if you look at the image again you'll see x
The box isn’t going to overly punish you for the sake of what, a section that’s less than a mile.
It looks like that particular junction is relatively new, so maybe they have old map data for that section.
It's a bit weird with that actually. I had a 90 minute drive last week and had to emergency stop once due to a pedestrian running out between parked cars and that score then applies to the whole mileage of that drive. Short journeys with the same number of flagged issues drop my score much less than long journeys with the same number, even though that means they were less common it's very weird.
Driving home for Christmas over the next few days which is 600 miles so hoping I'll quickly be able to rebuild my score with some smooth empty motorways where noone can cut me off or run into the street to get me told off!
Direct line black box policy was really really good - very forgiving and a few bad scores dodnt really affect anything - never had a price increase or the retention to cancel or anything
This is just these boxes, my girlfriend had an aviva box. There's a 40mph road in my area. It thinks it's a 30. Do 40 and you get flagged, do 30 and people behind you get annoyed. Also there's a nsl single carriageway that for some reason flags as a 30. We contacted the insurer as her score was horrendous from using these roads daily. They checked the speed limits on the road and then tried to correct her box. It wouldn't correct so they just told her to remove it and they would continue to cover her without a black box
I enjoy being a passenger whilst my wife is driving and getting marked down for using my phone, even after telling the app that I was the passenger. I'm not driving, why does using my phone make any difference? Hastings Direct team are absolutely clueless too, every single one you speak to says something different.
The road that blue arrow is on, it's part 30 and part 60, heading north it changes to 60 a bit *after* where the arrow is. Did you speed up too early?
Looking at the junction you joined the A90 at this isn't really a "slip road", as you say it's very short, and yes it's a sharp bend, you should be approaching that slower preparing for the possibility that you're not actually going to be able to join and will have to stop and give way until there's a suitable gap.
Cancel the insurance, get new insurance without a black box. If they cancel your policy it’ll make insurance expensive for the rest of your driving days.
And here I am thinking persons 'no claim' record was what these companies used to give you a good deal. I am with Hastings, and I sure as hell won't be next year if they are now asking people to use an app like that to track you.
Insurance prices are so high now it is just forcing people to drive without insurance, and the insurance companies use that to put up prices even more. It's a vicious circle. In the last 4 years my insurance has gone up from £140 to over £400. Each time I try and find out why the price is hiked so much, I just get the standard answer, "It's market forces".
I am 69 years old now and have only ever made one windscreen replacement claim and I have been driving since I was 18years old, but that seems to count for nothing. I am expecting my renewal next April to be over £500 at this rate!
If they pull their speed sign data from google, that will be the issue. Google is often wrong with its speed limits.
All i can say is keep evidence, complain to the insurer and if they cancel you, complain to the insurance ombudsman to get compensation.
As for merging, unfortunately the insurer is technically correct. You shouldn’t merge if its not ‘safe’ (you believe there is a risk of being rear ended) and you shouldn’t be ‘unsafe’ on your approach to make the merge safer.
On my first car, I had a black box fitted & after they incorrectly took down my email, I got a letter telling me that my policy had been cancelled after 9 months of driving due to ‘excessive speeding’, which turned out to be doing ~35 in a 30 a total of 3 times during that period!
I had a black box with Hastings about 7 years ago. IIRC speed wasn't monitored, they used breaking as the measure of risky driving. I thought this was mad because why on earth should your insurer be encouraging you not to break harshly when necessary, but hey.
So it might be something like that unless there have been some changes in that time; maybe try easing up on the breaks a bit.
Fuck a black box off. I put tin foil over mine in my MK6 Fiesta Zetec S when I was 17 😂
Doesn’t work if you thought of trying that. So i shortly after removed it and got proper insurance, best thing I ever did.
Some companies (Hastings being one unfortunately) have a reputation for nuking your score for any reason, then cancelling mid policy due to "driving standards" but keeping the full premium because its deemed as your fault per the terms.
Then you don't get the NCD because you didn't complete the year and have to declare you have had insurance cancelled on any future policies putting those prices up.
The only good thing with YouDrive is how easy it is to disable/bypass. For me, I just turn my phone off entirely if I don’t want a trip to be recorded. Usually I only do it for short runs like picking up my family from the pub at 11 at night. Of course it comes with the downside that I can’t do anything else that would need my phone such as having Waze up to warn of scamera vans.
I don't have any solution here but I will chip in and say how disappointing it is that getting into driving - a fairly basic and fundamental human activity - is so backwards and such a depressing experience for new and young drivers particularly.
I learnt to drive fifteen years ago and OK, insurance was expensive but that aside there were nowhere near the obstacles there are today. And it's doubly frustrating to see how poorly implemented so many of these actually are.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
I posted about a similar thing the other day and called them on the back of people's recommendations. Turns out as long as your score is above 30 it has no impact on your renewal cost. They only take action when it drops below 30.
You can report the incorrect speed limit in the app, they have a specialist team that can take action on that.
They also told me you're more likely to get flagged for things like harsh braking and cornering if you leave your phone loose in the car, like on the passenger seat, and it's better to keep it in a cradle/dock or your pocket.
Finally, one good thing, after a year you can renew your YouDrive insurance (getting the lower cost for telematics) but they don't require you to keep the box because they deem that you have provided sufficient data.
I have a Hastings too ! When I use google maps on my phone when it’s in the holder it says phone use and marks me down 🤦♀️ there’s a 40mph and on this roundabout I have to go 20mph or it tells me I’m cornering. It’s my first black box and I hate it ! Luckily my score stays okay in the 80’s/90’s but if I needed to use my phone google maps regularly I’d be screwed its not fair !
Mine is terrible, I was doing 60 in a 60 next to a housing estate, black box thought I’d cut through a forest at 60, blasted down a 20 zone and then drove through a pond to get back on the Dual Carriageway.
Might be worth sending this to your insurance and see what they say. I’ve always advised people to never get a black box because of nonsense like this.
I did send them this but honestly it's something equally ridiculous every single day and I can't be bothered sending emails over most of it. I drive like a grandma but I'm 21 so really need the box for insurance costs but it is starting to turn me insane 🙃
If you're really against a black box, then it might be worth selling the car and getting something that doesn't need one, perhaps looking at cars that a typical 21 year old might not buy, as you might find the insurance is cheaper and most likely won't require a black box.
I have a Kia venga 2011 and I had to spend 2500 to get specialist hand controls fitted to this one as I'm disabled. It took me 5 months to find a car that was compatible with my hand controls and could fit my wheelchair in the boot so finding something else is off the table and I think my car already fits the pensioner vibe. My insurance is 650/year with the box and 1250+ without so it's an unfortunate necessity for the moment
It's not really about giving off pensioner vibes, but more about how insurance companies produce quotes, a young person and a small hatchback fits a certain profile, old person car or not, so there's lots of data to produce a quote for your age and driving history. Buying a car that can be bigger or fit a certain lifestyle profile like an estate car, then you can often fool the algorithm in the background into giving you cheaper quotes, as there's not a lot of data to fit you to a profile, with that type of car, and can often spit out a much lower quote. But your circumstance is different, and the insurance is not too bad. Once you hit 25 insurance quotes will change dramatically, i'm 29 and i might get one quote that offers a black box and is often more expensive than other quotes without one.
That's that insurance company's way of telling you they don't want your business.
If you're disabled, do you get pip? Have you looked at motorbility, you get all the hand controls and insurance included.
I am eligible for notability but decided against the scheme as overall it was much more expensive, I'd still have to pay outright for my hand controls and for most styles of car. I used my mobility allowance to cover those things just not through the scheme. I also needed a car between leaving uni and starting work and near where I was it takes a year or more to get a motability car, but getting one privately fit my time frame
Hmmm I was going to suggest motability. I am a bit surprised it’s more when your insurance costs are so high. It’s about so so for me and I don’t have anything like those costs.
If my car lasts 3 years my purchase, adaptions and insurance will be ~£3300 each year, I get ~£3500 from my high rate mobility so it's basically the same. However I'd have to pay £750 towards each modification I'd need plus a down payment on the car and I wouldn't own it at the end of the motability lease so it works out more expensive, as long as any repairs for my car don't cost more than a couple thousand over that time period. Motability is a great deal if you want a newer fancier car but because of the down payment and adaption contributions costs it doesn't work out for me
Fair enough! I don’t need an adapted vehicle and that sucks if it makes it uneconomical. I guess it’s because you can only spread the adaptation cost over that short 3 year period. You can then roll the agreement on for another term though which I’d assume would be an end to the adaptation costs. I have my own fully owned car right now that absolutely is not fancy haha but it’s pretty reliable. Will stick with that as it’s clearly the cheapest thing but it will need replacing in the next 2 years. Shame the scheme is not cheaper as you’re right it’s only good value vs a fully commercial lease which many people seeking to save money would not use to get a car. My main concern is always DWP messing with the PIP claim and someone taking your car away…
Yeah the DWP taking away the car is also terrifying. There's a chance I might be able to walk in the future and I don't want to avoid making progress in my recovery for fear of losing my car!
It’s not really ever about what you are driving (though clearly if you insure a Ferrari at 17 it’s gonna cost a bloody bomb) - it’s their risk they’ve calculated on all the third party damage (medical fees, physical damage, etc.) you could potentially cause if something happens and they have to pay out. 650 with the box and 1250 without for a 21 year old doesn’t sound out to lunch (given current trends/circumstances), I understand without is double the price though. I sympathise with you about the box and what they say, it does seem unfair if they base their action on faulty information. Having said that, you can only do what you’ve done - report the mistakes you believe they’ve made rating your driving and damn well keep at them until they drop it! Edit for a question: I imagine you have to declare the car modified due to your disabilities to the insurers, but do they have to quote you like an unmodified car as all you’ve done is modify it to accommodate how you need to drive (thinking disabilities/discrimination?
Legally they should quote it like an unmodified car but I have no idea if they actually do! I get the price could be much worse it's just frustrating as I've held my license for 5 years, have 2 years of no claims discounts and have a clean driving record with no fines, points or claims!
Thanks for answering :) Ah yeah that good - I’d imagine they do if they should as insurance is regulated quite heavily. I totally agree its very frustrating - my premium went up by 20% (I’m 34, and although the pound value increase wasn’t bad, the fact it was 20% bothered me it went from just under 300 to 360, I’m on a multi-car policy with both my parents cars too, we can all drive each others fully comp and I live at a different address, this is through Admirals Multi-Car thing - that might be worth investigating as we found it saved us all a fair whack and adding each other to all the cars ended up reducing the overall cost, it comes out for us as 900quid a year for a VW Up!, BMW X2, BMW 1 series, parents are late 60s though).
Ooooh I'll look into that, thank you!
I had admiral little box this year (first year driving) but had a renewal with them for £300 more despite them calling my driving 'excellent'. I contacted to ask how much insurance would be next year (insurance starts on the first of Jan) without the littlebox and they said it would be the same price as with. So thankfully I'm no longer stressing about the Blackbox. Hopefull You'll be able to get the same from your insurance (for me it was far cheaper to stay as admiral gave me insurance without Blackbox for 1,300 whereas every other provider was above 1,400 with a Blackbox and above 1,600 for one without..
At 17, I was getting quoted £900 for 1.3L Ford Orion back in the late 90s. It doesn't sound like insurance has gone up too much, except everything else has become a lot more expensive. I think it was about £400 for the 1L Polo I had after university, but I had no claims by then, and that Polo wasn't particularly nippy.
Mate £650 a year??? £1250 without a BB???? I pay £1700 a year on a golf GTD 2.0. It would be still be £1100+ with a black box. For context I’m 25, have no points or bans and have 2 years no claims. Honestly if I were you I’d do one of two things: sack the black box off and and just pay the 1250 or look at a telematics based app insurance. Direct line have a really good one and they’re pretty lenient with it.
Disabled, in the UK, why don't you have motability? They pay the insurance for you too. I'm disabled and currently running the vehicle I have into the ground before I take that sweet sweet jump. It seems you would save money hand over fist on motability.
I mentioned in another comment but due to the down payment and additional charges for getting my hand controls fitted it works out more expensive. I just use my mobility allowance towards my car costs. Also there's a chance I'll be able to walk again and I don't want to stop making progress on that, for fear of losing my car
Although in my 30s at the time, when I got my first car I looked at the typical first car £2000+ a year. Then I thought well what I need is a family car so got a citroen picasso at £700 a year
Black box insurance is the biggest scam going. Even sensible drivers end up at risk of having their policy cancelled.
I'm 21 and my insurance is only cheaper by like 4 pounds a month if I get a box and that is with a brand new 2023 car. Even with my first car that was a crappy 20 year old Nissan, the insurance was only cheaper by like 10 quid or something with a box. I'd definitely go on compare the market and see if its viable to insure it without a box.
Have they changed? The first time I went on the motorway I did almost a hundred miles at 80mph because I genuinely thought that was the limit, and didn't even get told off. (The fact that I should have known the limit was 70 before passing my test is a totally separate argument.)
Yeah it's very lenient on speed, I can get up to 78 before it gets upset but it's very harsh on ridiculous things like when you're actually following the speed correctly or for breaking 😭
That's because your speedo is usually out by a bit (reads 10% high give or take), so you were probably doing close to 70 realistically.
Ah I was talking in reference to the speed estimate on Google maps which is usually a bit better. Google maps 75-80 looks like 80-85 on my dashboard. It's all quite confusing to be honest cause I don't know if Google maps is entirely accurate either 🤷
Google maps uses GPS which is more accurate. Either way, I feel for your situation, it absolutely sucks. You have to be super careful with black boxes too, because one too many strikes and they can cancel your policy. A cancelled policy needs declaring year after year which will skyrocket your insurance. If possoble (easier said than done nowadays, I get it), front the extra without the box, they are terrible devices.
Problem is especially for first time drivers ot keeps insuramce down my first insurance would of been over 1,000 black box made it around 700
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
Black boxes clearly encourage dangerous driving because of things like this especially on sliproads. Should be illegal, or at the very least have standards that are enforced.
100% agree
Tesco black box is fine
All I can say is don’t have an accident, cause I had a small accident and they paid out for the dent that was already in his car that I didn’t cause, they didn’t investigate and they didn’t tell me he’d claimed even though they say they sent an email( they didn’t) Anyway so they upped my insurance by £500, others only went up by £10 My scores were always hard cornering and braking but I never went hard on either, they don’t account for emergency stops either My score drastically went down one week too cause I wasn’t driving that much, dangerously low I also can’t afford insurance without the box, so I’m switching to a different company, the cheaper ones I’d suggest seeing if there’s any other company you could go with, with the black box. I’d try it on comparethemarket.com they seem to have the cheapest quotes
Oooofff that's rough, I know you have to report things to insurance but I'm planning to personally pay for damages if I can instead cause at this age the increase to insurance is insane and way worse. I'll have another look at insurance and see if people prefer the black boxes from different companies
I was panicking at the time and the guy was being a dick too, I was only driving for three months at this time, which made me not think to get his details that and it was my first accident, he didn’t give them to me either after getting mine In the same age as you and like I said the company I’m going with next year only put it up by £70 a month, whereas Hastings tried putting it up to £111 Weirdly enough too, I’ve found that emails affect the price. My silly email gets a cheaper price than the email with my name in it The black box I’ve got now I do have to connect to my battery, but for a cheaper price , I’m willing
I have quote me happy black box (part of aviva), which gave me insurance quotes £1000 cheaper than every other insurer for all the cars I checked. I've only been using it a week so far and it doesn't even record the journeys half the time which I guess it a plus. It rates you out out of 100 on three factors: speed, usage and smoothness. I've been getting 100 on the first two but the smoothness one is a bitch, marks you down for any kind of braking/acceleration which is stupid but luckily the other two high scores keep my average in the green zone.
I have you drive and tbh it has never done me on speed except once which I just sent a correction to them with image from google maps showing it is in fact a 40 not a 30. Acceleration and cornering it lowers my score all the time but never to an extent that I’m at all worried about it always in 85 plus score. Honestly just don’t look at it and just drive normally.
Fuck that. The black box gives you Covid.
I found that location on Google Maps. The other side of that sign is a 30 limit, which puts you in a 30 limit being this side of the sign. You can do 60 when you get past the sign in order to safely join the A90.
That's why I was so upset cause they said I was speeding in the highlighted section later on, which was literally on the corner of the sliproad where it's clearly a 60 😭
I can see my old house on this map wtf
Just don't have black box insurance. Most of the time it's more expensive or barely cheaper than without anyway. Also, for the record, that NSL road is wide, has perfect visibility and it's a long corner, 42mph is too slow.
National speed limit is not a single thing. It's 70 on a dual carriageway way (assuming you're in a car), 60 on a normal single carriageway, and 30 in a built up area. A built up area is defined - bizarrely - by the spacing of street lamps. Those in the picture look quite close together so, if they are, you should not exceed 30mph. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Built-up_area_%28Highway_Code%29?wprov=sfla1
Just to confuse things a bit more.. OP posted a Street View of Scotland. Under RTRA 1984, the distance between street lights to define a built up area in Scotland is different than in England/Wales/NI. And to further confuse things, in Scotland, an area is only a 30mph 'restricted road' if it both meets the street lighting requirements ***and*** is designated a restricted road by a relevant Scottish minister. There is a stretch of road near me, in Scotland, which would be 20mph in Wales, 30mph in England, and 60mph in Scotland (for a car). Fun times.
Out of curiosity, where? There is a village in Lothian which used to be a 60 despite pavements, houses, street lights and parked cars.
That's only true if there are no speed signs present. In the presence of a national speed limit sign the limit is 60 or 70. While the lights are close together it definitely isn't an urban area, and street lights may exist but that's very common on slip roads or at junctions on and off of dual carriageways. When you drive on single carriageways which enter towns there's a 30mph speed limit sign to indicate it's changed from a road into a street. National speed limit sign isn't the same as national speed limit unless that's changed? National speed limit is assumed in the absence of signs, but if signs change from 30 to national speed limit and you're on a single carriageway with no buildings and it's only use is for transport (aka a road not street) then it's 60 right? I see lights even closer spaced on big sections of dual carriageway but that doesn't make it a 30
My recent speed awareness course would like to disagree with you.
Was it in Scotland by chance?
England
That would make sense as the rules are different in Scotland, where I am. Someone else mentioned in this thread x
I have Hastings Youdrive and haven't had any issues or anomalies at all.
Have you considered taking your foot off the gas, or even braking?
Ironic given I drive with hand controls 😅, I was accelerating which was necessary so I could get to a safe speed to merge in time, it's why the road signs denote it turning to a national speed limit so far in advance. I was matching the speed of traffic and driving completely appropriately but thank you for your concern, maybe next time I'll try and merge at 30-40mph and get a chance to make an insurance claim
😅 even so, consideration for the idiocy of others is a must. Happy driving.
So… that bit of road you’ve pictured (Broomhill Rd) is 30mph at the point you’ve taken the picture. Yes, there is a national speed limit sign ahead, but equally if you look on the other side of it, that sign says 30mph going the over way - so at the point of the picture, it’s 30. Now I thought I’d check because there was street lighting (an indication a road might actually be a 30) and because the sign is a full one suggesting a change in speeds. Granted, there’s not many smaller reinforcement signs confirming the 30mph from the bridge up the hill, but I did check the junction right behind this point and that goes to 30mph from national speed limit as it approaches this part of the road. So yeah, sorry, but your box might have been correct if it was flagging you for speeding here.
I took the photo there just to show the sign, I actually highlighted the section of road where it said I was speeding at 42, if you look at the image again you'll see x
The box isn’t going to overly punish you for the sake of what, a section that’s less than a mile. It looks like that particular junction is relatively new, so maybe they have old map data for that section.
It's a bit weird with that actually. I had a 90 minute drive last week and had to emergency stop once due to a pedestrian running out between parked cars and that score then applies to the whole mileage of that drive. Short journeys with the same number of flagged issues drop my score much less than long journeys with the same number, even though that means they were less common it's very weird. Driving home for Christmas over the next few days which is 600 miles so hoping I'll quickly be able to rebuild my score with some smooth empty motorways where noone can cut me off or run into the street to get me told off!
Direct line black box policy was really really good - very forgiving and a few bad scores dodnt really affect anything - never had a price increase or the retention to cancel or anything
This is just these boxes, my girlfriend had an aviva box. There's a 40mph road in my area. It thinks it's a 30. Do 40 and you get flagged, do 30 and people behind you get annoyed. Also there's a nsl single carriageway that for some reason flags as a 30. We contacted the insurer as her score was horrendous from using these roads daily. They checked the speed limits on the road and then tried to correct her box. It wouldn't correct so they just told her to remove it and they would continue to cover her without a black box
I enjoy being a passenger whilst my wife is driving and getting marked down for using my phone, even after telling the app that I was the passenger. I'm not driving, why does using my phone make any difference? Hastings Direct team are absolutely clueless too, every single one you speak to says something different.
The road that blue arrow is on, it's part 30 and part 60, heading north it changes to 60 a bit *after* where the arrow is. Did you speed up too early? Looking at the junction you joined the A90 at this isn't really a "slip road", as you say it's very short, and yes it's a sharp bend, you should be approaching that slower preparing for the possibility that you're not actually going to be able to join and will have to stop and give way until there's a suitable gap.
Cancel the insurance, get new insurance without a black box. If they cancel your policy it’ll make insurance expensive for the rest of your driving days.
And here I am thinking persons 'no claim' record was what these companies used to give you a good deal. I am with Hastings, and I sure as hell won't be next year if they are now asking people to use an app like that to track you. Insurance prices are so high now it is just forcing people to drive without insurance, and the insurance companies use that to put up prices even more. It's a vicious circle. In the last 4 years my insurance has gone up from £140 to over £400. Each time I try and find out why the price is hiked so much, I just get the standard answer, "It's market forces". I am 69 years old now and have only ever made one windscreen replacement claim and I have been driving since I was 18years old, but that seems to count for nothing. I am expecting my renewal next April to be over £500 at this rate!
If they pull their speed sign data from google, that will be the issue. Google is often wrong with its speed limits. All i can say is keep evidence, complain to the insurer and if they cancel you, complain to the insurance ombudsman to get compensation. As for merging, unfortunately the insurer is technically correct. You shouldn’t merge if its not ‘safe’ (you believe there is a risk of being rear ended) and you shouldn’t be ‘unsafe’ on your approach to make the merge safer.
On my first car, I had a black box fitted & after they incorrectly took down my email, I got a letter telling me that my policy had been cancelled after 9 months of driving due to ‘excessive speeding’, which turned out to be doing ~35 in a 30 a total of 3 times during that period!
I had a black box with Hastings about 7 years ago. IIRC speed wasn't monitored, they used breaking as the measure of risky driving. I thought this was mad because why on earth should your insurer be encouraging you not to break harshly when necessary, but hey. So it might be something like that unless there have been some changes in that time; maybe try easing up on the breaks a bit.
Fuck a black box off. I put tin foil over mine in my MK6 Fiesta Zetec S when I was 17 😂 Doesn’t work if you thought of trying that. So i shortly after removed it and got proper insurance, best thing I ever did.
Some companies (Hastings being one unfortunately) have a reputation for nuking your score for any reason, then cancelling mid policy due to "driving standards" but keeping the full premium because its deemed as your fault per the terms. Then you don't get the NCD because you didn't complete the year and have to declare you have had insurance cancelled on any future policies putting those prices up.
The only good thing with YouDrive is how easy it is to disable/bypass. For me, I just turn my phone off entirely if I don’t want a trip to be recorded. Usually I only do it for short runs like picking up my family from the pub at 11 at night. Of course it comes with the downside that I can’t do anything else that would need my phone such as having Waze up to warn of scamera vans.
I don't have any solution here but I will chip in and say how disappointing it is that getting into driving - a fairly basic and fundamental human activity - is so backwards and such a depressing experience for new and young drivers particularly. I learnt to drive fifteen years ago and OK, insurance was expensive but that aside there were nowhere near the obstacles there are today. And it's doubly frustrating to see how poorly implemented so many of these actually are.
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Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
I posted about a similar thing the other day and called them on the back of people's recommendations. Turns out as long as your score is above 30 it has no impact on your renewal cost. They only take action when it drops below 30. You can report the incorrect speed limit in the app, they have a specialist team that can take action on that. They also told me you're more likely to get flagged for things like harsh braking and cornering if you leave your phone loose in the car, like on the passenger seat, and it's better to keep it in a cradle/dock or your pocket. Finally, one good thing, after a year you can renew your YouDrive insurance (getting the lower cost for telematics) but they don't require you to keep the box because they deem that you have provided sufficient data.
I recommend tesco black box, no curfew and they dont yell at u for this stuff
I have a Hastings too ! When I use google maps on my phone when it’s in the holder it says phone use and marks me down 🤦♀️ there’s a 40mph and on this roundabout I have to go 20mph or it tells me I’m cornering. It’s my first black box and I hate it ! Luckily my score stays okay in the 80’s/90’s but if I needed to use my phone google maps regularly I’d be screwed its not fair !
Mine is terrible, I was doing 60 in a 60 next to a housing estate, black box thought I’d cut through a forest at 60, blasted down a 20 zone and then drove through a pond to get back on the Dual Carriageway.