Black Box - Insurance Cancelled

[V 02]

Do NOT say anything about your driving on here, call a good solicitor asap as advised on here

Get the ombudsman involved

Start criticising the company openly on social media, everywhere you go letting people know NOT to use them - whether or not this will change anything it has to be said!

Get the financial ombudsman involved ASAP


This could potentially ruin your ability to get insurance completely so do not leave any stone unturned here.

[Robertb]

Jasey_ said:

https://www.reviews.io/company-reviews/store/freed...

Reviews don't look promising

Good luck

These reviews look so bad that this company is evidently regularly breaching their commitments under the FCAs new Consumer Duty.

Raise a complaint, they are obliged to reply, then go to the Ombudsman if you don’t get a reply to your satisfaction.

[Rough101]

My daughter had a black box from Bell, plugged into the fag lighter and velcroed to the floor.

After 3 months they said the driving was fine and we could return it.

She wasn’t doing a lot of miles, but worked evenings so was a bit worried about late driving demerits, but it was OK in the end.

I suspect they think you haven’t been using it

[VSKeith]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

1. The provision of insurance and other financial products is regulated to death as it is. About £40 of the average premium goes to pay for regulation. You could probably run a nuclear power plant with less regulation.
2. Can you link to some evidence that uninsured drivers are sky rocketing?
3. The blame for uninsured drivers actually sits squarely with uninsured drivers.

Regulated for very good reason.

The number of motor insurance providers suggests that it's hardly 'regulated to death', and with the average car insurance premium being about £630 that's just over 6% going to regulation. That's half of what we pay in tax and isn't much of it directed to the MIB to cover payouts when people suffer at the hands of uninsured drivers?

It seems to me that some more regulation might curb the excesses of accident management companies, over inflated repair costs and credit vehicle hire, which might help to reduce premiums.

If the 'industry' wasn't so inclined to seek ways of behaving badly to maximise profit, they wouldn't need so much regulation. Profits aren't as high as most people think, but if you loosen the rules that keep them in line I very much doubt we'll see premiums go down.

[CLK-GTR]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

1. The provision of insurance and other financial products is regulated to death as it is. About £40 of the average premium goes to pay for regulation. You could probably run a nuclear power plant with less regulation.
2. Can you link to some evidence that uninsured drivers are sky rocketing?
3. The blame for uninsured drivers actually sits squarely with uninsured drivers.

Uninsured driving penalties amongst young drivers have tripled in the last 3 years. It's plainly obvious why.

And yes, the blame sits squarely with insurers. Average price rises of 34% last year in the UK compared to 2% in France.

[Voldemort]

In addition, make a formal request under the Data Protection Act for copies of ALL the data they hold for you including data received from the black box device.

[VSKeith]

Voldemort said:

In addition, make a formal request under the Data Protection Act for copies of ALL the data they hold for you including data received from the black box device.

+1

[98elise]

Gericho said:

I can't even comprehend why anyone would want to live with a box monitoring their every move. It's like willingly going to prison.

It works well for some people. My daughters insurance was significantly cheaper when she started driving with a black box (Direct Line)

She checked it regularly to make sure she had a good score. I thought her driving was too aggressive and the black box agreed, so she started changing the way she drove.

The box was actually very fair with its assessments. I drove the car a few times and didn't need to change my habits. Just drive smoothly and keep to sensible speeds and it was fine. With regard to speed it seemed to judge you on average traffic speed rather than speed limits.

In all a good experience for us and saved money.

[kambites]

Gericho said:

I can't even comprehend why anyone would want to live with a box monitoring their every move. It's like willingly going to prison.

For many young people these days, it's a choice between that and not having a car.

[blueg33]

98elise said:

Gericho said:

I can't even comprehend why anyone would want to live with a box monitoring their every move. It's like willingly going to prison.

It works well for some people. My daughters insurance was significantly cheaper when she started driving with a black box (Direct Line)

She checked it regularly to make sure she had a good score. I thought her driving was too aggressive and the black box agreed, so she started changing the way she drove.

The box was actually very fair with its assessments. I drove the car a few times and didn't need to change my habits. Just drive smoothly and keep to sensible speeds and it was fine. With regard to speed it seemed to judge you on average traffic speed rather than speed limits.

In all a good experience for us and saved money.

Direct line are always more expensive than other insurers fir my family

[Robertb]

I wonder also if it’s worth getting an app like Life360, which records telemetric details of each drive, so could be used as counter-evidence if at any point there is an unexpected black-box alert from the insurer.

We have it for our ‘new driver’ daughter, who has received a few yellow cards from us!

[IanH755]

Rough101 said:

I suspect they think you haven’t been using it

Thats my guess as well, as the OP had it fitted for a while but having only done 24 miles (with the car static a lot) is, to an insurance firm, probably a big enough Red Flag as they assume its been rigged somewhere rather than actually being installed, even if thats not the actual reality of the OP's situation.

[mmm-five]

I had the misfortune of getting a BB policy (no app though) on a second car I bough to do the weekly 200 mile each way motorway commute.

Only took the BB policy because it was about 50% cheaper than the next, and I had zero NCB to go onto this car (my other, modified car was using my 20+ years NCB).

Used to get weekly and monthly dashboard reports on my driving, and I think I only ever got 1 amber warning in that time for heavy braking (I think it was when I slammed on to avoid a cyclist darting across the road in front of me, between traffic).

But my job changed and I ended up leaving the car at home to fly to a project in Germany instead.

2 months later I get a letter from my insurer saying that they wouldn't be offering me an renewal due to my recent drop in driving standards, but when I checked the relevant dashboard emails to see where I'd gone lunatic, it showed the car being driven erratically whilst I was away in Germany.

Asked them to check their data, and they were adamant that their black box had recorded the car making hard turns, speeding, and hard braking...and wouldn't believe that it hadn't moved during that time. It was almost as if someone had moved the BB from my commuter car to the weekend/track day car.

But as they weren't cancelling it, or trying to extract more cash out of me, I didn't take it further...but did happily return the thing at the end of my policy.

[CoolHands]

If you have to fit a black box surely you just fit it to your mother’s car?

[pingu393]

I have a tracker on my car, and I only noticed it had stopped because I wanted to download the maps for a drive we had just done. (St David's to Lowestoft - avoiding A roads, if you are interested ).

I wouldn't have known if I hadn't manually checked the data.

I asked the Tracker company what would have happened if I had had a crash with the tracker off, and they said that they didn't know.

Fortunately, my tracker is mine, but it is an insurance requirement. The insurance company only gets to see the data if I make a claim. Perhaps that is a better way to go.

[lancslad58]

Might be worth reading this

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

See posts from MKnight702 and BunkMoreland

[TwigtheWonderkid]

CLK-GTR said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

1. The provision of insurance and other financial products is regulated to death as it is. About £40 of the average premium goes to pay for regulation. You could probably run a nuclear power plant with less regulation.
2. Can you link to some evidence that uninsured drivers are sky rocketing?
3. The blame for uninsured drivers actually sits squarely with uninsured drivers.

Uninsured driving penalties amongst young drivers have tripled in the last 3 years. It's plainly obvious why.

And yes, the blame sits squarely with insurers. Average price rises of 34% last year in the UK compared to 2% in France.

And yet our insurance is still cheaper than insurance in France.

Can you show where young driver convictions for no insurance have tripled. You may well be right, but I haven't heard or read anything about this.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

blueg33 said:

I’ve always found black box policies to be no cheaper than others when insuring my kids.

No way would I have one voluntarily. Insurance companies never strike me as trustworthy or your friend. They always hide behind masses of small print.

When I got a quote for my son, the BB policy was £800 cheaper than non BB. That's a big saving.

A challenge for you. Can you dig out your current car insurance policy, photocopy and paste up on here a single line in your policy that's in small print.

Because I don't think there's any small print in UK insurance policies. Just normal sized print that people can't be arsed to read, and then bleat about small print when their laziness comes back to bite them.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

CoolHands said:

If you have to fit a black box surely you just fit it to your mother’s car?

Exactly. Committing insurance fraud is the obvious answer.

[Killboy]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Can you show where young driver convictions for no insurance have tripled. You may well be right, but I haven't heard or read anything about this.

Fairly easy to Google. https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-insurance/363199...