DrivePlus telematics insurance

Does anyone have experince with this ? or any other telematics insurance ?

I'm thinking about getting this as I'm getting quotes of around £1800+ for a 1.4L MK6 Ford Fiesta but with Direct Line I'm getting around £1300

I'm 18 and have my test on the 9th of Jan so I have a small time to think about this, I don't really want to be paying loads for my insurace but I don't want something that is going to change how I drive.

I will be doing around 7000-8000 miles a year and traveling throughout the day and night, where I currently live I'm surrounded by country lanes which I have no choice other to than use, I'm not saying I drive like a boy racer but I don't really want to be hanging about on these roads.

I really just want to know how good/bad telematics insurance is as there really isn't a lot on the web but I know loads of people have it just seems there is not much infomation about it online

Reply 1

NatashaLee

I had a 'black box' policy in my first year with Carrot Insurance. For me it wasn't really a choice, it was that or nothing as my next quote cheapest quote was £8000.

All in all, considering it was the only way for me to get on the road, it wasn't too bad. But I wouldn't want to get it again. My box measured three things, speed, smoothness (acceleration/braking) and usage (duration of drives/time of driving etc) which I thinks pretty good compared to some policys which seem to measure quite a bit more. My policy also couldn't go up any more, you just earned cash rewards based on how good your driving was (If you got a bad score overall at the end of the quarter you just wouldn't get any cash back for that period)

For me I found the measuring speed annoying, most times i found it hard to get a perfect 10 because at certain points in my journey I'd occasionally go over 30 (not by much at all, and not on purpose) but still it would pick it up and sometimes my score was worst that other times - I didn't feel there was always consistency with this score

Other than that as I said it wasn't that bad, I didn't enjoy the feeling that it felt like someone was always watching me, but I'd rather have a box than not be on the road.

Reply 2

UKTomm

I was in a similar situation like you. I was getting quotes for £1200 with a black box or £1800+ without one. With the policy I was going to go with, they would rate the journey (would base it on things such as acceleration, braking, speed etc). It was something like good, satisfactory or bad (can't remember exactly) and if you had 3 bad journeys in a month, they would fine you £100. They also had a ton of other fees if you did anything wrong. I didn't really feel comfortable with going with the black box and neither did my family who I took advice from on it (Father said it's a license to print money). In my opinion, the black box doesn't know the context of the way you were driving. What happens if you had to break harshly because of another driver and they marked you down for it? Maybe you could dispute it, I don't know.

I personally ended up going without the black box. My view was that I had spent a ton of money on driving lessons, tests, the car and then the insurance itself for the freedom that comes with driving. I didn't want to feel like I was being monitored all the time.

If you are going to go with a black box policy, I would definitely give a thorough read of the policy as they may try and sneak in hidden fees like I mentioned above.

DrivePlus telematics insurance

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