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Car insurance!! Black box alternative?

Right, looking for insurance quotes and i really don’t want a black box. It sounds like they’re not too strict from what I’ve read but I don’t want to feel like I’ve got someone/something monitoring my driving all the time.

Realistically, is there anyway a 17yo can get insurance without one - without being crazy money?

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Reply 1

IWMTom

Original post by Skiing_is_life

Yes. Pick the right car for your circumstances.

Reply 2

TSRTD

Original post by Skiing_is_life

Hi, I've been driving for a year now and just started my second insurance plan. Getting a black box might just be necessary unfortunately, it will bring the cost down of that first year by a lot. Use a comparison site such as gocompare to find the cheapest options. Try things like adding a parent as a secondary driver to bring the quote price down. I would say that having a black box actually makes you a better driver in the first few months as you learn to be good at controlling your speed and smoothness of driving. Then in your second year you can always switch plans - my insurance is now less than half of what it was in the first year and I no longer need a black box.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 3

ReadingMum

adding yourself as a secondary named driver when you are actually the main driver is called fronting - it is illegal so I would not do that

Reply 4

IWMTom

Original post by TSRTD

If you really hate the idea of getting a black box, adding yourself as a secondary named driver may make the insurance cheaper, but you won't be able to build your no claims which in the future helps to keep your insurance as cheap as possible.

Please don't advocate insurance fraud.

Reply 5

Skiing_is_life

Original post by IWMTom

Yes. Pick the right car for your circumstances.

Do you have any suggestions on a car? Happy with anything

Reply 6

IWMTom

Original post by Skiing_is_life

Do you have any suggestions on a car? Happy with anything

It's like asking how long is a piece of string...

You need to do some research and obtain some quotes of a whole range of cars. There's no one size fits all.

Reply 7

inquisiterFAQ

Original post by Skiing_is_life

A black box is worth it imo. I was a secondary driver on my mums car which has 3 people insured on it. First year is always expensive we were paying £1.3K second year changed insurer and were paying about £600 and the black box was only on for 6 months. Idk why you are so concerned about being monitored its not like someone is watching everything you do lol. You can get insurance without a black box but chances are it will cost a lot more.

Reply 8

inquisiterFAQ

Original post by Skiing_is_life

Do you have any suggestions on a car? Happy with anything

whatever car you get you the cheapest quotes will always be with a black box had a friend with a 1997 micra still had a black box for more than me on my parents cars which is a lot newer. Just look at a few models whether it new or 2nd hand and put them into something like compare the market and see what prices you are looking at

Reply 9

RedGiant

Original post by Skiing_is_life

I would just shell out the extra for a non-black box, there are constant complaints of them on this forum and they are often just not worth the hassle. Insurers love to cancel policies for trivial and anomalous things which will make future policies more expensive for years. I've heard of stories where the blackbox stopped working through no fault of the driver and then the driver being accused of using a GPS jammer to pervert the blackbox monitoring, and had their policy cancelled.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 10

virgil1

Original post by Skiing_is_life

Do you have any suggestions on a car? Happy with anything

Citreon C1 is always a good starting point for insurance.

Reply 11

VeritySleeps

Original post by Skiing_is_life

Do you have any suggestions on a car? Happy with anything

Depending on money, something like a toyota aygo, citroen c1, peugeot 108, they're all very similar and good first cars

Reply 12

Nick6501

Even with a 1.0 car and named drivers it will lower it of course but not as much as adding a blackbox, i hated my box for first year but my 1.0 corsa was something like £1,100 instead of almost £1800 (cant remember exactly) but if you can afford to then yeah dont bother with a box they're a nightmare, i got a 1.0 corsa for my first car and was perfect but suggestions above are decent too.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 13

Teddy650123

When I had a blackbox it made me hate driving and gave me driving anxiety so I would definitely say don’t get a box but because they offer such a discount on your first year it’s a 50-50 gamble but if you can afford to go without a blackbox then definitely do it.

Reply 14

mechengineer8

i dont get what the problem with a black box is. ive got one at the moment and paid £800 first year and 500 second year. i constantly got a bad score for speed or smoothness and still got a good saving the next year

Reply 15

IWMTom

Original post by mechengineer8

That's all well and good.... until you get a cancellation letter through the door...

Reply 16

Skiing_is_life

Okay cheers for all the suggestions. I’ll see what i can afford. Thanks

Reply 17

mechengineer8

Original post by IWMTom

That's all well and good.... until you get a cancellation letter through the door...

Just don’t do anything reckless and they won’t cancel it then

Reply 18

inquisiterFAQ

I have been reading this thread throughout the day and honestly I do not really get why so many people are against a black box or what insurance companies you were with. I had 2 black boxes over 18months on a shared car. We used to get "telemetry" updates about our progress. we were not getting anything amazing (except on motorway driving) There were times were we would get rly low scores (direct line bases there score on types of roads and time of day as well as smoothness). i don't think the black box made me a better or worse driver but I took it because it saved us few hundred £s.
I am honestly intrigued as to why so many people are anti Black box?