The Student Room Group

More than Smart Wheels Car Insurance

Hi,
So I've basically bought Smart Wheels insurance as it was the cheapest at ยฃ1350, the next cheapest was ยฃ2020 but still with black box. I just read some reviews and they are all really negative like why do they keep cancelling? Has anyone had any good experiences?
With out black box I think it will be around ยฃ3000 which I cant afford. What should I do?

Thanks

EDIT BY COMMUNITY TEAM

ALWAYS do a car insurance quote comparison. Check:
www.moneysupermarket.com
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gocompare.com

Bigger discussion on finding cheap car insurance here
(edited 5 years ago)

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Reply 1
Original post by Truee123
Hi,
So I've basically bought Smart Wheels insurance as it was the cheapest at ยฃ1350, the next cheapest was ยฃ2020 but still with black box. I just read some reviews and they are all really negative like why do they keep cancelling? Has anyone had any good experiences?
With out black box I think it will be around ยฃ3000 which I cant afford. What should I do?

Thanks


This thread should be in Cars and Motoring - tagging @AngryJellyfish to move it.

All black box insurance is generally to be avoided, but I've heard from the grapevine that MoreThan is the worst of them all.
I have more than smart wheels with a black box and they are fine. Havent had any problems. Been with them for 6-7 months now and they have even given me some money back for good driving :smile:
Reply 3
Original post by FireSt0rm
I have more than smart wheels with a black box and they are fine. Havent had any problems. Been with them for 6-7 months now and they have even given me some money back for good driving :smile:


That's great to hear. Thank you
Original post by FireSt0rm
I have more than smart wheels with a black box and they are fine. Havent had any problems. Been with them for 6-7 months now and they have even given me some money back for good driving :smile:

My daughter is with more than smart wheels and has on a couple of occasions gone over the speed limit by 2/3 mph, her most recent one was about 6mph over the 20mph speed limit and it was literally just for less than a min. Would they consider this as the excessive speeding that they put in there policy . In general she has an overall score of 8.5, Iโ€™ve just heard so many stories of how they cancel policies without warning
Reply 5
Original post by Sarebear79
My daughter is with more than smart wheels and has on a couple of occasions gone over the speed limit by 2/3 mph, her most recent one was about 6mph over the 20mph speed limit and it was literally just for less than a min. Would they consider this as the excessive speeding that they put in there policy . In general she has an overall score of 8.5, Iโ€™ve just heard so many stories of how they cancel policies without warning


Less than a minute at 26mph is just short of half a mile. Going 26 in a 20 zone is potentially dangerous - maybe you could discuss and advise your daughter about the importance of being more careful with her driving speed as well as checking the insurance.
Reply 6
One of the cheapest insurers but you get penalised for smoothness of driving (if in busy traffic you get penalised because its stop/start), penalised for short journeys, penalised for too many journeys in a day (a journey ends each time you switch the engine off) and penalised for driving after 23:00. Very difficult to keep your score up.
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by IWMTom
Less than a minute at 26mph is just short of half a mile! Going 26 in a 20 zone is ridiculous - you should be discussing her attitude to speed rather than worrying about insurance!


She was going round a parked lorry at the time , said driver of lorry decided to pull out as she was doing so without indicating or even checking, so it was either speed up or let him crash into her. Her โ€œattitude to speedโ€is very good and I would be discussing it further with her if it was a constant problem! I can see ur views on black boxes is very dim but unfortunately we are not in the position to afford insurance without one as she is only 17. And like I said her speed is normally very good as I have the app so can regulary check up on how she is driving .
(edited 6 years ago)
Reply 8
Original post by Sarebear79
She was going round a parked lorry at the time , said driver of lorry decided to pull out as she was doing so without indicating or even checking, so it was either speed up or let him crash into her. Her โ€œattitude to speedโ€is very good and I would be discussing it further with her if it was a constant problem! I can see ur views on black boxes is very dim but unfortunately we are not in the position to afford insurance without one as she is only 17. And like I said her speed is normally very good as I have the app so can regulary check up on how she is driving .


If it's not a constant problem, it's very unlikely for the insurance company to give a damn. They don't really care about one off events, more consistent bad driving. If she was say, consistently breaking 20 limits by a degree of 30%, then they would be looking into policy cancellation.
My policy is with Marmalade and I've also got a black box, a lot of the reviews for that company were negative as well so I was hesitant when taking out my policy. But everything's been fine and I haven't had any problems with my box (been driving almost a year now), like people would complain that after 6 months or so it would be giving them red journeys constantly so their insurance would get cancelled, I was super scared about that because I'm not a bad driver, but like I said mine has been fine. You never know unless you take the policy with them! But I think you'll be fine with your policy as long as you don't drive like a looney. :smile:
Reply 10
Don't use them!!!My daughters policy was cancelled without warning for going slightly over the speed limit, she is now unable to get insurance!
Reply 11
Original post by SAH2968
Don't use them!!!My daughters policy was cancelled without warning for going slightly over the speed limit, she is now unable to get insurance!


Don't be silly now, either she got plenty of warnings, or went a little more than "slightly" over the speed limit. Nonetheless, she shouldn't have been speeding with a telematics box, should she...
Don't bother reading reviews
When has anyone gone out of their way to leave a good car insurance review? You'll only ever get people that were upset with either the cover or the customer service
I try to leave reviews when a company is good. I will always leave a review when they perform badly. Obviously I personally feel and know that is an extremely unfair way to behave but anger and occasional stupidity (stupidity that causes your problem in the first place) takes over and my instant reaction is to be a complete baby. People cry about boxes because they are awful to have around - however at the end of the day for some people the difference in having one and not having one means you can have every fee increase under the sun and it'll still wind up cheaper. For me it's a difference of 1k and a 3k excess (which is a nice way of them saying "if you break it, you buy it"). If ยฃ500 is the difference; you go without the box lol. But getting to the point I wanted to make; most of the people who cry about the boxes are people who simply cannot drive the way they were taught (yeah not a lot of people do; but if you have a box it's for your own good that you do so). They make far too many mistakes and validate why they have a box in the first place and their insurer taps out. If you can follow the rules; you won't have a problem and if you don't - the chances of you telling everyone they're fine? Probably slim.
STAY AWAY AND GO TO A REPUTABLE COMPANY.My son breached the speed limit twice in 5 months and has had his policy cancelled. This is despite me contacting them on several occasions to note that he was completing concurrent journeys, which is impossible, so they removed the additional journeys. The black box fitter also damaged the electrics in the car and I have yet to get a refund on the garage cost. More Than told me
STAY AWAY AND GO TO A REPUTABLE COMPANY.

My son breached the speed limit twice in 5 months and has had his policy cancelled. This is despite me contacting them on several occasions to note that he was completing concurrent journeys, which is impossible, so they removed the additional journeys. The black box fitter also damaged the electrics in the car and I have yet to get a refund on the garage cost. More Than told me "not down to us, contact the black box fitting company". I explained they introduced them as a third party they had liability. They don't care. Big company who just disrespect every hard working person who gives them massive amounts of money for insurance.
Reply 16
Original post by AngryMotorist
STAY AWAY AND GO TO A REPUTABLE COMPANY.

My son breached the speed limit twice in 5 months and has had his policy cancelled. This is despite me contacting them on several occasions to note that he was completing concurrent journeys, which is impossible, so they removed the additional journeys. The black box fitter also damaged the electrics in the car and I have yet to get a refund on the garage cost. More Than told me "not down to us, contact the black box fitting company". I explained they introduced them as a third party they had liability. They don't care. Big company who just disrespect every hard working person who gives them massive amounts of money for insurance.


They really are an awful company and the worse thing is the young person who has had their policy cancelled then finds it very difficult to get insurance.
My other daughter went with Ingenie and they were absolutely fine.
I would warn anyone to stay away from this company.
Also they have taken further direct debits from my account and have yet to refund them, despite them cancelling the policy!
Just read all the reviews, they are so poor.
My daughter kept getting -10 for her journeys and I could not understand why, as she was not doing anything wrong, then I drove the car and got a -7 despite obeying the speed limit! We did try telling the company the black box did not seem to be monitoring soeef correctly, they were not interested!
Just wish there was someone else to complain to.
Reply 17
Original post by IWMTom
Don't be silly now, either she got plenty of warnings, or went a little more than "slightly" over the speed limit. Nonetheless, she shouldn't have been speeding with a telematics box, should she...


Actually if you read the other posts on here you will see I am " not being silly", she did not have plenty of warnings.
Have you had insurance with this company? If so would like to know your experience?
If not you cannot really comment then?
Original post by SAH2968
They really are an awful company and the worse thing is the young person who has had their policy cancelled then finds it very difficult to get insurance.
My other daughter went with Ingenie and they were absolutely fine.
I would warn anyone to stay away from this company.
Also they have taken further direct debits from my account and have yet to refund them, despite them cancelling the policy!
Just read all the reviews, they are so poor.
My daughter kept getting -10 for her journeys and I could not understand why, as she was not doing anything wrong, then I drove the car and got a -7 despite obeying the speed limit! We did try telling the company the black box did not seem to be monitoring soeef correctly, they were not interested!
Just wish there was someone else to complain to.

Maybe @IWMTom can correct me but isn't insurance paid as one block? Even if you're doing it monthly, a creditor will have paid the full balance for you and thus the insurance company reclaims that with interest - that is most likely why you're still being charged if so.

Also if you're going to save a ton getting a box; for the love of god get a dashcam. Else arguing with these cowboys is futile.
Reply 19
Original post by nevershear
Maybe @IWMTom can correct me but isn't insurance paid as one block? Even if you're doing it monthly, a creditor will have paid the full balance for you and thus the insurance company reclaims that with interest - that is most likely why you're still being charged if so.

Also if you're going to save a ton getting a box; for the love of god get a dashcam. Else arguing with these cowboys is futile.


The creditor is usually (by usually, I mean I haven't seen otherwise) the insurer themselves, and therefore will allow a credit agreement to be cancelled half way through if a policy is cancelled for any reason.

As far as I know, only the admin fees for ending the policy would be payable, but these can be hefty, especially for telematics insurance.

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