First and foremost I do want to make it known that this is purely based on my experience with More Than Smart Wheels & nothing else - this will be a long thread to give a full background of my experience from the start.
So to start with, I passed my test back in October 2020 at 17-years-old & had a car ready as I am fortunate enough to have a well-paying freelance job. I insured it without a black box as I just knew this wasn't something wanted due to my commitments with late-night journeys & such.
After 5 months with my 1.1l Citroen, I decided I wanted something a bit nicer & decided to look at some older BMW 1 series, which I've always liked the look of. I found a nice 2.0l 07 model which I decided to test drive and in the end went ahead and bought.
When insuring it, I knew I'd need a black box to avoid paying £7,000 for insurance & so I chose More Than in hopes that I'd have a year on the box and then feel more comfortable paying a renewal fee without.
After a few days I took my car to the garage to have some touch-ups done including a rear driveshaft change, the garage was mega busy and when I received my appointment time for the black box I quickly realised these would collide. I contacted More Than and was told to submit the requested documents to discuss a change of appointment & extension; so that's what I did. I received an email back to say the documents were fine, yet, received no reply to a further 4 emails in regards to the extension - these emails within a week or so. I paid a hefty amount to have the car finished early to meet the appointment time & wasn't particularly happy.
The installation was great! Friendly fella, had a lovely chat about cars and how the black box may affect things & what have you and then I went ahead and started using the car as I needed to.
First 3 days, +10 on everything! Speed, usage & smoothness! Only a few shorter journeys out of peak hours too.
Then, I fell ill and didn't use the car for 6 days total; yet I was checking my More Than app daily to keep on top of things and keep my parents informed of how things were going - then on day 4, my usage score plummeted like crazy. From 10, my usage plummeted to -1.6, yes, minus 1.6.
I left things for a few days and drove as usual, again. Using the box I kept under the speed limit no matter what; despite the temptation, no overtaking, I never exceeded one mile over on my speedometer, yet, after a few more days, my speed score also dropped to 4.3.
*note; I did perform a few basic tests to check my speedometer wasn't totally off, including the digital signs that give your speed on some 30-roads, GPS speedo & a few apps on my phone.
I contacted More Than and received multiple snotty replies which were claiming I sped on journeys that never took place. After asking for these journeys, they couldn't be provided & they were also not on my app. I questioned this, and was told shorter journeys wouldn't show on my app - yet they still couldn't provide the journey details to me nor where I was meant to have broken the speed limit relatively excessively.
After a few more back & forth emails with no luck and yet more irritation and ratty replies from the company, I spoke with my parents and ultimately came to the decision to move away from a box - this is just about 3 weeks after starting the policy.
Luckily, I found a quote that would start in a weeks time and costs about £120 more than the black box quote - which I also found weird, but beside the point.
It definitely felt safer for me to remove my box & pay a bit extra, than risk a potential cancellation which will affect me for years and years to come. As I've heard they cancel a lot too.
Overall, my black box experience has been nothing short of disastrous. Likely due to the company more than the box, but the box wasn't too nice either.
When it comes to new drivers, I'd say if you really can't afford insurance without the box, go for it - but avoid this company at all costs. I've also seen other crap reviews from people on TSR about More Than since having my issues with them.
If you can afford to give out the extra few hundred to enjoy your driving a bit more - do it. And that doesn't necessarily mean enjoy it with speed, but feeling free. I felt so tied down with my box, I didn't have a direct curfew but was still penalised if driving when they didn't think I should.
I can confidently say I will never give any recommendations to More Than, ever. Their box was terrible, their customer service is even worse. Either no replies, or *****y replies.