New Insurance and have to fit a Big Brother Box Installed
Discussion
Just took out new insurance with Bell (part of Admiral group). Thought everything went through ok, went through all the jargon on the phone, name, address, nodding mmy head yes yes yes. Until they mentioned sum box that has to be fitted in which to lower premiums, not happy with this but thought its too late to back out now plus Bell were £200 plus cheaper than the competetion. Had box installed, was told to be a good little driver and all that. Where if I was really good I'd get 20% of my premium back after 6 months, 5% if I was above average. However if I was bad 5% more or really bad would be 20% more. Anyway I've been adhering to the driveway code, driving well below the limits, 25 in a 30mph, 50mph on the motorway and so forth and noticed on my dash board that I was hitting good, which is ok, but I would have thought I'd be excellent. Been watching my reves as they say that my indicator of poor driving and then low and behold took my car out to get some petrol one night, must have been 10.30pm at night or something and checked my dashboard panel to see that I had a red which meant my driving average was now not good but back down to average. and under the notes it said the reason was because I took the car out at night time and people who drive at night have more of a risk to crash there car. Which is just plain stupid, where I live at night theres pretty much no cars so should be less of a risk, ITS JUST A MONEY SPINNER, you make one mistake and you're penalised. I left it another week and like everything you're driving slips a little and ended up slipping into the red so I'd end up paying 5% more. SO WHAT DID I DO??? Simple - cancelled my policy, had to pay the £30 cancellation payment but I enjoy driving and took all the fun out of it. But what I did next was even more stupid. Took out my policy with elephant.co.uk, read the website, every small detail as didn't want another box fitted to my car. Low and behold as soon as my payment had cleared get a call from elephant, who are infact owned by ADMIRAL, which means they also want to fit a box in my car, or just reswitch it back on again!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Cancelled straight away, Just a word for the wise Elephant and Bell might well be the cheapest out there but they are both owned by ADMIRAL and with admiral operating this stupid INSURE THE BOX SCHEME just stay well clear, especially if you want your drivingg freedom back. Go with anyone other than these companies. I've learnt my lesson anyone have any other stories I'd like to hear them as BIG BROTHER SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM OUR CARS!!!!!!!!!
mhumphuk said:
Just took out new insurance with Bell (part of Admiral group). Thought everything went through ok, went through all the jargon on the phone, name, address, nodding mmy head yes yes yes. Until they mentioned sum box that has to be fitted in which to lower premiums, not happy with this but thought its too late to back out now plus Bell were £200 plus cheaper than the competetion. Had box installed, was told to be a good little driver and all that. Where if I was really good I'd get 20% of my premium back after 6 months, 5% if I was above average. However if I was bad 5% more or really bad would be 20% more.
Anyway I've been adhering to the driveway code, driving well below the limits, 25 in a 30mph, 50mph on the motorway and so forth and noticed on my dash board that I was hitting good, which is ok, but I would have thought I'd be excellent. Been watching my reves as they say that my indicator of poor driving and then low and behold took my car out to get some petrol one night, must have been 10.30pm at night or something and checked my dashboard panel to see that I had a red which meant my driving average was now not good but back down to average.
and under the notes it said the reason was because I took the car out at night time and people who drive at night have more of a risk to crash there car. Which is just plain stupid, where I live at night theres pretty much no cars so should be less of a risk, ITS JUST A MONEY SPINNER, you make one mistake and you're penalised.
I left it another week and like everything you're driving slips a little and ended up slipping into the red so I'd end up paying 5% more. SO WHAT DID I DO??? Simple - cancelled my policy, had to pay the £30 cancellation payment but I enjoy driving and took all the fun out of it. But what I did next was even more stupid. Took out my policy with elephant.co.uk, read the website, every small detail as didn't want another box fitted to my car.
Low and behold as soon as my payment had cleared get a call from elephant, who are infact owned by ADMIRAL, which means they also want to fit a box in my car, or just reswitch it back on again!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Cancelled straight away, Just a word for the wise Elephant and Bell might well be the cheapest out there but they are both owned by ADMIRAL and with admiral operating this stupid INSURE THE BOX SCHEME just stay well clear, especially if you want your drivingg freedom back. Go with anyone other than these companies. I've learnt my lesson anyone have any other stories I'd like to hear them as BIG BROTHER SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM OUR CARS!!!!!!!!!
Sounds pretty crap.Anyway I've been adhering to the driveway code, driving well below the limits, 25 in a 30mph, 50mph on the motorway and so forth and noticed on my dash board that I was hitting good, which is ok, but I would have thought I'd be excellent. Been watching my reves as they say that my indicator of poor driving and then low and behold took my car out to get some petrol one night, must have been 10.30pm at night or something and checked my dashboard panel to see that I had a red which meant my driving average was now not good but back down to average.
and under the notes it said the reason was because I took the car out at night time and people who drive at night have more of a risk to crash there car. Which is just plain stupid, where I live at night theres pretty much no cars so should be less of a risk, ITS JUST A MONEY SPINNER, you make one mistake and you're penalised.
I left it another week and like everything you're driving slips a little and ended up slipping into the red so I'd end up paying 5% more. SO WHAT DID I DO??? Simple - cancelled my policy, had to pay the £30 cancellation payment but I enjoy driving and took all the fun out of it. But what I did next was even more stupid. Took out my policy with elephant.co.uk, read the website, every small detail as didn't want another box fitted to my car.
Low and behold as soon as my payment had cleared get a call from elephant, who are infact owned by ADMIRAL, which means they also want to fit a box in my car, or just reswitch it back on again!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Cancelled straight away, Just a word for the wise Elephant and Bell might well be the cheapest out there but they are both owned by ADMIRAL and with admiral operating this stupid INSURE THE BOX SCHEME just stay well clear, especially if you want your drivingg freedom back. Go with anyone other than these companies. I've learnt my lesson anyone have any other stories I'd like to hear them as BIG BROTHER SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM OUR CARS!!!!!!!!!
Well I've never come across anything like this, been insured for over 10 years now so I'm not a new driver or anything, but just don't think this Big Brother type of tracking device should be allowed to monitor your driving or penalise you for
1. Try to swerve out of the road to miss a child - well done! nope insurance company computer says no higher premium as swerving too hard
2. Sudden braking to avoid crashing into the car infront - hey well done buddy! - Insurance company computer says No - higher premiums due to breaking to hard
3. just realised low on petrol, need to go fill up at 9pm onwards. Well done proactive thinking saves you getting up earlier. Insurance company computer says NO!! Night time driving more prone to crash your car so we'll add 5% on your premiums
Not to mention excelleration, going slightly over speed limits and on and on. Where is this going. Surely Bell (owned by Admiral) and Elephant (owned by Admiral) are going to lose alot more customers because of this.
I remember when the installation guy was telling me that he's installed these boxes on Subarus and Porsches. Don't think that will last. Just stay well clear and I think Admiral will get the point and stop this!!!
1. Try to swerve out of the road to miss a child - well done! nope insurance company computer says no higher premium as swerving too hard
2. Sudden braking to avoid crashing into the car infront - hey well done buddy! - Insurance company computer says No - higher premiums due to breaking to hard
3. just realised low on petrol, need to go fill up at 9pm onwards. Well done proactive thinking saves you getting up earlier. Insurance company computer says NO!! Night time driving more prone to crash your car so we'll add 5% on your premiums
Not to mention excelleration, going slightly over speed limits and on and on. Where is this going. Surely Bell (owned by Admiral) and Elephant (owned by Admiral) are going to lose alot more customers because of this.
I remember when the installation guy was telling me that he's installed these boxes on Subarus and Porsches. Don't think that will last. Just stay well clear and I think Admiral will get the point and stop this!!!
Well I'm over 30, been driving since I was 20, have no convictions, no penalty points and over 5 years no claims. So this is applicable to pretty much everybody. Just watch out if you insure with Bell.co.uk or elephant.co.uk, too be fair Bell let me know in advance, whereas Elephant didn't and I didn't know about it till after I'd paid up and they just called me up
There's been plenty of discussion about black boxes before. The data they use to determine a good driver seems utter b
ks.
Heavy braking? That's bad! What if I just did an emergency stop because a kid ran in the road? I'd say that was good and vigilant driving.
Someone had a good idea though. All those with fast and capable cars should get this black box insurance, drive everywhere at silly speeds and with massive cornering G and skew the data.
The results would show that driving fast and going round corners quickly is plenty safe enough and premiums should be just as low as Doris' who reversed into her neighbour's car.
ks. Heavy braking? That's bad! What if I just did an emergency stop because a kid ran in the road? I'd say that was good and vigilant driving.
Someone had a good idea though. All those with fast and capable cars should get this black box insurance, drive everywhere at silly speeds and with massive cornering G and skew the data.
The results would show that driving fast and going round corners quickly is plenty safe enough and premiums should be just as low as Doris' who reversed into her neighbour's car.Edited by Spanna on Friday 8th February 19:04
Raize said:
mhumphuk said:
Just took out new insurance with Bell (part of Admiral group). Thought everything went through ok, went through all the jargon on the phone, name, address, nodding mmy head yes yes yes. Until they mentioned sum box that has to be fitted in which to lower premiums, not happy with this but thought its too late to back out now plus Bell were £200 plus cheaper than the competetion. Had box installed, was told to be a good little driver and all that. Where if I was really good I'd get 20% of my premium back after 6 months, 5% if I was above average. However if I was bad 5% more or really bad would be 20% more.
Anyway I've been adhering to the driveway code, driving well below the limits, 25 in a 30mph, 50mph on the motorway and so forth and noticed on my dash board that I was hitting good, which is ok, but I would have thought I'd be excellent. Been watching my reves as they say that my indicator of poor driving and then low and behold took my car out to get some petrol one night, must have been 10.30pm at night or something and checked my dashboard panel to see that I had a red which meant my driving average was now not good but back down to average.
and under the notes it said the reason was because I took the car out at night time and people who drive at night have more of a risk to crash there car. Which is just plain stupid, where I live at night theres pretty much no cars so should be less of a risk, ITS JUST A MONEY SPINNER, you make one mistake and you're penalised.
I left it another week and like everything you're driving slips a little and ended up slipping into the red so I'd end up paying 5% more. SO WHAT DID I DO??? Simple - cancelled my policy, had to pay the £30 cancellation payment but I enjoy driving and took all the fun out of it. But what I did next was even more stupid. Took out my policy with elephant.co.uk, read the website, every small detail as didn't want another box fitted to my car.
Low and behold as soon as my payment had cleared get a call from elephant, who are infact owned by ADMIRAL, which means they also want to fit a box in my car, or just reswitch it back on again!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Cancelled straight away, Just a word for the wise Elephant and Bell might well be the cheapest out there but they are both owned by ADMIRAL and with admiral operating this stupid INSURE THE BOX SCHEME just stay well clear, especially if you want your drivingg freedom back. Go with anyone other than these companies. I've learnt my lesson anyone have any other stories I'd like to hear them as BIG BROTHER SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM OUR CARS!!!!!!!!!
Sounds pretty crap.Anyway I've been adhering to the driveway code, driving well below the limits, 25 in a 30mph, 50mph on the motorway and so forth and noticed on my dash board that I was hitting good, which is ok, but I would have thought I'd be excellent. Been watching my reves as they say that my indicator of poor driving and then low and behold took my car out to get some petrol one night, must have been 10.30pm at night or something and checked my dashboard panel to see that I had a red which meant my driving average was now not good but back down to average.
and under the notes it said the reason was because I took the car out at night time and people who drive at night have more of a risk to crash there car. Which is just plain stupid, where I live at night theres pretty much no cars so should be less of a risk, ITS JUST A MONEY SPINNER, you make one mistake and you're penalised.
I left it another week and like everything you're driving slips a little and ended up slipping into the red so I'd end up paying 5% more. SO WHAT DID I DO??? Simple - cancelled my policy, had to pay the £30 cancellation payment but I enjoy driving and took all the fun out of it. But what I did next was even more stupid. Took out my policy with elephant.co.uk, read the website, every small detail as didn't want another box fitted to my car.
Low and behold as soon as my payment had cleared get a call from elephant, who are infact owned by ADMIRAL, which means they also want to fit a box in my car, or just reswitch it back on again!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Cancelled straight away, Just a word for the wise Elephant and Bell might well be the cheapest out there but they are both owned by ADMIRAL and with admiral operating this stupid INSURE THE BOX SCHEME just stay well clear, especially if you want your drivingg freedom back. Go with anyone other than these companies. I've learnt my lesson anyone have any other stories I'd like to hear them as BIG BROTHER SHOULD STAY AWAY FROM OUR CARS!!!!!!!!!
I've found someone pretty much the same price Swiftcover, and "no box", its insured through axa (French insurance company), It's not so much the extra premiums I'd have to pay its just the feeling when you're driving the car and every little detail is being watched, braking, excellerating, time you're travelling etc, just doesn't feel right and I think we're being watched enough - Feel it should be more of an option, if you feel you wish to opt in tick yes and if you wish to opt out say NO. I'm in the opt out catergory! It's just a money spinner, you're doing to find it pretty hard to get under the average line and at least 5%. I was Good until one late night driving to go and get petrol and then straight back to average, Just one brake or acceleration and all your hard work has been wasted.
Meoricin said:
I've been insured with that group for the last three years, and other than asking me if I'd like to have a box fitted to 'lower your premiums' (which I naturally turned down, as I am not a moron), there's been no mention of it. Certainly no requirement to fit one.
IIRC Bell now insists on it. I've not heard of Admiral & Elephant doing so. I got the impression Bell were the only 'black box only' company in the group.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff