Newly Passed 17yr old Insurance - Black Box or no Black Box?
Discussion
My daughter has just passed her test, first time. Very proud. And in a manual 
A learner policy on her car was a mere £200/yr, but now she's passed the best quotes are £800 with a black box or £1700 without (which is actually less than I was expecting).
Does anyone have experience of how restrictive a black box is? And specifically the Aviva/QuoteMeHappy Connect Black Box?
Thanks.
A learner policy on her car was a mere £200/yr, but now she's passed the best quotes are £800 with a black box or £1700 without (which is actually less than I was expecting).
Does anyone have experience of how restrictive a black box is? And specifically the Aviva/QuoteMeHappy Connect Black Box?
Thanks.
I'd go without. It penalises you for a lot of nothing.. and I've even seen people get their insurance cancelled because they had to do an emergency brake, or exceeded limit by 5mph in a 70 etc. And policy cancelled will make your insurance insane for a very long period as it's logged on database and required to be declared when applying for new insurance.
grudas said:
I'd go without. It penalises you for a lot of nothing.. and I've even seen people get their insurance cancelled because they had to do an emergency brake, or exceeded limit by 5mph in a 70 etc. And policy cancelled will make your insurance insane for a very long period as it's logged on database and required to be declared when applying for new insurance.
I'm leaning that way, especially as I was factoring in £1500-2000 for a blackbox policy.But some policies only track speed more than 10mph over limit (I'm happy having her limited to that) and annual mileage. Can't really get a sense as to how restrictive the 'smooth driving' would be with QMH.
Would also advise you check if there are restrictions when you can drive with a black box, my son was working shifts at the time & the restrictions meant he wouldn't be able to drive if on a late or early shift, but being an 18 year old lad the premium without a box was nearly £2500 on a VW Up!
I would avoid the black box if at all possible. We had a black box policy for my daughter and it was nothing but trouble, constant emails threatening to cance the insurance. As soon as we were able we swapped to a policy without a black box. I did Google the insurer (unfortunately after the fact) and it was nothing but complaints about the black box. One chap had an issue where the sticky pad gluing the box to the windscreen failed and the box fell off. The insurer recorded it as a crash. When he explained that their sticky pad had failed they wanted him to pay to replace the black box to get another sticky pad.
Other issues, recording going over a speed bump at 15mph as inappropriate beaking and acceleration because the speedbump tripped the dumb accelerometers because of changes in angle of the car.
Another friend had a black box in her son's car that was linked to their mobile phones. She got pinged when being given a lift to work in a collegues car because the mobile was tracking her as a passenger.
These things may have been resolved now (but I doubt it).
Other issues, recording going over a speed bump at 15mph as inappropriate beaking and acceleration because the speedbump tripped the dumb accelerometers because of changes in angle of the car.
Another friend had a black box in her son's car that was linked to their mobile phones. She got pinged when being given a lift to work in a collegues car because the mobile was tracking her as a passenger.
These things may have been resolved now (but I doubt it).
Both my girls had non black box policies. Sadly I just don't trust the insurance companies to close a policy without some sort of due process. I found the difference was only a few hundred, I assume it is double due to the car group.
Both had a VAG group 1.0 TSI car, Fabia and Ibiza. Relatively cheap to insure.
Both had a VAG group 1.0 TSI car, Fabia and Ibiza. Relatively cheap to insure.
TheHeadhunter said:
PartsMonkey said:
Tell her its got a black box and then buy a policy without a black box.
I had that thought (except all BB policies seem to be controlled by the driver's phone and 17yr olds are a lot more tech savvy than their parents....!)
We have had a BB policy 3 times over the past 20 years (just because they were the cheapest at the time). twice it was for my daughter and once for my wife.
in my daughter's case I think she saved £2k in Year 1 (£3,500 down to £1,500) and £900 in Year 2 (£1.5k down to £600) so well worth it in both her and my opinion. She's not the greatest driver (still isn't) but she got nowhere near any suggestion that the Policy might be revoked. i think the closest she got to a "telling off" was for being out late at night....
When my wife had one installed it was a lot more advanced. She had the app installed on her phone so that the BB knew when she was driving and when she wasn't. It would also score her every drive. She's an average driver at best and she'd get 90% on most drives. It was easy to get 100% as long as you didn't accelerate or brake harshly or corner fast (and by cornering fast I mean accelerating onto a roundabout, maintaining 40mph all the way around, the car leaning over significantly and then accelerating hard again on the exit...it's great fun when there's nobody around but not how you'd want your kids to drive).
In short - it expects you to drive like you would on your driving test. Given that's how i expect my kids to drive it was a big positive for me.
in my daughter's case I think she saved £2k in Year 1 (£3,500 down to £1,500) and £900 in Year 2 (£1.5k down to £600) so well worth it in both her and my opinion. She's not the greatest driver (still isn't) but she got nowhere near any suggestion that the Policy might be revoked. i think the closest she got to a "telling off" was for being out late at night....
When my wife had one installed it was a lot more advanced. She had the app installed on her phone so that the BB knew when she was driving and when she wasn't. It would also score her every drive. She's an average driver at best and she'd get 90% on most drives. It was easy to get 100% as long as you didn't accelerate or brake harshly or corner fast (and by cornering fast I mean accelerating onto a roundabout, maintaining 40mph all the way around, the car leaning over significantly and then accelerating hard again on the exit...it's great fun when there's nobody around but not how you'd want your kids to drive).
In short - it expects you to drive like you would on your driving test. Given that's how i expect my kids to drive it was a big positive for me.
grudas said:
I'd go without. It penalises you for a lot of nothing.. and I've even seen people get their insurance cancelled because they had to do an emergency brake, or exceeded limit by 5mph in a 70 etc. And policy cancelled will make your insurance insane for a very long period as it's logged on database and required to be declared when applying for new insurance.
I took my daughters car out and we got a letter saying I had exceeded something, and they gave us a week to cancel. They don't just cancel, you get the opportunity to cancel first. Note I did nothing wrong and drove very sensibly! However there is a financial penalty if you do have to cancel. I would try a black box policy first, they might not insist on a black box at the start or tell you that you don't need it after a few months. I'd go for one without the black box, can you not add yourself / your wife to the insurance as a named driver, to help bring the cost down?
My 17 year old daughter is currently learning to drive in her Fiat 500, I'm a named driver and actually drive the car about 1/3 of the time, so I'd be a bit worried if I drove it with a black box and I went slightly over the speed limit my daughter would be penalised....
My 17 year old daughter is currently learning to drive in her Fiat 500, I'm a named driver and actually drive the car about 1/3 of the time, so I'd be a bit worried if I drove it with a black box and I went slightly over the speed limit my daughter would be penalised....
grudas said:
I'd go without. It penalises you for a lot of nothing.. and I've even seen people get their insurance cancelled because they had to do an emergency brake, or exceeded limit by 5mph in a 70 etc. And policy cancelled will make your insurance insane for a very long period as it's logged on database and required to be declared when applying for new insurance.
We had completely the opposite experience.My daughter had a direct line black box and she was quite an aggressive driver when she passed her test. It would register the odd sharp braking but not much else.
It hardly ever picked up her speeding. It seemed that if you kept up with normal traffic flows it was happy.
After a couple,of months she stopped checking the app.
This was about 5 years ago though.
66HFM said:
I'd go for one without the black box, can you not add yourself / your wife to the insurance as a named driver, to help bring the cost down?
My 17 year old daughter is currently learning to drive in her Fiat 500, I'm a named driver and actually drive the car about 1/3 of the time, so I'd be a bit worried if I drove it with a black box and I went slightly over the speed limit my daughter would be penalised....
If you are a named driver on the policy, you just assign your journeys to yourself in the app and it doesn't impact your daughter's score.My 17 year old daughter is currently learning to drive in her Fiat 500, I'm a named driver and actually drive the car about 1/3 of the time, so I'd be a bit worried if I drove it with a black box and I went slightly over the speed limit my daughter would be penalised....
My son has a BB policy with Hastings and it's great. He gets scores for each journey and he takes pride in driving well. He's actually a very good driver so I'm not surprised. I also think it tempers the excitement of driving alone for the first time and makes him more careful.
Of my son's circle of friends most don't have BB's. 4 of the group without BB's have had crashes already, one has crashed twice. One of his friends wrote off his mother's 2 year old XC90 within a week of passing. None of his friends with BB's have had a crash.
98elise said:
grudas said:
I'd go without. It penalises you for a lot of nothing.. and I've even seen people get their insurance cancelled because they had to do an emergency brake, or exceeded limit by 5mph in a 70 etc. And policy cancelled will make your insurance insane for a very long period as it's logged on database and required to be declared when applying for new insurance.
We had completely the opposite experience.My daughter had a direct line black box and she was quite an aggressive driver when she passed her test. It would register the odd sharp braking but not much else.
It hardly ever picked up her speeding. It seemed that if you kept up with normal traffic flows it was happy.
After a couple,of months she stopped checking the app.
This was about 5 years ago though.
A black box is the virtual Dad or virtual instructor sitting alongside them for each journey. They don't penalise for a single minor infraction but are a cumulative report on the driver's actions.
Yes, they don't want the driver to speed and given that a new driver can only get 6 points before requiring a retest, surely that's a positive?
They also pick up on hard acceleration which can be interpreted that the driver is being impatient and making a habit of pulling out in front of oncoming traffic.
Conversely, consistent hard braking suggests they are leaving the decision to slow down too late and perhaps are therefore not looking far enough ahead.
The threshold to having their insurance cancelled due to excessive black box infringements is high. They get numerous warnings beforehand and most have an app whereby you can keep a check on their performance and adjust their driving to suit - hopefully to make them a better, safer and more aware driver while gaining experience. None make unrealistic demands of the driver, they just want to curb any reckless exuberance from a new driver. If the driver continues to drive to the standard they employed during their test they'll be fine.
Use them as a tool for improving the insured's driving and they'll be useful both in reducing risk of your child being a complete hooligan behind the wheel and also for keeping their motoring costs down.
Yes, they don't want the driver to speed and given that a new driver can only get 6 points before requiring a retest, surely that's a positive?
They also pick up on hard acceleration which can be interpreted that the driver is being impatient and making a habit of pulling out in front of oncoming traffic.
Conversely, consistent hard braking suggests they are leaving the decision to slow down too late and perhaps are therefore not looking far enough ahead.
The threshold to having their insurance cancelled due to excessive black box infringements is high. They get numerous warnings beforehand and most have an app whereby you can keep a check on their performance and adjust their driving to suit - hopefully to make them a better, safer and more aware driver while gaining experience. None make unrealistic demands of the driver, they just want to curb any reckless exuberance from a new driver. If the driver continues to drive to the standard they employed during their test they'll be fine.
Use them as a tool for improving the insured's driving and they'll be useful both in reducing risk of your child being a complete hooligan behind the wheel and also for keeping their motoring costs down.
If you’re happy with that premium with no black box then that’s what I would go for.
Adding both of you to the policy assuming decent records will hopefully reduce the premium a bit as will restricting the annual milage to say 7k.
I found the threat of not paying for Insurance in their first full year if they didn’t get to that so called magic first years NCB also worked well !
Adding both of you to the policy assuming decent records will hopefully reduce the premium a bit as will restricting the annual milage to say 7k.
I found the threat of not paying for Insurance in their first full year if they didn’t get to that so called magic first years NCB also worked well !
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