Speeding Fines From Your Insurer

[Raistlin]

Drivers who sign up for black box car cover can be hit with a £100 fine from their insurer if they speed, a Money Mail investigation has found.

Black box technology, which monitors the safety of your driving, is supposed to be the new way to get discounts on your insurance.

Drivers are told they will be rewarded with lower premiums if they have good habits.

But people are discovering that reductions are impossible to get and are being eroded by other fees.

Sell your car, switch policy or breach the smallprint, and you could be hit with hefty penalties.

With most insurers youll receive warnings if you break rules such as regularly driving at 40mph in a 30mph zone. If you ignore these alerts and carry on driving poorly, the insurer can fine you on a case-by-case basis.

In some instances, the fines can be as much as £100. In the worst cases it will cancel your policy.

iKube charges £100 a night if you drive outside of its curfew hours of 11pm to 5am.

Admiral, which provides cover through its Bell subsidiary, also only knocks more money off if you can drive more safely than rival policyholders. But this can make it difficult to grab a discount because many black box customers already tend to drive more cautiously.

Mike Powell, insurance analyst at research company Defaqto, says: Black box insurance carries so many fees and charges, they need to be made much, much clearer.

Its very easy for drivers to be taken in by the technology, along with the promised drop in premiums, but they can end up paying out a lot more than they thought.

Young, newly qualified motorists are increasingly faced with quotes of £2,500 or more for standard insurance. Black box cover is sold as the way to cut their costs.

It works a bit like the black box flight recorders in planes. A device about the size of a mobile phone is attached to your dashboard or under the steering wheel. A computer then uses satellite signals to monitor your driving. This includes how you brake and accelerate, speed, distance covered, time of day even road position.

There are about a dozen companies offering black box cover. Four years ago, only 12,000 people had a policy, now the figure has soared to 290,000. Insurers claim that if you can prove yourself to be a low-risk driver the policies will reduce the cost of your cover. Research from comparison website Moneysupermarket suggests good motorists who used black box technology also known as telematics could have £212 knocked off their insurance.

But their premiums would start at £1,280 a year. This reflects the fact that nearly half of all policyholders are between 17 and 19 years old.

According to the Association of British Insurers, 18-year-old drivers are three times more likely to be involved in an accident than a 48-year-old. Young female drivers used to benefit from reduced premiums because they are so much less likely to have a serious accident. Today, insurers are barred from basing tariffs on sex, so black box technology is thought to be particularly attractive to women as a way of reducing costs.

But what many are discovering is that black box policies come with expensive traps to snag the unwary. They start from the day you sign up. All insurers hit you with fines of between £30 to £100 if you miss your appointment to have the box fitted. If you dont have the right documents to get it done a driving licence, MoT and proof of ownership theres another £30-£45 penalty.

If you buy a new car during the year, youll have to pay to have your black box reinstalled. The Co-op charges £90, while the AA levies £120.

Shop around for a cheaper black box policy after a year, and youll usually have to pay again. David Neave, director of black box software provider Wunelli, says: Its something insurers are working on its not ideal at all, but it will change.

If you go back to ordinary car cover, then youll pay up to £120 to have the box removed.

Although many policies carry clear fines, insurers also look at individual instances of bad driving. This is where fines for repeated poor behaviour can be levied.

Critically, you may not even be rewarded if you do drive well. Buried in Admirals terms for Bells policies, it says: We compare your driving with that of other customers and calculate a score based on how you drive and how your driving compares to other customers. At renewal, we will use this score and performance group to determine if your renewal price should be discounted or increased.

An Admiral spokesman says: Drivers scores are compared against other driver scores and the best scores result in a higher discount.

Not all policies reward a rapid improvement in driving. While some review your habits every month and update how much you have to pay others only do it once a year.

Graeme Trudgill, of the British Insurance Brokers Association, says: Black box is still relatively new so many insurers are still exploring the options.

Some insurers are waiting to see if it is simply only those drivers predisposed to driving cautiously anyway that will use it or if it will significantly change those less cautious drivers behaviour too.

[Wiz201]

Thanks for the warning. I found out through a look-see online quote at nearly 30 years old a box from these insurers won't be of much benefit to me anyway, and if you have to pay to remove them when switching cars and to fit them, then that kinda cancels out the savings on the insurance premium really. Unfortunately I have one fault claim which does make my insurance a little more expensive than average.

[Cyker]

Not surprised. At all.

From what I've seen blackbox insurance isn't even significantly cheaper; Not much better than Pass Plus in some cases. An hours' worth of hunting around and playing insurance companies off against each other can get similar levels of discount.

I knew they could withhold cover if you were speeding or otherwise not driving the way they deemed safe, but I didn't realize they could penalize you too!

The fact that insanely high premiums, often more than a new driver's car is worth!, is considered normal, even acceptable, just shows we really need to overhaul the system.

For starters, I don't think learners get proper training at all - My driving instructor said the same thing; That he was basically training me to pass the driving test and that I'd really learn how to drive when I started driving on my own. And y'know what? He was right.

I didn't even bother learning until I was 24 just because of the insurance, and even then had quotes ranging up to £2400 for an ancient 1.3L Fiesta!

TBH if you hunt around and try add your parents (Maybe even grandparents!) as additional drivers, you can get it down to sane levels. Before this stupid EU gender equality crap, my mother (Who doesn't even drive my car!) knocked £100 off my premium! :D (Sadly my dad raised it by £20 because he's had a few speeding fines so I took him off...)

[Wiz201]

yeah my dad kinda helps out with insurance by putting it on his credit card and I pay him back every month so I'm not paying interest fees. I put him and step mum on the insurance not only to bring the price down but its a good idea to have one or two people that are fully insured to drive the car in emergencies.

[balli hi]

yeah my dad kinda helps out with insurance by putting it on his credit card and I pay him back every month so I'm not paying interest fees. I put him and step mum on the insurance not only to bring the price down but its a good idea to have one or two people that are fully insured to drive the car in emergencies.

Yeah, oddly enough my wife's insurance came down by a decent amount simply by adding me as a named driver.

Regards the black box, my insurer (for my cab) last year insisted that i had to have a black box fitted, i would have to pay for fitting, they added that fitting would cost less if i had it fitted at one of their approved garages.

First off i wasn't happy at the increase in premium and secondly the inconvenience and the cost of having the box fitted was down to me, so the first thing i did was to ring round and get alternative quotes, not only did i get a quote that was £150 cheaper with the Liverpool and Victoria Insurance company (don't mind giving them a plug) but crucially i didn't have to have that poxy big brother box fitted .

[Raistlin]

So when she put you on her insurance was for a mobility scooter

[balli hi]

No it wasn't for an Aygo :P :lol2:

[Cyker]

@balli - Really?! That's disgraceful! Raising your premium AND trying to make you pay for a big-brother box!? Talk about kicking someone when they're down! I wonder what what moron who works there thought that would be a good idea!

I hope more people do as you did and jump ship when their insurance companies try and pull something like that!

Hmm, I wonder if I add some of you lot to my insurance whether that will bring it down more...?

[Mike169]

A very interesting and informative thread may i say..................................thanks Raistlin

[Raistlin]

Hmm, I wonder if I add some of you lot to my insurance whether that will bring it down more...?

Unlikely

[balli hi]

A very interesting and informative thread may i say..................................thanks Raistlin

Ditto