New black box + road trip

tacticalx86

tacticalx86

tacticalx86

Associate
Joined
7 May 2021
Posts
290
Location
London
Hi

I have a few questions relating to a black box and also a road trip

I was assuming I'd stay with the AA who I have telematics with but to my absolute shock - I saw the renewal price of £2,117! Despite it being £730 the year before. Had no idea why the cost was so high. I had a small bump with another vehicle in a car park which I declared, and to other insurance providers trhe cost was basically the same. I'm not a dangerous driver, the highest speed recorded on my telematics device was 77mph.

I've signed up with tesco insurance. For some reason they now get an "engineer" to install a black box? What happened to juts being sent a USB style black box. My brother recently passed his driving test and got a car and he too was asked to have a box installed by an engineer -different insurance company.

My car is 13 years old, recently passed its MOT with advisories on break and tyres. I'm getting the tyres done this week. I just don't like the idea of an engineer putting a device in my car. I've heard that incompetence means that some of them put the device on a live wire meaning the car battery drains when its not in use. For most of this year until May, the car will be sat on my driveawy at home whilst I'm at university. I also don't want any other issues to start with the car before the trip.

Other questions I have

1) is a service advisory, or is an MOT satisfactory enough?
2) breakdown cover. I have no breakdown cover - will any breakdown cover me in the ROI/EU and how much is it likely to be
3) Will me doing 1,000 miles and driving overseas in like a week freak my insurers out? I've said 6,000 miles, because like I said, the car will be at home for most of the time because I'll be at university.

Alongside this, I'm worried with this "we NeEd to InStall the black BoX wiThin 14 days" BS, like what if they have to cancel and there's no avaliability between now and the date I leave etc. My insurance starts on the 8th, black box date has been given as the 15th, I leave for the trip on the 26th June.
 
You're a new driver with a new claim on your record and evidence of speeding despite knowing you had a device recording your speed. Obviously the insurer is going to ramp the price right up.
 
Just lol. Gets clocked doing 77mph, has been involved in an accident and guessing a relative new/young young driver.

Did well to get a quote of 2.1k
 
Kill_Phil said:
Just lol. Gets clocked doing 77mph, has been involved in an accident and guessing a relative new/young young driver.

Did well to get a quote of 2.1k
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77 in a 70 isn't fast?
And like I said other insurers didn't have a hissy fit when I told them about the accident - for which no claim was made and no significant damage.
I've read that the insurers with black boxes only really care about speeding if its something actually significant - eg, 100 on a 70, 50 on a 30 etc etc.
77 on a 70 isn't even enough to be clocked by a speed camera based on the 10% + 2 rule.

Also this was my second year of having a black box. My driving style was no different to the year before when I was with admiral and the renewal cost they quoted then with a black box was the same.
 
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wesimmo said:
You're a new driver with a new claim on your record and evidence of speeding despite knowing you had a device recording your speed. Obviously the insurer is going to ramp the price right up.
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Feek said:
Whether you consider it to be fast or not, it’s still exceeding the speed limit. That will probably be a contributing factor.
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By 180%? That seems extortionate. The only thing I can think of is I work in a store and often finish at or after 11PM and then drive home. No curfew but I know they're aggy about what time you drive. Weirdly the AA don't even give you a driving score so its not as if I can even have any insight into how the insurer is thinking. I think they stopped offering telematics so maybe the price is so high because they can only offer non telematics

Going back to my other points though, what steps can I take to ensure my car is ready for a road trip
 
tacticalx86 said:
77 in a 70 isn't fast?
And like I said other insurers didn't have a hissy fit when I told them about the accident - for which no claim was made and no significant damage.
I've read that the insurers with black boxes only really care about speeding if its something actually significant - eg, 100 on a 70, 50 on a 30 etc etc.
77 on a 70 isn't even enough to be clocked by a speed camera based on the 10% + 2 rule.

Also this was my second year of having a black box. My driving style was no different to the year before when I was with admiral and the renewal cost they quoted then with a black box was the same.
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It doesn't matter. You are a young inexperienced driver, have broken the speed limit and had a ping. You pretty much tick every risk box when it comes to insurance; just need that elusive drink driving charge
 
I don’t remember my black box Hastings or Admiral being that bad.

I wouldn’t say I drove my Fiesta particularly cautiously but I never had any issues with it saying my driving was poor.
 
an MOT has nothing to do with servicing a vehicle
YES you should get the car serviced.

Suggest driving more conservatively when you have a BB recording everything you do if you want your premiums to come back down.
 
tom_e said:
Why didn't you go with them then? :confused:
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I did in the end - I cancelled AA auto renewal and went with Tescos. (£780) However still have to get a black box and this time a mechanic has to manually install it.
This is what I'm worried about - that it will cause my car battery to drain, and also the stress of not knowing how reliable the company that installs them in, as in will they actually turn up when they say, what happens if something goes wrong etc.
I think with tesco you can actually see your driving score. With the AA all you can see is journey data. Only time it was of use was proving to a parking company a fine they issued in my car couldn't have been me as i wasn't driving at that time.
 
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Fuzz said:
an MOT has nothing to do with servicing a vehicle
YES you should get the car serviced.

Suggest driving more conservatively when you have a BB recording everything you do if you want your premiums to come back down.
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Well I drive no more than I need to but guess I'll just watch my speed, especially on this trip as I dread to think about the number of speed cameras and average speed cameras I'll pass and as I'm unfamiliar with irish roads, pretty sure they have it in kmph out there.
 
Yes it’s km in ROI but it’s fine. Driving there is otherwise just like the UK and you soon get to used to the speed limits - 120kmh on motorways being 75mph, 80kmh being 50mph etc.

As for breakdown cover, check with Green Flag etc. Temp EU cover for a few days is fairly expensive but if you don’t have breakdown cover anyway then adding EU doesn’t cost substantially more than UK only cover. Or at least it didn’t when I took it out.
 
Phemo said:
Yes it’s km in ROI but it’s fine. Driving there is otherwise just like the UK and you soon get to used to the speed limits - 120kmh on motorways being 75mph, 80kmh being 50mph etc.

As for breakdown cover, check with Green Flag etc. Temp EU cover for a few days is fairly expensive but if you don’t have breakdown cover anyway then adding EU doesn’t cost substantially more than UK only cover. Or at least it didn’t when I took it out.
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Yeah, green flag is £60 which isn't bad.
 
As a related question if you have a black box fitted but somebody else drives the car, how do the insurers know or is it just assumed it always the owner? Also not sure if black boxes would still record stuff abroad as some of their limits will be different.
 
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