Substitute Vehicle Cover a Joke

Purchased substitute vehicle cover. They won’t provide this if the accident is deemed not your fault (bizarre, Hastings Direct loves to reward bad driving) and split liability. They take weeks to respond to emails and phone calls. If they write off your c Read more

Purchased substitute vehicle cover. They won’t provide this if the accident is deemed not your fault (bizarre, Hastings Direct loves to reward bad driving) and split liability. They take weeks to respond to emails and phone calls. If they write off your car they will ‘lose’ the information you submit to drag out the proceedings to make you take a lower offer. Cheap but exceptionally poor service. Will not be renewing with them. Choose them at your own risk.

Reviewed on 22nd June 2022

Nadia Marken

Terrible thieving bars****

Took my money, cancelled my policy for a ap or blackbox that was clearly faulty by their own admission

Reviewed on 20th June 2022

Reem Chedid

Abysmal customer service---no stars should be an option

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. I have been a customer of Hastings Direct for a few years and had several problems. Their administration is not fit for purpose. Each year they have sent me a quote but I have searched online and found a much cheaper one.....with Read more

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. I have been a customer of Hastings Direct for a few years and had several problems. Their administration is not fit for purpose. Each year they have sent me a quote but I have searched online and found a much cheaper one.....with Hastings Direct!!! iObviously I took up the cheaper quote but HD continued to take monthly payments from my bank account. When I complained I was informed I had TWO live policies. This should not be possible. I did receive a refund after my vociferous complaining. Last year on June 1st I paid £280 to insure my Mercedes S320 but sold the vehicle and bought a Citroen C!. I informed HD who gave me a quote of £230. I therefore expected a refund of £50. No such luck. I was charged £20 to substitute the vehicle on my policy. I have tried to obtain a refund but have been fobbed off with various excuses and attempts by HD to justify their position and not to uphold my complaint. Fortunately my debit card had expired and they did not have the means to take out the £280 they quoted to insure my Citroen for 2022-23. In previous years they retained my card details and took out monies WITHOUT MY PERMISSION as they automatically renew a policy UNLESS YOU CANCEL IT ONE MONTH BEFORE THE ANNIVERSARY DATE. I wrote emails and sent messages on their chatline (when it was working) but had no replies. This company is THE worse insurance company in the UK and there are hundreds of other dissatisfied customers who have confirmed that my experiences are not unique...the list of complaints of poor customer service are legion. I am now insured with AXA....for £50 less than the quote from Hastings Direct.. (Prof. Adrian Brett)

Reviewed on 15th June 2022

Adrian Brett

Conflict in information given by Hastings

Wish I didn't have to give them even a single star to do this review. Tried to ring but ended up via Live Chat. Explained was selling the vehicle so didn't require the auto-renewal. gentleman on other end of live chat stated that if we cancelled the Read more

Wish I didn't have to give them even a single star to do this review.

Tried to ring but ended up via Live Chat.
Explained was selling the vehicle so didn't require the auto-renewal.
gentleman on other end of live chat stated that if we cancelled the policy now we would be charged £45 cancellation.
We stated we were selling not had sold.
He said to inform them once we had sold the vehicle and we would not be charged the cancellation fee.
Next day get an email stating that the policy was now cancelled and we had been charged the £45 cancellation fee.
Rang and explained the policy should still be running until as we still have the vehicle, in process of being sold.
Was told they cannot insure a vehicle that we don't own.
Explained we STILL have the vehicle all paperwork and no money had changed hands.
They would not reinstate the policy for the remaining days of this month, we would have to take out a new policy.
They will not refund the £45 cancellation fee as we cancelled the policy because we jhad sold the vehicle, WE STILL HAVE THE VEHICLE.
Requested a transcript of the live chat and was told they would put us through to somebody who would send it to us via email today.
Line went dead.
Rang back.
Told that the person had the request for the transcript but as it was a long process to get it they would be in touch tomorrow to let us know when.

So the be all and end is that we have a vehicle with no insurance and they have charged us £45 for the privilege.

Oh I must add that they will give us the £45 only if we take out another vehicle policy with them.

No way would we give them the business and no way would we recommend to anyone else.
Also it cost 12p per minute to call them and they will IMO put you on hold for a minimum of 10 minutes.

Reviewed on 12th June 2022

Steve Davis

Run now

Paid 409 for a year policy. Moved so I called to change my address. My mileage, car being parked on a driveway etc hadn't changed. Only my postcode changed. I was living in a small town, still am now, no crime in either yet now, for the last 4 months of m Read more

Paid 409 for a year policy. Moved so I called to change my address. My mileage, car being parked on a driveway etc hadn't changed. Only my postcode changed. I was living in a small town, still am now, no crime in either yet now, for the last 4 months of my policy they are wanting an extra 241 from me. That means for 4 months they expect me to pay over 90 a month for insurance. Asked why and apparently there is no criteria for why!!!!!!!! These people are thieves and utterly disgusting. Moreover, they want to charge me a 45 cancellation fee even though they are forcing me to cancel due to the price. Will be reporting these thieves to the financial ombudsman. How this is fair and just is far beyond me. Never again. They are the worst insurance company in the world. I have never been charged such fees for moving home. It's not like I'm moving to a warzone. It's a tiny town.

The complaint is apparently resolved. Hastings would not budge on anything. I will never ever buy my car insurance from them ever again. All they care about is their fees and profits. Disgusting company with no morals. And they were more interested in getting me to pay for an entire year and lose my no claims discount. Disgusting. I hope they go bust.

Reviewed on 25th May 2022

MJ

Awful

After buying my insurance policy that required the tab, they cancelled my policy after a few months because of ‘issues with driving data’ which i had previously spoken to them about and had been told it’s because my battery was low on my phone when i was Read more

After buying my insurance policy that required the tab, they cancelled my policy after a few months because of ‘issues with driving data’ which i had previously spoken to them about and had been told it’s because my battery was low on my phone when i was driving or something. i re synced the tab and always charged my phone before journeys and yet they cancelled my insurance anyway without contact.

Reviewed on 18th May 2022

molly.reyyan@gmail.com

So frustrating

Someone ran into me on the 8th April. I reported it immediately and it is now 27th April. I keep getting switched from Hastings. to Enterprise car rentals, to IMS(whoever they are), to Cannon motor repairers. I keep getting told by Enterprise car rental Read more

Someone ran into me on the 8th April. I reported it immediately and it is now 27th April.
I keep getting switched from Hastings. to Enterprise car rentals, to IMS(whoever they are), to Cannon motor repairers. I keep getting told by Enterprise car rentals(apparently they arrange the garage to fix the car), that Cannon, the local garage have been informed about my case several times. I ring Cannon up and they've never heard of me.
Lies lies and yet more lies.
Reading the reviews below I think I'm in for a long problem.

Reviewed on 27th April 2022

John Smith

Exhausting and disappointing

Unfortunately, I didn't have a great experience with Hastings due to the only two times I had to contact them. I had to make a claim due to an accident caused by a stray deer. It took 4 months from initial communication to finally repair the vehicle. Read more

Unfortunately, I didn't have a great experience with Hastings due to the only two times I had to contact them.

I had to make a claim due to an accident caused by a stray deer. It took 4 months from initial communication to finally repair the vehicle. The third party allocated to my repair was actually beyond useless and failed to even respond to the body shop for over 8 weeks.

I had to raise an "official complaint" to get the ball rolling on the above and I used my time to arrange repairs, courtesy cars and communication...I specifically opted for above essentials so I could relax from doing this, in the end it was moot.

I needed to update my insurance due to moving over to an EV...Hastings decided that £1700 a year for a driver with 10 years experience and 6 years no claims. To paint perspective, the average quote I was receiving on animal based comparison sites came to £600.

If the price was only 10% higher, with Hastings, I would have continued to use them without any qualms. I contacted support to understand why the price increase was unfathomable and if it could be reduced, I was unsuccessful with this request and ultimately had to cancel.

Finally, upon cancellation I am then charged a £45 cancellation fee...it's not crippling but is completely immoral and borderline extortion. Since Hastings can "technically" provide me insurance, at a staggering price, I am the one that has decided to cancel and therefor I have to pay the penalty.

Yes, I should "aLwAyS ReAD tHe CoNtRaCt", but why do we have to go to such efforts as a customer just to receive adequate and morally correct service from these monopolistic multi million pound conglomerates? It's insanity.

Reviewed on 26th April 2022

Luke

Scammers

Waiting for claims for the past I think 11 months to be paid, we did already 5 complaints and nothing , we put this case to court and we are waiting for a reply, they don't contact us regarding the situation and my mental health and anxiety keeps raising. Read more

Waiting for claims for the past I think 11 months to be paid, we did already 5 complaints and nothing , we put this case to court and we are waiting for a reply, they don't contact us regarding the situation and my mental health and anxiety keeps raising.
We contact the ombudsman and he's fallowing the situation.
This insurer is a scammer they're running from their obligations.

Reviewed on 25th April 2022

walter carvalho

Money making charges

Good initial quote and cover. However when you change a reg number and or car thats when the fun starts with the money making scams to charge you money when other companys dont. I had 2 cars insured with hastings. Took a reg plate off one car and was c Read more

Good initial quote and cover. However when you change a reg number and or car thats when the fun starts with the money making scams to charge you money when other companys dont. I had 2 cars insured with hastings. Took a reg plate off one car and was charged. Understand that as they blamed the underwriters. Then get new car quote and was charged over a thousand pounds more for the one car than for the cost of the policy for the two cars. £1900 for one car. Went o compare site and got a quote for £400 and went with them. Canceled with Hastings and got charged 75 pounds for all the years of loyalty with no convictions or accidents ect. Also changed reg with new company totally free of charge
HASTINGS ARE A RIP OFF.

Reviewed on 20th April 2022

Steven Pooley

WORST COMPANY I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH

WORST COMPANY I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH. HAVE WASTED DAYS OF MY LIFE TRYING TO GET THEM TO CANCEL MY POLICY AND THEY KEEP TELLING ME THEY HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE EVIDENCE THEY REQUIRE. IT IS A WAR OF ATTRITION2 HOURS ON THE PHONE THIS MORNING ALONE. DO NOT DEA Read more

WORST COMPANY I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH. HAVE WASTED DAYS OF MY LIFE TRYING TO GET THEM TO CANCEL MY POLICY AND THEY KEEP TELLING ME THEY HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE EVIDENCE THEY REQUIRE. IT IS A WAR OF ATTRITION2 HOURS ON THE PHONE THIS MORNING ALONE. DO NOT DEAL WITH THEM.

Reviewed on 9th April 2022

Lisa FF

ABSOLUTELY USELESS A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY

My accident happened 22/3 2022 and still waiting for 2 so called mangers to ring back regarding this and still no courtesy/ hire vehicle Fully comprehensive treated like sh#t

Reviewed on 4th April 2022

Belinda Mills

ABSOLUTELY USELESS A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY

Please read and listen "DONT" do it go else where you will thank me in the future Today 4 April 2022 ........ accident happened on the 22 /3/2022 still no courtesy car or hire car Still waiting for call backs from 2 so called managers.... no good ! N Read more

Please read and listen "DONT" do it go else where you will thank me in the future
Today 4 April 2022 ........ accident happened on the 22 /3/2022 still no courtesy car or hire car
Still waiting for call backs from 2 so called managers.... no good ! No help !waste off money
Hastings direct are crap

Reviewed on 4th April 2022

Belinda Mills

Great app

Great cheap car insurance 51 years old with a driving app/box

Reviewed on 28th March 2022

Chris

Great telematics insurance, not so great prices.

A review on YouDrive policy with telematics. In terms of black box insurance, it’s probably the best. The tab they give you is self-application, so you can stick it where you like e.g. corner of your windscreen. Your driving will be monitored, but from Read more

A review on YouDrive policy with telematics.

In terms of black box insurance, it’s probably the best. The tab they give you is self-application, so you can stick it where you like e.g. corner of your windscreen. Your driving will be monitored, but from my experience it was quite lenient on speeds, cornering and acceleration. Had a bit of a problem with braking, even if sudden braking is unavoidable in busy cities and rush hour traffic. Braking smoothly also didn’t really work in keeping the score 5/5, so I thought that was a bit strange. Another thing to keep in mind if you're thinking of going with Hastings' YouDrive policy, is that their tabs are Bluetooth connected, so it tends to drain your phone battery.

Prices are not very competitive. Price went down by half once I moved to a different post code, but when I tried to add on additional mileage later on due to longer commutes to work, they wanted to increase my premium by nearly 30%, from around £65 a month to £87, when other insurance providers offered cheaper premiums than what I was paying on the old annual mileage. No additional cover such as breakdown or courtesy car was offered either, when again, other providers offered most types of extra cover for a cheaper price than what I was paying, all included in the price, with no telematics. Ended up cancelling my policy with Hastings and switching to a different provider due to price.

Customer service has room for improvement. Staff didn't provide much substance to my complaint, and didn't seem willing to even attempt to price-match what other insurance brokers offered me. I cannot imagine how helpful they would be in case of an accident claim. Despite this, my policy was cancelled without much issue, and the cancellation fee was surprisingly low. Let's hope it stays that way.

Overall, I would hesitate to recommend Hastings to anyone else, but their telematics scheme is possibly one of the best if you absolutely must go with a black box. There are cheaper insurance providers out there, however, so keep searching around.

Reviewed on 8th March 2022

Sabine

Smart scam

This insurance is an absolute nightmare. They intelligently give you a low quote and plant that device to control you.They except you to be driving only straight on a motorway no roundabouts no bend nothing because the device keep making a stupid map on e Read more

This insurance is an absolute nightmare. They intelligently give you a low quote and plant that device to control you.They except you to be driving only straight on a motorway no roundabouts no bend nothing because the device keep making a stupid map on every move you make. They use that as an excuse to cancel your insurance after collecting much money from you. They are pure scam because they don't even make an alternative offer. Just smooth operators but I hope their game will be over soon because I'll take it up and expose them. They are smartly milking people and placing them in a difficult situation, running to get cover somewhere else.

Reviewed on 1st March 2022

Babygirl Don

Still waiting for repairs because of Hastings uncommunication

Was hit from behind when stationery. Claim went through as it was other persons fault. Hastings use third party IM Solutions to sort out claim. Told me about the garage and hire car company that I will be using. After one month no news when the car wi Read more

Was hit from behind when stationery. Claim went through as it was other persons fault. Hastings use third party IM Solutions to sort out claim. Told me about the garage and hire car company that I will be using. After one month no news when the car will be repaired. Spoke to the garage and they have sent IM Solutions estimate of repairs twice in different formats as they requested but they have still not authorised the repairs. There are no contact details for IM Solutions. I have to keep calling Enterprises Hire to contact IM Solutions to sort the mess out but no one replies back to them either. Still in a limbo and chasing the dogs tails. I have called Hastings who than pass me back to Enterprise Hire and it goes round and round as no one can help because IM Solutions don't respond. Please can someone help with this and if you don't want to be in my position please DO NOT get car insurance with HASTING DIRECT.

Reviewed on 26th February 2022

Rita

No issues, until making a claim

I have previously used Hastings with no issues but never had to make a claim. Last year another driver hit my parked car. Initially the claim went smoothly. It did not continue in this manner. Be warned Hastings outsource to other companies to handle c Read more

I have previously used Hastings with no issues but never had to make a claim.

Last year another driver hit my parked car. Initially the claim went smoothly. It did not continue in this manner. Be warned Hastings outsource to other companies to handle claims. It is now 3 months after the accident and finally it looks like my car will be fixed by end of month 4. In these 3 months I have had to call over 30 times to Hastings/3rd party companies. I have raised 2 complaints and spent over 4 hours on the phone chasing up due to their complete lack of communication between businesses.

An event that was already unpleasant has been made incredibly stressful and time consuming to myself.

To add injury to insult a number I had been advised by a 3rd party to raise a complaint to charged me £15 as it was a premium number. As the claim has taken so long to resolve my insurance renewal has also cost me an additional £150, as open claims by default are categorized as "At Fault" even though I am not. I have been advised I can claim a refund from my new insurer when this is resolved. However I am still left out of pocket until then.

I would not recommend this company even if they are cheaper than competitors.

Reviewed on 25th February 2022

Emily

Legal scam company

hey have an auto renew policy. This was not clear as is they should be legally transparent on an auto renew contract. Also it should be clear and easy to cancel auto renew which is not the case for Hastings as this can only be done via the phone. And Read more

hey have an auto renew policy.
This was not clear as is they should be legally transparent on an auto renew contract. Also it should be clear and easy to cancel auto renew which is not the case for Hastings as this can only be done via the phone.
And now I have written cancellation from them they are still asking for me to reinstall my DD and threatening to go to credit ratings agencies! If I had the money I would sue them but alas I am too poor. Do not use this insurance unless you never want to change again!

Reviewed on 18th February 2022

Lee Heckford

Terrible!

Quite possibly the worst insurance company I have ever had the misfortune of using. Apparently leaving someone by the side of a motorway for 8 1/2 hours after an accident is perfectly acceptable and if you think you are going to get a courtesy car, think Read more

Quite possibly the worst insurance company I have ever had the misfortune of using. Apparently leaving someone by the side of a motorway for 8 1/2 hours after an accident is perfectly acceptable and if you think you are going to get a courtesy car, think again! Over two weeks of chasing and I never did get a courtesy car. Oh and to top it off, when you do not agree with their valuation of your vehicle, they just proceed and deposit the money into your account! AVOID at all costs, please do not make the same mistake I did.

Reviewed on 18th February 2022

Chris Martin