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Hastings Direct: Car Insurance reviews

Name: Car Insurance
Rating: 3.14 (642 reviews)

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3.10

Based on 642 reviews, last reviewed 29th Jan 2025

100% decrease in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

20% decrease in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

34%

20%

34%

Latest highest rating:

5

Sensible approach to black box (You Drive) policy. I had a black box (You Drive) policy. My car needed repairs which took several weeks and meant I wasn't driving it. Hastings Direct contacted me askin... Read more Reviewed on: 20th October 2024

Latest lowest rating:

1

DO NOT USE HASTINGS PLEASE Terrible - my car gets stolen and they refuse the claim for a key discrepancy issue and THEN LOSE THAT key! Car has been found by the police and Hasti... Read more Reviewed on: 29th January 2025

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About this product

Looking for your new car insurance provider? Check out the Hastings Direct car insurance reviews on Smart Money People, left by genuine customers to help you make an informed decision when choosing your next provider.

Founded in 1997, Hastings Direct offers car, van, bike and home insurance, providing flexible policies with a wide range of optional extras. Its car insurance policies come with varying levels of cover, alongside a telematics policy, YouDrive, which rewards good driving with lower renewal rates.

What factors do you consider to be most important when choosing a car insurance provider? Are you looking for a telematics policy that can save you money? Perhaps you require breakdown cover or courtesy car cover? What about windscreen cover, or protection from vandalism? Whatever your needs, check out our Hastings Direct car insurance reviews to see how existing customers rate their policies.

Have you had a Hastings Direct car insurance policy? Share your experience with the Smart Money People community to help us increase trust and transparency in financial services. Tell us how satisfied you were with the price of the premium, and whether you managed to find cover for all of your needs? If you’ve had a YouDrive policy, did you find the scoring of your driving fair, and did you find a noticeable discount on your renewal? Leave a Hastings Direct car insurance review today and help other drivers.

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Hastings Direct Car Insurance reviews (642)

Great app

Great cheap car insurance 51 years old with a driving app/box Reviewed on: 28th March 2022

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 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

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 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

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 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

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 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

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 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

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 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

Absolutely appalling service

After practically 30 days of inaction from Hastings regarding my claim, decided to cancel the claim and get the repairs done myself. Terrible customer service. Never experienced such poor and ineffective service. Reviewed on: 17th February 2022

Take ages to pay out

Hit by one of their customer, they have had all the paperwork and receipts for my injuries 18 months later they still haven't paid out. Now gone to court and told the earliest date to get this resolved is 5.1.2023 Wouldnt use them at all slow and drag their heels when it comes to settling a claim yet their insured party got a driving course and 3 points Reviewed on: 24th January 2022

They will increase your policy price

Hastings Direct decided they should use possibly incorrect information from comparison websites, instead of the information which I declared to be true, to increase the price of my car insurance by almost twice the amount! I didn't know my contract included comparison websites, I thought it was just between us. It's just a way of increasing the cost of my policy once I'm in the contract. Very sneaky. I won't be using them again! Reviewed on: 5th January 2022

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