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Hastings Direct: Car insurance reviews

Name: Car insurance
Rating: 3.16 (676 reviews)

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3.05

Based on 676 reviews, last reviewed 23rd Feb 2026

92% decrease in 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

75% decrease in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

34%

20%

35%

Latest highest rating:

5

I've been with Hastings Direct for a good few years... I've been with Hastings Direct for a good few years now - they've helped me with carious claims and at a difficult time when I had a car accident they... Read more Reviewed on: 23rd January 2026

Latest lowest rating:

1

Dodgy fees. I just finished a contract with this company. My car insurance was finished at 23:59 of the 19th of Feb. They have automatically renewed my car insura... Read more Reviewed on: 23rd February 2026

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About this product

Hastings Direct provide award-winning car insurance.

You can get a Hastings Direct car insurance quote online and manage your policy via the mobile app. There are three levels of cover, Essentials, Direct and Premier. They're available as an online product which is a lower cost, self-service policy that you manage yourself.

Hastings Direct car insurance reviews help you find out what it’s really like to be a customer. If you’ve used Hastings Direct before, you can also leave a review and share your experience.

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Hastings Direct Car insurance reviews (676)

AVOID

10 weeks since my accident other party admitted fault cctv evidence presented but still out of pocket after the stated my bike was a write off avoiding all calls and emails from me Reviewed on: 2nd July 2022

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 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

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

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 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

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 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

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 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

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 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

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 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

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. 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

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. 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

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