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insurethebox: Car Insurance reviews

Name: Car Insurance
Rating: 4.36 (189 reviews)

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3.82

Based on 189 reviews, last reviewed 19th Sep 2024

No new 5 star reviews

in the past 90 days

100% increase in 1 star reviews

in the past 90 days

73%

12%

Latest highest rating:

4

Would recommend for new drivers For my first year of driving I had a black box with insurethebox, I like how each month there’s a breakdown of your driving through different areas, p... Read more Reviewed on: 6th March 2024

Latest lowest rating:

1

Just avoid! Where to start? Policy was the cheapest one available for my vehicle, one of the only, if not the only, positive(s) of an Insurethebox policy. So I d... Read more Reviewed on: 19th September 2024

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About this product

For new drivers, finding a car insurance policy that won’t break the bank often proves difficult. Telematics policies, also known as black box policies, are designed to combat this, providing lower renewal rates for younger drivers. But how do you know whether these policies are right for you? We collect insurethebox car insurance reviews to help you make an informed decision for your new insurance provider.

insurethebox provides black box policies designed for new and young drivers, where driving safely can see you rewarded with a discounted renewal price. insurethebox also offers no claims discount (NCD) protection for new drivers, protecting your NCD from as little as one year.

Are you a new or young driver looking for a telematics policy? Check out our insurethebox car insurance reviews to see how policyholders rate their experience. Do you need a larger amount of miles a year than average? Or perhaps you want to use insurethebox’s NCD protection? Are you curious about how policyholders feel insurethebox has scored their driving? Gain insight into the brand by reading our reviews.

Have you had an insurance policy with insurethebox? Leave an honest review today. Was the black box installation quick and simple? Did you have enough miles on your policy? Did you feel that your driving was rated fairly? Were you satisfied with the discounted renewal price that you were given? Write an insurethebox car insurance review to help out our Smart Money People community. Together, we can help people like you make better decisions.

insurethebox Car Insurance reviews (189)

Review of the insurethebox, Car Insurance:

Absolutely 0 stars if I could

The incorrect driving data have caused the significant increase of my next year's premium. 1. On 16/07/2022, Insurethebox sent me a letter saying Insurethebox would decline to provide a renewal offer. I was surprised by this decision because I have driven well in the last year and I have never made any claims since I got the license in 2019. I have realized there must be something wrong. Then I found the black box installed on my car last year has never worked properly. My account dashboard shows there are 0 driven miles in the last 11 months. Insurethebox has also admitted there have been errors in the black box. I have also found I can’t get reasonable insurance policy from other providers due to the faulty black box. 2. On 22/07/2022, Insurethebox provided a renewal offer £841.03, which is significantly higher than last year’s premium £625.21. I then contacted the customer service, and they even claimed the faulty black box worked in my favour and helped to reduce the premium. This is completely nonsense, as my renewal car insurance premium is significantly higher than last year. It is a common sense that the premium will be much cheaper when a driver has more driving history. Insurethebox claimed the bonus miles (which might be just a minor factor) helped to reduce the premium, but Insurethebox deliberately ignored the most important factor, driving history. As we all know, a new driver without any driving history will need to pay higher premium. My premium in 2021 was much cheaper (£300 less) than 2020 because there were driving data in 2020-2021. Now the premium is much higher, because there was no driving record in 2021-2022. I have also asked many of my friends, and their premium this year is similar to (or cheaper than) last year. Clearly, the unusual higher premium is caused by the faulty black box. Now I have to pay significantly more because of Insurethebox’s fault. I have contacted Insurethebox customer service and complaint team via email several times, but it appears Insurethebox people don’t want to rectify the mistake, nor solve the problem. I contacted customer service on 26/07/26 via live chat, and requested a callback. The staff of Insurethebox (called Lucy) promised that a senior manger would call me on the same day (26/07/2022), but this has never happened. I am really disappointed by the worst service. I have learned from Financial Ombudsman Service, Insurethebox should cover any increased cost because the black box has not worked properly. I will need to make a formal complaint to Financial Ombudsman Service if the issue is not properly resolved. Reviewed on: 26th July 2022

Just avoid!

Where to start? Policy was the cheapest one available for my vehicle, one of the only, if not the only, positive(s) of an Insurethebox policy. So I decided to go ahead and buy it, this was the beginning of my many issues and problems. On trying to purchase the policy through the payment system on the website the money was taken, however the transaction did not finalise, meaning I had been charged the full annual premium without recieving any insurance cover. The live chat feature was no help in resolving this issue, meaning I had to wait over the month for the transaction to be cancelled/bounce back. This then meant I had to borrow money from my family to the tune of £1700 (for a 1.4L hatchback, might I add!) in order to then pay for the policy again over the phone. I then had someone come and install the black box, which had to be hardwire installed into/behind the interior fuse box, we’ll come back to why this will present itself as an issue later. However at this point I had had no other issues. In relation to the supposed bonus miles you can earn. They aren’t worth the ink of the T+Cs written for them. I got given a handful of them during the first month of my policy and then nothing since, that’s another 6 months worth of policy where I got no bonus miles. Even though there had been no change in the standard of my driving, it is simply because I was given a negative score for driving at night and the black box not being intelligent enough to realise half an hour stationary with the engine running also qualifies as a ‘break’ for the ‘taking breaks’ score, as it only qualifies a break as stopped with the engine off, with me also receiving a negative score for that as well. This therefore meant that during the just under 8 months I had the policy I only gained 41 bonus miles, out of a possible 700 miles. I also had a number of issues with the policy portal. This ranged from the mileage indicator being incorrect and sporadically resetting to show that I had done no miles and had the full policy allowment remaining. To the portal simply not working, as it is currently, with me both unable to view my policy documents (important since I have just cancelled my policy and need the cancellation documents) and also buy extra miles. This is especially important since I have run out of my allocation and need more but am ironically unable to pay the insurethebox even more money (£50 for an extra 250 miles). This also brings me to the negative point of how exorbitantly expensive additional miles are. This means that any saving you will have made by going for a cheaper black box policy, you will end having to spend on extra miles once you exceed your allocation. This is the main reason I have terminated my policy early as it worked out cheaper to start a new (non-black box) policy, then continually buy more miles, with it currently costing me £100+ a month in additional miles. There was also a good 2 months where the portal didn’t work at all, meaning I had no idea how many miles I was using or had left, making the whole situation of a black box that much more annoying. That brings me to my final point, the one that most took the pis*. When I went to cancel my policy, I was told that I would have to take my car to a garage to have the black box removed. This is a direct contradiction to what I was previously told by another representative that it could be arranged so that the company that installed the box would remove the black box. So there you have blantant lying and/or omission of information so they could avoid extra work. So in short: Positives - Relatively competitive/low price Negatives - Exorbitant cost of excess miles - Glitchy/broken portal - Inability to know how many miles you have used or have left the majority of the time - Inability to purchase needed extra miles - Non-existent bonus miles - Blantant lying on the part of customer service in regards to what they are and aren’t able to do Reviewed on: 19th September 2024

I find they have a very judgemental attitude.

I find they have a very judgemental attitude. They are aggressive in tone and they are quick to jump to conclusions. They are overly expressive and their cover compares poorly with other insurers. I would never insure with them again. They pinalise you g drivers unfairly. Reviewed on: 28th March 2024

Would recommend for new drivers

For my first year of driving I had a black box with insurethebox, I like how each month there’s a breakdown of your driving through different areas, price stays the same throughout and no curfews but late night driving is given a sad face if done regularly, however when it was time for renewal the price had gone up significantly and it was already expensive for the first year to begin with. I shopped around and went with another insurer instead of renewing, however I can’t fault it was great for my first year. Reviewed on: 6th March 2024

They are scammers don’t go for them even if you pay...

They are scammers don’t go for them even if you pay bit less insurance. I had claim on my policy last year and I declared it also . It was on 12/07 but on the database it shows 13/07 just days difference and they told me to pay £xx amount for update and my excess they increased by £500 . And gave me just 7 days to pay or they will cancel my insurance and will put on databases that they had cancelled my insurance and they said I will have difficulty to get new insurance . Reviewed on: 10th January 2024

The worst car insurance company. Never recommend to anyone

I have bought car insurance in June and they messed up and registered to the wrong address and today I got a message that I need to change the address otherwise they will cancel my policy and I have to pay £130 for changing the address. The worst car insurance company ever. Never recommend to anyone. They ask you to pay for their mistakes. Reviewed on: 28th September 2023

Scammers

After an accident insure the box decided to cancel my insurance due to me driving near the agreed miles, I was going to buy more so glad I never! They are now chasing me for £80 for them canceling - Avoid this budget cowboy company- save money and time and go with a reputable company! Reviewed on: 9th September 2023

Forced auto renewal - let me leave

Despite opting out of auto renewal the money for the next year has been taken from my account. Return my money or I will take legal action. Your service is appalling. I was previously unsure as to whether I had made the right decision leaving your company. Now I am certain. Reviewed on: 28th January 2023

Disgusting, useless, incompetent

Do not use! I have no words or the time any more for this company! I’ve been a loyal customer and got nothing I’ve had no car since Dec 11th due to a incident one minute they’ve arranged for the car to be fixed and a hire car to have to call them 2 weeks later and find out no one had been sent etc without notifying us!! Not been able to get to work then paying for taxis a lot of back and forth they just pass on to other people don’t reply to emails don’t contact the correct people lazy still today the stress I have gone through!!! And still no car today!!!! 17/01/23 I would be ashamed working for this company Reviewed on: 17th January 2023

Discriminative, Incompetent and Unprofessional

I have never before bothered to write a negative review on a company, however I feel that this one is absolutely worth my time if it means saving others from the disgusting service I have faced. With Insure the Box, I have experienced the lowest standard of customer service of my entire life. Getting through to them via phone or live chat was nearly impossible with wait times of over 2 hours - I tried for days to reach a customer service agent. When someone finally answered, I passed through the security questions only to be told by the man on the phone that he wouldn't help me as I sounded "significantly older than 22". This is not only an unprofessional, disrespectful and offensive comment, but also discriminatory. The customer service agent's personal opinion on how old I sound should not affect my ability to access my car insurance, especially after having already passed security questions. Following around 20 minutes of disagreement, my sister in law joined the conversation after hearing the obscurity of it and demanded to speak to a manager, it was at this point we were hung up on. On the live chat, you can access your account without the customer service agent ever hearing your voice, so it makes no sense that I wasn't allowed to change my policy because of the agent's personal opinion on how I sound. What if I was sick, or had had surgery meaning my voice had been affected making me sound a bit older? Or I could be going through a gender change and on hormones that alter my vocal cords? When you consider that there are numerous reasons someone's voice may not appear to match their date of birth, the comment on my age becomes completely irrelevant. I myself, most certainly do sound my age and was incredibly confused as I have never before in person or on the phone been told I sound older than my age - anyone I have told this story to has also been shocked by the agent's comment. I was initially astonished, I thought the man on the call must be joking - he was not. It felt like he didn't want to do his actual job and instead was enjoying aggravating customers. He kept saying he needed to "speak with the policyholder" when I replied that I am in fact the policyholder and can provide any information needed to prove it, he uncaringly told me to phone back and speak to someone else. This is ridiculous and again makes no sense as my voice isn't going to change when I phone back. Yes, the next person I speak with may feel differently about my voice and let me change my policy, but doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of the security questions if accessing your account comes down to a stranger's personal opinion on how you sound? I responded to his suggestion of phoning back by explaining that I had already been waiting over an hour and a half to get through and I was not willing to wait again. He did not care and also provided zero solutions when I suggested I was able to prove my identity in another way. I was originally phoning to simply remove my brother from the insurance, however after this awful experience, I had decided to cancel the insurance entirely. I then was once again unable to get through to someone on the phone with extremely long waits of numerous hours. With my insurance payment due to come out of my bank account in a few days, I was left with no choice but to cancel the direct debit. At this moment in time I still have not managed to reach them to cancel the policy. If I ever do get through, how can I be sure I'll even be allowed to cancel the policy as I supposedly sound "significantly older" than my age. Am I going to essentially be forced into keeping my policy despite my desperate efforts and tremendous amount of time spent attempting to cancel. I am still in disbelief over my experience with Insure the Box and urge anyone reading this review to stay clear of this company, it will save you a lot of stress and frustration in the long run. Reviewed on: 16th December 2022