Black box insurance

JFC1

I have an insurance policy with MoreThan SmartWheels which uses a telematics device to monitor my 18 year-old son's driving style.

This gives him a score of between -10 & +10 for Speed, Smoothness & Usage for every journey which is then used to give him a score for year-to-date, quarter & last 7 days. My problem is that despite individual journey's scoring predominantly +10 in each category, SmartWheels equate that to a much lower score (e.g. +4.0 for the last 7 days). I really can't reconcile how they've calculated that score... which directly affects the level of discount on next policy renewal and cash rewards... sohas a material impact.

Their customer service wasn't very helpful... I've agreed to pay £10 (has to be by cheque and in writing to their Data Protection officer, and will take 40 days) for details of every journey they've recorded, but as they won't share their algorithm with me, I suspect I'm entirely at their mercy.

Does anyone have a clue how they calculate these scores?

AdrianC

The first question has to be why they're even talking to you. Are you the policyholder?

chrisw

My son took out the smart wheels policy but when I looked at the reviews on the internet, there were hundreds complaining about that very thing and low scores being given before cash back and renewal. In many cases, smart wheels had cancelled policies. People had asked for scores to be reviewed but you're really at their mercy.

I know it doesn't help your situation, but I immediately cancelled his policy and went with Tesco black box instead, even though it was an extra £100, and it's been fine.

almillar

I have an insurance policy with MoreThan SmartWheels

Are you the policyholder?

Looks like a 'yes'.

Ant555

The scoring does seem a bit strange.

We are 2 months into a policy (miles cheaper than anything else we could get including a 17yo)
Constant 10's for 3 weeks and a decent projected quarterly reward was undone down to zero in one journey with a smoothness rating of -8.

It remained at 0 reward for a couple of weeks but then one day went back up to the original amount despite lots of subsequent journeys scored at +7 and +3.

Our 'overall' average is still 10 despite there being lots of sub-10s so in a pure mathematical sense its not an average score at all but a calculated score.

We lose scores on 'usage' as the car is shared so often one child comes home and the next is immediately out in it. Usage is frequently 0 or +3 due to this.

My thought is that I didn't take it out with a view to getting money back but it is a good incentive for the young driver.

hope this helps