Insurance Can I Request A Telematics Box?

bluemoomoo1

I have purchased my first car, which I collect next week, and have been driving seven years, I am in my 40's. Paid my insurance policy in full, good provider, gone for a premium policy, I expected it to be high, given DVLA medical restricted licence and no NCD, despite driving as a named driver on a Motability Car. Yes, some insurance providers take that into account, but not this one I have gone with, but they were still far the cheapest.

Can I ask for a Telematics box, so I can demonstrate my safe driving, in the hope it will help lower the cost next year. Although I am planning to join IAM RoadSmart and hopefully pass the advanced driving test before insurance renewal next year, I did this course some years back but failed the test, due to nerves and anxiety, but still utilize the knowledge I took from it.

cymruchris

Usually the black box policies are clearly defined as such, and it's not something you can request to add-on to my knowledge. Your premium will be calculated from a number of risk factors - and so the data from a black box might not really help much in terms of your renewal price - and the data it collected if you had one, would only be seen by the company that had it fitted - so not much use if you want to shop around (which is usually recommended).

Probably just best to have a good year's driving, get your first year's NCD, and then have a shop around a few weeks before your renewal and see how things go. (And no matter how careful a driver you are - I personally wouldn't want a black box fitted to my car - that as much as they collect factual data - there's more to driving than just recording how fast or how far you travel)

Herzlos

You'd need to go for a telematics policy, bjt the good driving data would only apply to that company, and you're more likely to be punished by it than helped. 

Gaining some NCD and IAM certifications will result in discounts accepted bh most insurers, however with a medically restricted license it's likely to always be a bit more expensive.

400ixl

If the policy you have selected is not a black box policy then no, you can't demand one.

Having one is unlikely to help you anyway as it is not taken into account across the market. Also on the advanced driving course, do a quote declaring it and no to see if it will actually make any significant difference before spending out for the course. Likely you will not see that much of a cost benefit to make it worth doing insurance wise. Plenty of other good reasons to do it though.

DullGreyGuy

If you want it purely for your own interests then there did used to be at least some mobile based versions you could down load if you had the policy or not, eg Aviva used to do one (dont know if they still do). Certainly no one else would give you any credit for it... dont know if Aviva themselves may offer anything if you've been using their app voluntarily for a while.

As others have said, if you want black box insurance you have to buy blackbox insurance but for many who arent the highest class of risk they tend not to be cost effective policies.

bluemoomoo1

Thank you all for your replies, and advice. I'll work on going down the IAM Roadsmart route, see and hope that will make a difference in 12 months to insurance costs.

Grey_Critic

Martin suggested several years ago that 22 days before renewal date was the optimum time - I have been following that advice and it worked for me - as others have said get a years driving done and then shop around and think about what Martin said.

Ectophile

I can't recall ever having been asked by an insurance company if I have passed any advanced driving courses.  It's not in the standard list of questions.

By far the most important thing in he next year is not to get convicted of anything and don't crash into anything.

DullGreyGuy

Ectophile said:

I can't recall ever having been asked by an insurance company if I have passed any advanced driving courses.  It's not in the standard list of questions.

If you go into Confused.com, other aggregators are available, and hit the More button by your license type, you then get a drop down that includes things like PassPlus and IAM... so its probably been there, just not very obvious. Not sure many take them these days and just because the option is there doesn't mean the majority of insurers are giving any credit for it

mgfvvc

As an IAM member, when I looked at IAM discounted insurance they were discounting from an uncompetitive price and even after the discount they weren't competitive. That probably won't be true for everyone.

I also blocked calls from the IAM's insurance partner because of their aggressive hard selling.