Hastings Direct Smart Miles Reviews

Name: Hastings Direct Smart Miles
Rating: 3.29

3.3 Rating 2,006 Reviews

56 %

of reviewers recommend Hastings Direct Smart Miles

3.3

Based on 2,006 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Courier
On-time Delivery	Greater than 72%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour

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Hastings Direct Smart Miles 1 star review on 12th July 2024

James

Hastings Direct Smart Miles 5 star review on 29th September 2023

Jason Major

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 1 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“You...yes you reading this. If you want to: -Be terrified of ever starting your car up -Have a driver rating score that never increases and only ever falls so Hastings can cancel the policy and charge you further -Never look out of the car window at potential danger as you're fixated on your speed indicator -Be reluctant to brake -Be generally stressed through fear of cancellation Then look no further, Hastings Smart Miles is the policy for you!”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“If I could give a 0 I would. Had the box for just over 6 months now and my driving score has always been on 100 until yesterday! I was out driving yesterday and woke up this morning to my speeding being dropped to 90% I contacted the complaint and they can’t even tell me where and when I was speeding!! Also 10pm for a advisory limit????? Absolutely stupid!”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Do not get a black box with Hastings direct it’s a con. My score went down to 40 after 1 week & I’ve been very careful. I have done 90% of my journey’s between 5am - 10pm yet my score did time of day is 35!! Total rip off.”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Unfortunately can't give zero stars. Hi there, I made the mistake of taking out car insurance with Hastings Direct Smartmiles (a service using a black box) I took this insurance out in April 2017 and after receiving a warning they were going to retract it in June from my low score, I started taking notes and screenshots of my score to try and understand where I was going wrong. 8 months later, I am still baffled as to how these figures reflect my driving. The figures very rarely change, and if they do they drop significantly. I feel as though it is a scam to try and get me to pay to cancel or they will cancel it themselves which will clearly jeopardise my future of car insurance purchasing. I am aware I am not the only one with this problem looking at the appalling reviews below. My Issues with the box are as follows: a) my braking hasn't changed from 31% since 5/7/17 despite me never slamming on my brakes. b) my speeding has always hovered round the 50% mark since I got my insurance in April, despite me never going over the speeding limit. c) My time of day has always hovered at 60%, despite what must be over 6,700 miles driven in the day. More irritating was that I was told by Hastings themselves there wasn't a curfew on the box which, there quite clearly is. d) Acceleration is my biggest issue, starting at 10, I stopped using the screen when my car tells me to change gear following Hastings advice which upped the score to around 25. I then chose to stop using cruise control which managed to get me a 'high score' of 50 (why this isn't higher due to my utmost care taken when accelerating I don't know) However in the past week this has suddenly dropped to 25 for absolutely no reason. You will see from the attach screenshots that some days it dramatically just drops with no valid excuse. I am aware they give out safe driving 'tips' but after calling 4/5 times about these persistent issues, I believe that the company has put it off long enough.. especially when the tips include: 1. Put a cup of water on my dashboard to avoid accelerating harshly 2. Don’t crawl in rush hour traffic, use handbrake rather than foot brake and wait for traffic to disperse.. at the time I lived in London.. I’d never get home! 3. Crawl out of roads at roundabouts to avoid harsh acceleration, despite this being a crash hazard. 4. Refrain from braking. I said I work 9 – 5 in London with many people who are unable to drive in my area, causing me to hit my brakes or crash into them. Her response: well that would be their fault so it wouldn’t affect your insurance. They would rather I crashed into someone which could cause injury or death just to try and improve their broken black box?! The disaster of this insurance company is making me want to just sell my car which isn't how it should be. Avoid like the plague, sometimes cheapest ends up costing you more.. financially and mentally!”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Stay away mo matter they are cheap easy pay bit extra go with any other company who have good review HESTING DIRECT IF THEY LOOK AT REVIEWS MORE THEN 90% CUSTOMERS ARE COMPLAINING BUT IT SEEMS CUSTOMERS SRE WRONG BUT THEY ARE RIGHT no matter who has drive our car we drove over 80 miles still under 40 customers service are rude they don’t want to listen”

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Posted 7 years ago

“The system is simply NOT accurate and even though I have contacted Hastings they have done nothing to look into this nor send me the information that was promised. I do a short journey to work of slightly over 1 mile (I may need my car at work) and this takes a between 2 and 3 minutes maximum - this has NEVER been shown as anything less than 6 and sometimes up to 9 minutes - not a biggie but a glaring inaccuracy to me which does not fill you with confidence. Then there is the braking - my car is an automatic vehicle - the system does not seem to be able to cope with this and short journeys - at one point my breaking score had fallen to zero! - yet speeding and acceleration was 100.......how can that realistically be - in a 30 mph limit most of the time. I have experimented and now have a score of 77 - this has been done by making sure I do a long journey a week (this really bumps it up) - it seems it is not just braking but erratic braking - i.e. if you do short journeys with frequent braking (downhill with 2 traffic lights as mine is) then this does not add up! So I now make sure Iget a long journey in and try not to brake at all on the daily journey in (ridiculous - but it works!) I will definitely have it removed at the end of the term - and advise anyone that the system is NOT fit for purpose indeed misleads....”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“Absolute JOKE as I've had the black box for a week and already went down 10 points for breaking??????? Next time a cyclist cuts infront of me I wont break ill just run them over :):)”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“After a few days of taking out insurance with Hastings smartmiles I decided to read through the reviews online of how easy it is to fit the black box etc. After reading through just the first page of reviews (which were all terrible!!) I decided to cancel my policy as I was still within my 14 day Right to Cancel period. I was then told i will be charged a £25 cancellation fee (which i was never told when i took out the insurance) and that they couldn't give me an exact figure over the phone of how much i will be refunded and i will receive a letter within 14 days. The whole company is a scam which is why they charge so little at first to draw customers in (especially young drivers) and then charge you much more throughout the year. I am just grateful that i noticed the reviews just 4 days into my policy. I would rather pay the extra couple of hundred pound to know that i am with a legit insurer who wont scam me out of loads of money!”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Overall scores went up. Average score went down to understand 40???”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Do not buy the box it is faulty. My son had a previous box with another company for a year and averaged 80% which is considered excellent driving. He took out Hastings smart miles 6 months ago and within a couple of weeks he had a warning that he'd dropped below 40 points. We complained to the company and suddenly his score went up although the individual scores stayed the same. Last week his individual scores - acceleration., speed, braking and time of day all went up but his overall score dropped fromy 50 to 38. So his policy will be cancelled. It cofirms the boxes must be faulty. How is this company allowed to get away with ripping youngsters off?”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“I completely agree with everyone who has posted about this company. The Telematics box is very erratic and sensitive to braking and acceleration. I was not made aware that if the score drops below 40 then they can cancel the policy and charge £240!! This was not made clear when I took out the policy. This is a significant feature of the policy and should be brought to the attention to customers at the outset. I have received an email stating that my score is below that if the score stays below 40 after another 200 miles then the policy will cancelled. I have raised a complaint and have every intention of taking my complaint to the Insurance Ombudsman. Some advice, yesterday I drove the car on a motorway for about 20 miles ,it's only a 1.0 Peugeot so not really a motorway car anyway the score went upto to 43 almost immediately afterwards. I am sure the score will drop once I start driving on normal roads where you have to accelerate and brake according to traffic situations. So I suppose motorway driving is the answer to keep your scores up. Certainly not ideal but seems a way to deal with this underhand insurer!”

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Posted 7 years ago

“PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT INSURE WITH THIS COMPANY AND GO THROUGH A TOTAL SCAM WHICH I HAVE GONE THROUGH AND WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE BY THESE REVIEWS 90% OF EVERYONE THAT HAS LEFT A REVIEW!! Injusticely taking money! Lies after lies! By the looks of it they must make up scenarios that they throw at different people to cancel insurance and get even more money off of you! I have never in my whole life recieved not only the worst customer service but pure lack of untrained staff and people with no manners by every single person that I have spoken to. Just absolutely disgusting. I have got full proof of how injusticely I have been treated and I am taking this to the ombudsman, I advise anybody who has been treated extremely poorly by this company to follow these steps also. This company needs to get shut down by trading standards, it is truly disgusting how they can get away with all of these scams & fraudulently taking people's money by making stuff up, lying, cancelling insurance to get extra money (without notifying you) adding on ridiculous premiums for 'excuse my French' ... Bullshit!! PLEASE DO NOT GO WITH THIS COMPANY!!! STAY AWAY!!!”

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Posted 7 years ago

“This should be a 0 star, I agree with all other negative reviews that it’s essentially a scam. It’s cheap so they draw you in and then you have to pay a bunch of fees after they cancel your insurance for reasons that make no sense, such as the curfew of 10pm - 6am, in which I rarely do, but apparently 50% of my journeys are in this time period. Even if you look at the better reviews with 4 stars or so, they still state that the black box is a bit sensitive, which it is. Very sensitive, it’s ridiculous. I suggest you read all reviews and see why you shouldn’t use this stupid company.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“If there was a zero rating this would sum up this company, the box is fraudulent, they scam young drivers out of hundreds of pounds and you are forced to cancel before they do, warning do not insure with this scam company”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

“Absolutely disgraceful company, had nothing but problems with them for a year. When I took out the insurance I got it 3 weeks in advance, which the website allowed me to do. I then receive several emails (no letters, phonecalls, etc) telling me they are cancelling my insurance because I have not had the box fitted. After several calls with unhelpful staff telling them I do not own the car yet they eventually rescheduled and I got the box fitted. Straight away the braking score went down to about 30 out of 100 and remained there for the entire year I had the insurance. My mum and dad are both insured under this policy and both drove it regularly, neither of them being able to get the score up. I rang Hastings to discuss the braking score and was told not to use my brakes in traffic. Very helpful! I also realised soon after getting the box fitted that it has a curfew on it despite Hastings repeatedly stating to me on the phone and on their website that there is no curfew. They told me I would have to pay cancellation charges so I suffered through for a year and rang them telling them I do not want the policy renewed as I had read many reviews from people saying Hastings automatically renewed their insurance. Despite me telling Hastings this, I receive an email (again, no letters telling me my insurance is coming to an end, not even an email!) telling me they have automatically renewed my policy (I received this email a hour after their phone lines closed to boot!). Fat waste of time that is as I recently had a seizure and cannot even drive the car now for six months, so in the midst of spending time in the hospital having scans and tests I am now having to ring Hastings to cancel this insurance. Absolute nightmare of a company, extremely incompetent. I find it hard to believe they are still in business. I have written multiple negative reviews and sent various emails throughout the year and have not had a reply to any of these. They are a nightmare to call as you spend a ridiculous amount of time on hold only to speak to rude and unhelpful staff. Would not recommend this company to anyone and I have told everyone I know to stay well away. They are the cheapest for a reason.”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Worst insurance company EVER! Cancelled my policy because I was 1 point under the expected point of 40. Only received an email to say they had cancelled it. I am a typical 19 year old who doesn't even use emails so I was driving around for 2 days with no insurance and did not realise. When speaking to an employee on the phone to discuss my score I was disgusted with the service by the employee speaking over me in a aggressive manor. My score was down due to "harsh braking" I explained that I live in the countryside and this means driving through 20-30 minutes worth of very narrow country lanes with blind corners but this didn't seem matter. I was told to drive slower but It wouldn't matter if I drove 5mph in the lanes as if you approach someone who is going 20-30 you still have to stop straight away. Absolute joke of an insurance company I would not recommend to my worst enemy. Now I have a new car insurance which is costing me £150 a month and is the only company that will insure me for less than £3000 a year as I now have a cancelled insurance on my policy. Also they have a 10pm-5am curfew which is ridiculous. Honestly can't stress enough to how much I wouldn't want anyone to insure their cars with this company.”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Absolutely have no faith in the accuracy of the Telemetrics Box. Why ? A few days ago the car was moved on my driveway literally by a few feet just to allow some more room at the side of the car. Telematics recorded this as a one mile journey....”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Do not insure with this company it’s a total rip off and has given me nothing but trouble WARNING DO NOT USE”

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(Car Insurance) - Posted 7 years ago

“Shocking service, refusal to renew policy with no valid reason even though I have been a loyal customer and never had to make a claim. Promise to call back and never do, they also cut the phone off mid conversation.”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Absolute joke!!! My son's breaking score has never left 0 and now, after 10 months they have conveniently decided that his score is under 40 and will cancell his policy. It almost smacks of a scam!! Now having to pay £200 to have the telematics box removed!! DO NOT SIGN UP!!!!”

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Posted 7 years ago

Hastings Direct Smart Miles is rated 3.3 based on 2,006 reviews