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Hastings Direct Smart Miles Reviews

3.3 Rating 1,960 Reviews

57 %

of reviewers recommend Hastings Direct Smart Miles

Company Reviews

Product Reviews

3.3

Based on 1,960 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 5 star review on 29th September 2023

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

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

“Terrible service ! If you're a new driver DO NOT go with this company. Only had the insurance for a week with the telematics system , this was my 2nd year of driving biut 1st year with this company. My review system kept marking my braking as very bad eventho I was doing it very carefully. Called up 3 times about the fact it must be faulty in some way and all I was told is " the system is very accurate and you need to change how you drive " the previous year with my old company I was marked as a top driver at about 95/100. Ended up cancelling as I was being threatened with emails saying if my score lowers they will just cancel my policy automatically. For a black box system with supposed "very accurate telematics "there seems to be many reviews saying otherwise !!!”

Posted 1 year ago

“Terrible customer service - in fact the worst I've received from any company for any product! They decided to cancel my car insurance on the basis that I wasn't driving the car enough. They warned us that this was going to happen (via email) and my son responded to that email. Hastings Direct now say that replying to that email was incorrect - because they don't monitor that mailbox. The issue is that there was nothing about their senders address, or anything in the email body that said they would ignore our emails. Worse still, they claim that we received an automated 'bounce' email. That is not true. I asked for a copy of the bounce email - and not surprisingly they can't. In short they are a bunch of liars - and I will never darken their door again.”

Posted 1 year ago

“Breaking because of hazards Infront of you gets you marked down. Accelerating on a roundabout gets you marked down. Breaking at a zebra crossing gets you marked down unless you brake 5 minutes before hand and come to a crawl before stopping. Utter nonsense. Hard breaking saves lives and this app wants you to think that you're doing something wrong. I'd rather hard break a hundred times and avoid a crash or a death but the app seems to not ever want you to break in a dangerous situation. The app seems to think that other people and cars don't exist on the road so even if another driver causes you to break it's still your fault. App hasn't been recording my data for days now and judging by the reviews this is going to be my problem very soon, regardless of whether their app or black box is in the wrong. Absolute con.”

Posted 2 years ago

“The most sensitive black box in the world. Put the brakes on at a red light or someone pulling out on you and you're screwed. Sometimes I can get a perfect score then the next trip has like 5 moments of acceleration and 3 heavy braking issues for the same journey driving exactly the same! I wish I NEVER went for this Policy but it was my cheapest option at half the price of other policys. Now I see why. Terrible company If i get any threats of cancelling my policy I will be going to the financial ombudsman!”

Posted 2 years ago

“Awful just had my driving policy cancelled , had the device fitted from the day it was sent out Recieved email saying that it has not been recieving data back to Hastings , I checked the app and resolved the issue 2 days later my policy has been cancelled”

Posted 2 years ago

“Appalling. Awful customer service and I had anxiety from the second I fitted it due to the emails threatening to cancel. Avoid!!”

Posted 2 years ago

“Awful. Recieved an email warning about not recording my driving data. Kept my bluetooth in constantly and still no data recorded. Wasnt aware of this. Cancelled my insurance via email. Phoned them to enquire, they said it was my fault even though it was there technology that was faulty. Kept all the money for the policy. Reporting to financial ombudsman.”

Posted 2 years ago

“A note for any driver who gets the letter of cancellation, call them and cancel the policy yourself this then shouldn't affect any new policy. insured my daughters car with these, after 2 weeks got a letter stating low score and policy will be cancelled. Very strange has she had a perfect 12 months with Direct Line. Even more strange I own a telematics company and have a separate telematics system fitted to her car to record everything that Hastings telematics box is supposed to. on the information i have it shows completely different to Hastings which is a poor quality product with a value of probably £5.00. If your phone is connected to your in vehicle handsfree for use of car Play or Android Auto and is being used for maybe music streaming or just handsfree connection this product marks you down. Anyway good luck to anyone who uses them, have cancelled the policy with them..and moved on....”

Posted 2 years ago

“Hastings you are one big con. My car has been off the road until today when I took it out for a short drive. Firstly I was stuck behind some muppet in a Audi A3 doing 20 everywhere secondly I drive how I always drive like the first day of using the app you were saying I was a excellent driver and now my score is low and you may cancel my policy. I emailed you in the beginning because the original quote on moneysupermarket.com did not state you have to have this black box and you have lied by photo shopping a picture to show you did advertise the black box in the quote. Bunch of crooks avoid all insurance companies are a rip off anyway welcome to the UK but these crooks are probably owned by the government con artists”

Posted 2 years ago

“Inaccurate reporting! First week or two, I was sat at a constant 85, despite getting all ‘perfect’ drives, it wouldn’t go above 85. Intermittent recording data. Apparently the car hasn’t moved all last week, yet I went to work and back for four shifts. I’ve rang up to enquire about supposed ‘phone use’ even tho the car has CarPlay on it so I can control a lot of functions with the touchscreen or my voice yet the system constantly marks me down for ‘phone use’ Now my overall Average has dropped to 67, yet the car has not moved all week due to having a puncture and not finding the locking wheel nut. It’s just making it up as it goes along. I think I will have a rethink and maybe pay a little more in the way of premium than to have this inaccurate spy in the car.”

Posted 2 years ago

“Pathetic how they score you down for hard braking, what if a child runs out ??? Don’t hard brake then you hit a child, absolutely pathetic I’ve only had the thing active for 5 days and currently on score 13, they said it started at 100 but I never saw it above 29, already had threats of it being cancelled, well go ahead because it’s pathetic it’s just a crafty way of them getting you to switch to them. It shouldn’t be allowed”

Posted 2 years ago

“Every 4 from 5 trips are ¨Recored without phone present¨and information for the trip is missing. Always everything on the phone is switch on before driving - bluetooth, mobile internet, location. As a result my score go lower an lower ...”

Posted 2 years ago

“It’s just not a realistic assessment of real-life driving scores. Almost every single drive I get points deducted for Acceleration, Braking, or Cornerning. I’m not going to pretend like I’m a fantastic driver, but the deductions come from a totally unrealistic expectation of what it means to drive on the road. For example, if I’m on a roundabout with low visibility or pulling out at a junction with a blind corner further up (both of which appear on my daily commute), when I make the choice to go, it’s important to accelerate quickly - especially if a vehicle appears once in the middle of the manoeuvre. What am I supposed to do, reverse back into the car behind me? Every drive I get points deducted for this. My score only gets worse, not better. Even though I know that I’m showing a much higher degree of competency on the road. The only time I was getting a perfect score was the first few weeks on the road when I was trawling around the roads absolutely terrified and making every single choice very slowly. Even things like braking too quickly - regardless of whether you include incidents of someone braking quickly in front of you, the amount of time it wants you to take slowing down very gently is genuinely hard to achieve consistently without deduction. I would not recommend this policy to anyone ever. It’s stressful, unfair, and inaccurate. Once this policy has finished, I will not be renewing, regardless of whether or not Hastings offers the cheapest policy. It is truly not worth your money.”

Posted 2 years ago

“Poor service from Hastings Smartmiles. Black box scores never update regardless of how many hundred miles ive done. Doesnt record journeys and says car is in areas that it isnt. I was on phone to them and my car was sitting outside my house but on their system the car was parked up miles away. Ive been threatened with cancellation but because i have challenged this they have given me a week to improve my score. Currently sitting at 39 for months now, 5000 miles later and its still at 39. Insurance will be cancelled if score doesnt go to 40. No data has been updated so no idea how i can do this. The black box is either faulty or sateliette/gps not reaching box. Gives me massive anxiety now and i am sorry i ever went with this company. Think my next step is financial ombudsman as i am clearly not getting what i paid £1500 for.”

Posted 2 years ago

“Avoid Avoid Avoid”

Posted 2 years ago

“Never recommend, not helpful at all. Cancelled insurance due to the data not working, now son had to pay more for insurance and when it gets cancelled it goes against them. It's the black box not working. No fault of my son and yet he gets penalised. Wish I had read the reviews before going with Hastings Direct never again!!!!!”

Posted 2 years ago

“This is the worst insurance company! There customer service is shocking! They have cancelled my insurance because my score is 29! The box doesn’t even know what the speed limits are on the roads! It says I’m on my phone all the time why driving when I’m not! They don’t even call you to tell you your driving policy has been cancelled they just email you! And they won’t give your money back”

Posted 2 years ago

“Cancelled policy based on my drive score. I was never given a reason why my drive score was low, I am an extremely careful driver who had never had a driving penalty. I was contacted on the 23rd April by email (warning my policy would be cancelled on the 14th may). I then phoned Hastings and the lady I spoke to assured me it would not be cancelled and my score was ok, the issue was apparently with data not syncing on their side, and I was told this had been rectified. I was assured my policy would not be cancelled. I found out yesterday they had cancelled my policy without further notice, which is extremely distressing as my car is now left uninsured and Hastings have pocketed 6 months worth of money, the remainder of the policy. I phoned twice today and both times was cut off I had given them my phone number and asked them to call me back in the event of this happening, which neither person did. I would absolutely not recommended Hastings to anyone. You risk being victimised for their poor technology, their customer service is appalling and in this case handling of the case is scandalous, verging on fraudulent.”

Posted 3 years ago

“The app is intermittent at recording trips and says recorded trip but no phone present even though the phone is positioned in the same place every time The tab settings would rather you have a accident than use your brake's to avoid idiot road users that pull out on you or brake suddenly with no warning. The tab is also very sensitive to even moderate acceleration to enter a motorway for example.It's totally unrealistic and dangerous to amble onto a motorway into 70 mph traffic.”

Posted 3 years ago

“Tab only seems to work when it wants , have had problems since day one. Always e mailing to day there going to cancel my policy well go ahead as I won't be renewing it with you .”

Posted 3 years ago

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Hastings Direct Smart Miles is rated 3.3 based on 1,960 reviews