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

“Shocking shocking company steer clear of them. Young drivers being penalised a total scam!! Please please be aware DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“What can I say, we used this insurance for my 18 year old son when he past his test in March and had exactly the same experience that others have shared. Three trips after 10pm resulting in a score of 18 that would not shift and a letter saying score below 40, and 200 miles to improve. We counted our losses and moved insurer, yes it was a loss with cancellation fee of £25 and £250 for the telematics box that is simply not fit for purpose! It is shocking that they continue to get away with this, please don't waste your money, time and most importantly impact your new drivers morale. My advice stay well clear and get insured elsewhere!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Do not go with Hastings smartmiles, a complete waste of money! I'm 18 and passed my test with only two minors, very excited to get my first car I was looking at insurance prices every day! As I'm young, work two jobs and go to uni I thought Hastings would be the best company to go with, I phoned before taking my insurance out asking about the curfew as I work late 2 nights out of the week as a waitress, they said this wouldn't be an issue and I should definitely consider going with themselves! After ALOT of thinking about going with Hastings, even after reading the reviews I thought how bad could it be? Within two weeks of having my black box I received an email saying they were going to cancel my insurance if my score was below 40 after I had drove another 200 miles. I phoned and asked why as I thought I was driving to the best of my ability! I then started to look at the dashboard app every day to see what was going on! When checking the journeys it stated I had been making trips around 2-3 o'clock in the morning, and that's why my score was going down. I work 13 hour shifts as a vet nurse, the last thing I would do is come home at 9pm and then go out again at 2 in the morning! Especially to a golf course that I've never heard of or don't know where it is! After ringing nearly every other day, saying my black box was incorrect I heard the same thing over and over! 'Our telematics team are of a high standard, your black box is not faulty.' What a load of BS! So I thought it would be best to take photos of my car on my drive with the date and time. After 200 miles they told me they were cancelling my insurance in 7 days, after speaking to their head office, complaints company and management, emailing them the photos I had taken proving my car was at home when it was saying I was driving, they still continued to go ahead and cancel. On the 6 day I phoned to cancel my insurance, they then asked for £210 for the black box, £45 cancellation fee and £90 to come and remove the box, after freezing my account towards them, denying access to take the money and refusing to pay any fee, they still tried to take the money from my bank account! Do not get insured with hasting smart miles!! Worst insurance I will ever have!!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“EVERYTHING!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Worst experience of car insurance ever ....... My daughter got insured with Hastings SmartMiles first mistake !!! She has had the insurance for 6 months approx and her score has always been ok until this last month where her score has dropped below the required 40. Upon phoning up SmartMiles to enquire how we could increase her score we were told it was because she has driven after 10pm !!!!! Shock horror a 19 year old out after 10pm whatever next !!!! She then proceeded to keep the car at home after 10pm for 2 weeks no change whatsoever in her score !!! Her app states that she does 85% of her driving in the day so 15% is at night yet that equates to a '0' score on her time of day driving !!?? No one at SmartMiles could answer how these scores are arrived at ! She has now had her email to say they will cancelling her insurance in 7 days .... congratulations smartmiles you have turned a competent and confident driver into a quivering wreck scared to drive her own car ...... WORST COMPANY EVER !!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“I love to give reviews, mostly positive ones but I only give negative / constructive reviews when I strongly believe it'll help people from being scammed! There are 4 categories in which people with a Black Box are scored on: Acceleration, Breaking, Speed and Time of Day. Based on this, you then receive an overall score between 1-100, 1 being terrible and 100 being the best. How they calculate this is a total mystery as this information cannot be found anywhere. One would imagine you would add up all individual 4 scores and then divide by 4, to give you the mean average. This would be the most logical way of doing things, however this is not how it's done as my overall score is not the mean average of all 4 individual scores. In order to receive a positive score for the 'Time of Day' category, you need to avoid driving between 10pm and 5am. Since taking out my policy in January 2017, I have made 42 journeys in my car with the Black Box attached. 2 of these journeys were after 10pm, one began at 10.25pm and lasted 43 minutes, the other started at 9.33pm and lasted 45 minutes so went past the 10pm 'watershed' by 18 minutes. Because of these two journeys, my score is 29/100 and hasn't moved up despite it being 1 month since the 9.33pm journey, and with lots of 'good' journeys being made over the past 1 month. I phoned Hastings Direct to try and make sense of this; I was convinced the Black Box must be faulty, as less than 5% of my journeys were in the time deemed to be bad for driving, yet I've been scored 29% (29 out of 100) for my 'Time of Day' score. I was told the Black Box isn't faulty, and that I just need to keep driving from 10am - 5pm as much as possible to increase my score. I explained to the Customer Service Advisor that I have - as he could see in front of him - made lots of 'good' journeys between 10am and 5pm, yet my score hasn't gone up. He didn't really know what to say here, so he re-iterated the fact that I need to keep driving between 10am and 5pm and the score will go up. I asked whether this change would happen over days, weeks, months or years, and he had no idea. The Customer Service Advisor was completely useless and came up with a half-hearted explanation that because 2 of the 42 drives I had done so far were in the wrong time period, my score is low. I pointed out the maths - 2 out of 42 is less than 5%, yet I've been given 29% for my Time of Day score rather than 95% which would be accurate and representative (if you do the maths, 100% - 5% = 95%). He went on to explain that he doesn't know how the scoring system works as the data collection is done by a third company, so he wouldn't be able to tell me the specifics. I asked him if there was some kind of report / logical explanation available for me to read, so I can get a better understanding of how scores go up and down, and he said he can ask their third party company but he knows they will not have this information, nor provide me with it. As you can see from this review, the Black Box is absolutely soul destroying. It saved me over £100, but has taken away the sheer pleasure of driving. Now I know how rubbish this company is, from it's mediocre, uneducated explanations of driving scores, to - frankly - stupid scoring system, to making you feel like you're a rubbish driver (only so they can falsely justify not giving you a discount upon renewal, yet they've taken your money for a year anyway, so they definitely win) I would highly recommend not being greedy and foolish when considering this cheap, rubbish car insurance scam and find yourself a better deal, even if it does mean paying a little more money, don't go down this soul destroying route of getting rubbish service from Hastings Direct SmartMiles.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Went out after 10pm once and my time of day rating went to 0, while everything else was in the 90's.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Impossible to achieve the standard of driving that their black box expects, even after having both of my parents who have 50+ of driving experience between them and the driving score never changed. They also recorded that I had been involved in a multi vehicle pile up which sent my renewal quote through the roof when this in fact had never happened. I have just been on the phone to customer services as £213 had been taken from my account after I had cancelled my policy last month, I had received my cancellation letter but the staff at smart miles had not sent this cancellation through to the company that collects the direct debits resulting in me now being in my overdraft and now have to wait for this to be refunded which I'm sure I will end up chasing as I have no faith in the company or its employees. Would advise all drivers to steer clear of Hastings Smart Miles as they are the worst company I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with, their customer service is poor and the way the company is run is terrible.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Would avoid this company. Passed my test last year and thought I was getting a good deal by getting the box fitted. My score for braking went to 0 within 2 months of having the box fitted. Your not allowed to drive after 10pm. I got an email saying they were cancelling my insurance as my score was below 40. It would be £210 for the box and £45 cancellation fee that I had to pay even though they were cancelling it. I phoned them and they said it's best if you cancel it yourself so you wouldn't have to declare it for new insurance. So I did then I asked when they will come out to remove the box and then they said oh that will be an extra £90 to get it removed. This company is a con!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Looks like the same as everybody else on the forum, scoring system flawed and when you speak with customer service they have no idea what is wrong. have emailed them today with an official complaint but I have no real hopes of resolving the issue. have threatened to cancel policy because they claim score is less than 40, however the current score is 40 which is not less than ! Bullies !”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“If there was an option to select 0 out of 5 stars I would have selected it. This car insurance is terrible! I would not advise anyone at all to go with this company. I really wish I had read the reviews before hand. After reading reviews online, I noticed that there were no positive feedback, all negative! I am 21, and I recently passed my driving test so was drawn to this company as it seems afforadble with a black box. The policy is mis leading as it states that you can drive at whatever time of the day you like, but avoid driving regularly between the times of 10pm -5am. It seems that their scoring system regarding the black box only monitors the time of day you drive. Now as young drivers you don't want to be restricted to when you can go out! Over all, their black box is a sham! It takes ages to build your score up, and it makes you feel like you're a bad driver as it is impossible to drive how they expect. I feel as if this company is a big scam! I cancelled my policy within 4 months as it was too stressful. I am now with admiral.. I totally recommend this company. They are also really good if you have parents that have them as insurers as you can be added onto a package with a decent price without a black box!! Hope this helps!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Please please please do not be fooled into taken insurance with this company , it is impossible to drive in the manner they expect to keep your score above 40 . There telematics boxes are flawed and I am in the process of registering a complaint with the insurance ombudsman. You will get very little if no help from there patronising customer service staff who just repeat its the way you drive. You have been warned .”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“I have been using the company for 3 months now, and the braking and the acceleration don't even pick up have done 2000 miles and still doesn't work have called lots of times but they say it's the way I'm driving but if I was that bad I would have crashed by now my insurance is through the roof but now when I do quotes on their website i can't even get a quote leaving as soon as I can not happy at all and am cancelling asap”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“This company is the worst company EVER for car insurance and they are scamming the young, inexperienced drivers. My daughter took out their insurance 2 months ago and is having to cancel it as she cannot increase her score to the required target. The telemetry is WRONG- my husband has 35 years driving experience and has driven the car for the last week and the score still hasn't changed. The staff you have to deal with are shocking and by the time we are finished with it, we will be several hundred pounds lighter! The kids have it hard enough as it is with the cost of insurance and this just adds insult to injury. I cannot believe they are still trading and will be writing to Watchdog as soon as I have finished writing this review. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Cheap insurance for my second year but not worth it. Wish I'd read the reviews and just paid more money! My acceleration score has never been more than 25 since the day I had the box fitted despite driving ridiculously slowly up hills and pulling away in order to make the score go up and yet nothing changed. I contacted the company for advice and was sent a generic email stating that they cannot share that information. Time of day is also down because I drove after 10pm about a month ago, my score has barely increased despite having not driven it AT ALL outside of curfew. The feedback doesn't actually tell you how to improve and the staff are not helpful at all, wish I'd never taken out a policy with them. Might have to see if I can afford to move to another insurer. RUBBISH.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Very inaccurate scoring. Money making scam.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“My 19 year olds daughter has just had her policy cancelled for having 39 points (below their 40) Her speed and acceleration are above both above 90 but she has 0 for the time of day and 15 for braking. She was then really careful with her braking but apparently didn't drive enough to improve her score! How they expect the car not to be driven after 10 is beyond me. At no time was this made clear when taking out the policy. Given 7 days to improve her score she was frightened to drive the car. Only when I rang was I told that if she didn't drive after 10.00pm that would improve her score and she would be fine. Wish I had read the reviews before taking out this policy.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“The mechanism for calculating the driver rating is completely floored. My Son has been an excellent driver and this is 2nd Year of insurance. No issues at all with Coop insurance and the telematics box yet with Hastings absolutely ridiculous. Tried to talker the the rationale with customer services and only answer I got was a patronising 'This is how telematics works madam' I would not recommend this service for any you driver. Cancelling the policy and returning to Coop”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“We took out this policy because of the price... BIG MISTAKE. I am a Grade A instructor of 30 years experience and even my driving would not add points to the pitiful 30 that they put my Daughter down to for her braking ! We were told to install the box 9 days before the start date of her insurance, which we did, but did not expect them to penalise her before the policy came into effect! The result of this is that she was afraid to brake, and this is supposed to promote good, safe driving ?? We have cancelled the policy ( be aware your 14 days notice of cancellation begins when you install the box NOT when the policy starts). We were charged £25 to cancel and told the telematics ( black box ) was non refundable, total cost for just 3 days insurance was just over £225. Total Ripoff !! Reading the reviews on here I am convinced these boxes are faulty and intend to follow this up. In the meantime tell everyone you know about these scammers, I am telling all my pupils. One had a narrow escape, as his parents were just about to book with this company.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Highway robbery !!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

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