Hastings Direct Smart Miles Reviews

Name: Hastings Direct Smart Miles
Rating: 3.30

3.3 Rating 1,998 Reviews

56 %

of reviewers recommend Hastings Direct Smart Miles

3.3

Based on 1,998 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

“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....”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 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”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 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.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 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”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 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 ...”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 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.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 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.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Avoid Avoid Avoid”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 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!!!!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 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”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 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.”

Helpful Report

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.”

Helpful Report

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 .”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“I had the black box for the first year which marked me down and didn’t go back up after I’d focussed on improving the way I drove. After a year they then said I don’t need a black box, this was fine until I purchased a new car this week and they’ve said that for the same price they’re sending me another box which was NOT part of the policy I paid for.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I got hasting on the 6th of March; around 2 weeks after I was notified that my driving score was low and my insurance may be cancelled. I started watching my driving curves, accelerations, braking etc. In the past two weeks my score is around 85 and overall is 52. I was well chuffed; but just today I got an email informing that my policy is being cancelled because my score is below 0. I have checked my app everyday in the last few weeks and not once my score my been low - still the overall score is above 52 and last 2 weeks score is over 50. Not sure what to do now as they are closed - I have to drop my son to school at 8:30 am and my insurance is cancelled at midnight.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“The customer service at Hastings Smart Miles is shocking. Being a new driver, blackbox insurance was on the cheaper end at £1300 for the year. Having spent such a large amount of money you would expect their data and black box to be accurate with regards to speed limits on roads. My speed score dropped to zero within the first week of driving, even though I drove below the speed limit all the time. I rung them up to enquire how this was possible given I was not speeding. This was the first time I rung them. The third time i rung I was told that I should just stick to the speed limit, not drive above or below it??? How is it possible to ensure I do not drive below the speed limit when I cannot influence how other people drive? Another month went by, and my speed score did not increase from 0. I was sent email saying that my insurance would be cancelled if i did not improve my score within a two week period. Again having stuck to the speed limit. I called to enquire again and was told they could offer me data from my last three "speeding" offences. These were two roads that had a national speedlimit. This was just for three speeding offences. I informed them that I would like to see that data from all my "speeding" offences which took two weeks to arrive. I had to manually enter all the data points into google maps which were all on the same two roads. It transpired that THEY had the incorrect speed limit for these two roads. So every time I exceeded 30mph on these two roads I got a speeding offence. Considering this was not my fault, i find it shocking that I was not offered any kind of compensation, such as an increase in my speed score as all of the data they had was incorrect. They would also not take back the warning they sent to me via email. I would not recommend this company to any new driver. Why should I have to inform them of the speed limits in my area? It leaves me with little confidence that any of their other data collection methods are accurate, when they cannot even have accurate data for speed limits on roads.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello there, I apologise for any problems you've experienced with this policy, we are unable to comment on the error seen with the road speeds however we recommend calling our SmartMiles team on 01733 308 380 so they can assist and resolve this with yourself. ~Freddy

Posted 4 years ago

“Been with them for a year, score was 90 for months and months. Final month just around the corner and it drops down to 74. Nothing changed, still drove the exact same way and then for the final month I was going to try and get it back up, andddd they logged me out of my app and emailed me with a renewal quote and locked my score at 74. Wouldn’t recommend, seems a bit shady. They also had no idea what locking wheel nuts, bucket seats, coilovers or a back box are, when I asked on multiple accounts with different people.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello there, I'm very sorry you feel this way and I appreciate your frustration. If you would like to discuss your score and how to maintain it please call the SmartMiles team on 01733 308 380. ~Freddy

Posted 4 years ago

“We had a brand new box delivered and so as a parent I drove a 40 minute round trip left the house at 10 am and returned well within the time limit and yet only scored 90 for time of day?? I was under the speed limit at all times to the point that lorries were passing me by and yet my speed still came out at 40! I feel that this box is horrendous and how anyone can score within the recommended scores is impossible.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello there, I'm very sorry for any confusion caused by your Driving Score. If you would like to discuss how to improve this score and how we measure it please call us on 01733 308 380. ~Freddy

Posted 4 years ago

“This has got to be the worst company I’ve ever been insure with. I moved area to be closer to my partner and they added a fee of £1062. I cancelled my policy as I pay monthly and the amount of interested added on to the monthly fee was ridiculous. I then revived and email telling me I was due a refund of £897.82 and it would be in my account but the next 14 days. After the allocated two weeks I revived another email telling me that I owed Hastings money. I called too see what had gone on and spoke to 3 people I was told by one of the employees that she couldn’t help me, once I was transferred the second employee rudely ended the phone call and once I rang Hastings back I spoke to a man who was quite rude to me. After he put me on hold for 40 minutes he told me there was nothing he could do to help me. I asked him to transfer me through to someone who could help me, he just said no and that he has told me everything that I need to know . The day after I received a text from Hastings asking me to call them . Once I was on the phone they decided to tell me I owe them £277 even though the first agreed refund figure was £897.82 and the second email I received said that I had an outstanding balance of £168. Even though my bill for this month has been paid. I have been getting absolutely hounded for the money that they claim I owe them yet when I had a problem the other day it was so difficult to speak to them and they didn’t want to know. They’ve demanded a full some of money even though I’ve told them that I can’t afford it as my other bills have gone out already and I’m not left with very much; they have absolutely no compassion and are constantly demanding money off me. The absolute worse insurance company. The way I’ve been treated and spoken to is disgusting. I will never be using them ever again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello there, I am very sorry to hear this and I apologise for any distress caused by this situation. So that we can rectify this please call our SmartMiles team on 01733 308 380. ~Freddy

Posted 4 years ago

“This is the worst insurance company I have ever encountered. The black box is a scam which is quick to deduct points from your score but hardly ever improve your score, no matter what you do. My score was 36 somehow and it needs to be 40 and they have now cancelled my policy because of 4 points, and given me a week to find a whole new policy. STEER CLEAR OF HIS SHODDY COMPANY WITH THEIR SHODDY BLACKBOX.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Agnes, I'm very sorry you feel this way. If you would like advice on how to improve your score or discuss your policy, please call on 01733 308 380. ~Freddy

Posted 4 years ago

Hastings Direct Smart Miles is rated 3.3 based on 1,998 reviews