Hastings Direct Smart Miles Reviews

Name: Hastings Direct Smart Miles
Rating: 3.29

3.3 Rating 2,005 Reviews

56 %

of reviewers recommend Hastings Direct Smart Miles

3.3

Based on 2,005 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 3 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“Telematics Hastings. Having bread many of the comments below I understand most of them and agree with them. Firstly I have 40 years plus of driving experience but I decided to cancel my trade insurance and get a private insurance. I had one no fault accident, my insurance has gone through the roof from £950 pounds to £3,200. This was unbelievable. I then searched online very more competitive rate as a private driver and the best I got was £1800. Hastings offered £1150 with telematics. The initial setup and use was a bit confusing because they demand that you leave your bluetooth on permanently. I still unable to work out whether I have to sign in to my account on the app also when driving as the app logs me out frequently. I log in before I start my journey leaving the Bluetooth on as well while the phone is in the cradle. My points are high 93. When I first started using the app I had an incident where I was advised my braking was hard, this was incorrect. I was driving down the usual country lane with many pullings to allow other traffic to come by thus having to use the brakes frequently many blind spots but without breaking hard merely pulling over at least 12 times on this country lane. This resulted in the notification hard breaking. Road such as this will not provide a good score I believe and cause anxiety. Using a telematics one has to drive like a complete learner at the slowest possible pace. You've heard of Sunday drivers this is the way they want you to drive. The roads in our region in Suffolk I disgusting especially country lions the entire country need to improve its infrastructure this adds further anxiety when driving. The condition of the roads are a major factor I believe in causing errors especially breaking. The app forces you to keep exactly within the speed limits while crawling around corners causing frustration to other drivers behind you and I have noticed several drivers becoming frustrated and I don't blame them. I will be putting a little sign in the back of my vehicle stating Hastings black box. This black box puts you on edge and de-focuses you in many ways from normal driving. As when people failed their test you can be over cautious and the app causes you to be so consistently. When I get my insurance reduced over the next year or so I will not be using these black boxes anymore. They are an unrealistic requirement causing anxiety, frustration by other drivers, including loss of general focus on the road as one continues endlessly to look at signage making sure speed limits are not broken which causes lack of focus on the road including breaking where you have to break so far ahead in order to avoid hard breaking notifications which is not a normal course of driving. I have no idea of my insurance will come down in cost but I will battle on for the next year that I will avoid this black box in the future.”

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Posted 4 weeks ago

“Just cancelled ours after 1 month and taking a £1000 from us As box shows phone usage - you are not allowed they say to change your music or use google maps !! Happy to sell insurance on a 58 plate fiesta which doesn’t have Bluetooth or steering controls Do I need to return this accurate highly engineered box back ? No just throw it away - a tin of sardines would be more accurate This box can track your braking cornering acceleration and touching the screen of your phone Scam”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Ive only been using the app and tab since March 2021. It marked me down three times for speeding on a 30mph road, as it thinks its 20mph in places. I have tried disputing it and had an email requesting details and have heard nothing since. I also got marked diwn for accelerating 7 miles in 2.5 seconds! If it wasnt the cheapest (Im on a very low budget) I'd change as it is really making me anxious when driving. I usually have friends or family with me when driving and they think irs a joke. It is so frustrating.”

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Posted 4 years ago

“Everything is 90+ but time of day is glued stuck at 0 and it won’t change no matter how long I drive during the acceptable hours. I drove down and back from my Mums (3hr journey) and still didnt increased. I ain’t got a scooby”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hello Thomas, I apologise for any inconvenience caused by this, so we can look into this for you and advise on how to improve this score please call our centre on 01733 308 380. ~Freddy

Posted 4 years ago

“I'm 48, I have always driven very carefully and never had an accident. But was without a car for many years so got this black box thing as had no no claims. The thing is insanely sensitive. Totally safe braking can give you a fault, normal acceleration gives a fault. Many times this penalised driving to avoid risk. Wouldn't recommend if you have any other options.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello there, I apologise you feel this way, to find out how to improve your score please call our SmartMiles team on 01733 308 380. ~Freddy

Posted 4 years ago

“I'm new to Hastings Direct youngdriver insurance. So far I haven't experienced anything terrible with them. My insurance was reasonable price, the app is easy to use and it updates quite quickly. Only frustrating thing is the first day I installed the blackbox I had to drive to pick my partner up which is a couple miles out of my town. The national speed limit applies in most areas but I always do around 55mph as we have a lot of pot holes and road works and in some areas its 40 or 30. I lost points from braking as there is a lot of road works to begin with and there was police and ambulances speeding through the cars which meant I had to slow down and brake quickly otherwise if I continued it would of caused an accident. The second thing to happen was I was in a village called edgcott it is a 30mph zone. I don't do this speed as it has loads of sharp bends so I done maximum of 25mph. A dog walker decided to walk out on a blind bend which also meant I had to slam my brakes otherwise I would of hit him. He did apologise as he knew crossing there was dangerous but apologies don't change my score. In the same area a DPD van reversed out of a garden into oncoming traffic which affected my braking score too. I'm good at braking, its one thing I feel comfortable with and one thing my instructor complimented me on (believe it or not) but its just sad that other people actions can and will affect your driving daily which will affect your score.”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hello Eve, I apologise for any frustration this may have caused, we understand there may be some exceptions to our driving rules however we do need to take into consideration these braking instances. If you would like to discuss this further please call our SmartMiles team on 01733 308 380. ~Freddy

Posted 4 years ago

“My acceleration score has remained 37 for a couple of months, i have been consciously accelerating very carefully and slowly & my score won’t go down. Also my time of day score has been 55 for a few weeks and I haven’t driven between 10pm & 5 am once in this time. Why isn’t my score going up and how can I improve this please?”

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Posted 5 years ago

Hi Alex, I'm sorry if that's the case. We do have a team dedicated to helping you improve your score and you can reach them by calling 0333 999 8372, they'll be happy to assist. ~Elle

Posted 5 years ago

“Put the box in myself around a week ago been looking at the app on a daily basis and recently noticed that the braking score is going down randomly by either 1 or 3. I don't feel as though I am doing anything to make this happen but it just won't stop going down, went for around a 3 mintue drive to find it had drooped by 1 again hopefully it will sort itself out as I am driving with atleast 6 seconds behind another car just so my braking is good”

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Posted 5 years ago

Hello there, Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry to see your braking score is dropping. Your box collates data through G-force so any harsh or late braking can make your score go down. We do have a team that can go through your scores with you and give the hints and tips on how to improve your score. The team can be reached on 0333 999 8372. ~Jamie

Posted 5 years ago

“Good but needs improvement,my scores are fairly reasonable and have not dropped badly like some people’s on here but when your score has dropped (my acceleration is 94 and braking 90) it’s near impossible to get your scores back up. I have to pull out on an extremely busy road Every time I get in my car which is also on a hill meaning I have to put my foot down but clearly get penalised for it even though it would be rather dangerous to pull out slowly and as for braking I always give myself enough time to stop and the only time I’ve had to brake a bit harder is at the fault of other drivers yet it looks bad on my score. Smart miles need to make it easier for you to get your scores back up as it isn’t fair.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

Hello Chloe, Thanks for taking the time to feed that back to us, we've passed this on to our development team to make sure they are aware of this. For future reference, if you do have any questions around your score and you need to get in contact with us, our first response team will be happy to help and you can contact us on 0333 999 8372. ~Ethan.

Posted 5 years ago

“Spoke to Hastings before taking out policy for my daughter. Explained that she does work until 10pm twice a week, but only 1 mile from home. The guy told me that they understand people have jobs, but if she drives more during the day it will counteract this. After a 27 mile trip today, her time of day does not seem to be improving. How many miles do we have to drive. Feel like I’ve been misold this policy. Any advice???”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

Hello Jo, I'm sorry to hear you feel this way and I do understand the frustration this can cause. Your scores will update every 60 miles and we do have a specific team designed to help you improve your score and they will be able to inform you of the best ways to do so. If you'd like to discuss this further, you can contact our first response team on 0333 999 8372. We'll do all we can to help. ~Ethan.

Posted 5 years ago

“Really good company only downfall is it update every 60 miles you drive and you go out once past 10pm it gives you 0 on time of day”

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Posted 5 years ago

Hello, Thank you for your feedback regarding the amount of time before an update in score appears on the app. This was put in place as to give drivers a reasonable amount of time to improve their driving scores so if it isn't working the team will be interested to look into this. Hastings Smart Miles does advise before the policy is purchased that driving at certain times is a measuring parameter and driving between 10 pm and 5 am can negatively impact the score. I do apologise if this information was missed ~Theo

Posted 5 years ago

“Great service, was poor in regards to waiting time on the phone - don't mind holding however there is no indication of how long you have to hold for”

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Posted 7 years ago

Hi, I do apologise for the lengthy waiting time. We are currently looking at upgrading our telephony system so that we are able to inform approx. wait and number in the queue, so your feedback is very much appreciated. ~Connor

Posted 5 years ago

“Actually inform customers of the things that make up the insurance policy apon renewal.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“It was alright, very average and can't change the policy online which sucks”

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Posted 6 years ago

Hi there,Thank you for your review, I'm sorry to see you are unable to make amendments to your policy online. This is something that we are looking into but do appreciate that it can be frustrating having to speak with an advisor to carry out changes.~ Jamie

Posted 5 years ago

“Tried several times to use live chat kept saying they were busy”

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Posted 8 years ago

Hi, Our LiveChat team isn't available on the SmartMiles site yet - only our Hastings Direct products are available but we're working on it ~Joe?

Posted 5 years ago

“The box points system does not work after 3 phone calls highlighying the failure it remained the same and would never change...”

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Posted 7 years ago

Hi Zoe, Sorry to see you feel the box isn't what you expected. We are more than happy to explain how it works and also how we use the data to generate your scores. Just give us a call anytime on?01733 308 380 ~joe?

Posted 5 years ago

“I went for a quote directly through their website but couldn't seem to opt out of getting a professionally installed blackbox. I rang the hotline but the person I spoke to couldn't opt me out without running a new quote, which he said would be more expensive due to fluctuations in the market. I asked if he could give me my current quote minus ?35 for self-installing the box but he said there was nothing he could do. I went to confused.com to get myself a new quote. This turned out to be cheaper.”

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Posted 8 years ago

Hi,? Thank you for letting us know how you found the quote journey and a challenge that you found during it. We're looking at how to ensure customers can always access the type of cover they want easily ~Joe

Posted 5 years ago

“Service was great smart miles arrived and is working but giving me low scores for driving between 10pm and 5am unfortunately I am a hgv driver I start at 4am and have to drive 16 miles to work so what can I do also I'm 54 not a young driver it's bizarre”

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Posted 8 years ago

Hi,? Thanks for providing your feedback and review. I'm sorry, this product is not suitable for those who need to drive frequently in those times as one of the core features is we keep you away from the most risk-heavy times. This in turn give you a great reduction in the renewal price if adhered to. SmartMiles is very useful for young drivers but is not exclusive just to let you know ~Joe?

Posted 5 years ago

“Pros Prices is good Customer service is good Cons The app and black box are overly sensitive in my opinion”

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Posted 7 years ago

Hello,? It's good to see that we were able to provide competitive prices and offer satisfactory customer service. We appreciate your review concerning the telematics box and we will bare this mind going forward. Thank you for taking the time to leave us some feedback and for choosing us as your insurance provider -Theo

Posted 5 years ago

“They were very quick to mark you down but very slow bringing your score back up after driving for so long.”

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Posted 8 years ago

Hi,? Sorry to see that you are unhappy with your scores - we're always ready to talk to you about how they work and offer advice. Just get in touch on?01733 308 380 when convenient ~Joe?

Posted 5 years ago

Hastings Direct Smart Miles is rated 3.3 based on 2,005 reviews