Name: Hastings Direct Smart Miles
Rating: 3.32

“I have been with this company since age 16, i am now 22. I brought myself a new car to celebrate moving out and getting my first real job . This required a new box to be installed , which i installed exactly to their written instructions around the 14th of jan. I think nothing of it until today , where i go to lunch to find multiple phone calls from them. When i ring them back they say they cant take £40 out of my account , at first i thought this was from my monthly payments so i was confused , but only then do i find out that this is actually a cancellation fee due to them not getting any signal from the box . the woman then puts me through to the customer service team and its only THEN that i discover my insurance has been cancelled since the 29th of january (its now the 3rd of feb) without me having any clue! When i insisted that i had installed the box exactly as they said and i didnt know what else they wanted me to do , 3 of their workers implied i was a liar. when i said i was upset that my policy had been cancelled on me without any warning , they said theyd sent 2 emails around a week ago -2 emails!! ive certainly never saw them, but sending 2 emails before cancelling the policy ive had with them for 6 years (not to mention they were quick enough to phone me multiple times in a few hours to try and get the cancellation fee out of me) is appalling! when i tried to suggest ways to rectify the honest mistake (such as sending a photo of the box as proof , getting an engineer to come out and check the box incase it was installed incorrectly or defective etc) they told me absolutely nothing could be done and my only option was to pay the fee and take out an entirely new policy with them (with increased payments a very large upfront cost, of course) . Now i have to declare a cancellation on my record for the rest of my life . I was literally nearly in tears from the stress earlier , considering insurance is expensive enough for a 22 yr old and money is not exactly flowing in my graduate placement. all because i wanted to buy myself my first car from my own money . never go with these people! i thought they were great for 6 years and then they dropped this on me .”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi Chloe, I do apologise if you've had a negative experience. I hope you've since managed to resolve this, however if you do wish to raise a complaint due to the service, you can do so by calling 01733 308 370, or emailing contact@smartmiles.com and they'll be happy to assist with this. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“All in all, it's just overly harsh. I have an overall score of 83, but my acceleration and braking have been rated in the 50s - 60s, which is frankly ridiculous. I don't accelerate harshly whatsoever, and if I brake any less I would probably stall. Unfortunately, it seems like Hastings has rigged their system in order to gather as much money from young drivers as possible, luring them in initially by undercutting competitors, but at a significant unknown cost to the policyholders. Definitely will be going elsewhere when my insurance comes to renewal.”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi Jake, I apologise if you've had a negative experience. 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 look into this. ~Elle

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 4 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 4 years ago

“One big scam”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi Samuel, I'm sorry if you were unhappy with the service. If there's anything we can do to help, please call our Customer Service team on 01733 308 370 and they'll be happy to help. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“Good if you want cheap insurance for first time driver. The black box however seems useless. For the first few weeks my braking score went right down even with an experienced driver who was also on the policy driving. The score soon went back up but now my acceleration is going right down. I have tried accelerating to the point where it is dangerously slow but no matter how fast or slow I accelerate the score still goes down. The worst part is that my score goes down by simply moving my car off the driveway onto the road outside my house where there is physically no possible way of accelerating fast. The black box map which shows you where you have been jumps massively along the journey. Will not be going back with Hastings Direct smart miles even if the quote is significantly lower than any other insurance company's.”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hello Thank you for taking the time to leave a review with us. I'm very sorry to read that you've not had a positive experience with the telematics box. The score tends to update roughly every 70 miles so perhaps you can look for that marker and see what the score is once you reach that point. If you don't believe that it reflects your driving, please contact the First Response Unit on 0333 999 8452 and an adviser can take a look at this with you. I hope that your experience with the telematics policy improves soon. ~Theo

Posted 4 years ago

“I’m a new driver, and I’m 6 months in to my policy. All was great, none of my scores dropped below 85, until about 6 weeks ago, when my braking score started falling rapidly. I haven’t personally noticed anything different with my driving. I feel that the score is very quick to fall, but it seems to take weeks for points to reappear. I appreciate that the point is that you work on improving, but it takes so long that I feel my driving only counts if the system thinks it’s bad, not good? It’s incredibly stressful, and I feel it’s unfair that if I’m reacting to someone pulling out on me, or someone else braking sharply themselves, I lose points. It feels impossible to get a good braking score back on this system”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hello, I'm very sorry to read that you've had such a poor experience while on your Smart miles policy and I hope that some positive progress has been made since the point of your review. If this continues to be an issue, please contact the Smart miles First Response Unit on 0333 999 8452. A member of the team would be happy to take a look at your policy and discuss the scores with you. ~Theo

Posted 4 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 4 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 4 years ago

“I haven't had a bad experience per se but I don't really understand how the acceleration scores are calculated. My acceleration score is 56 and I've never seen it go up only down even though I feel like I'm a really safe driver and very rarely accelerate harshly. My sister was very confused also as she says I drive like a granny. I also dont understand why it says I drive during the day over 99% of the time but my time of day score is 85.”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi Alice, I'm sorry if you were unhappy with your score. We have a team dedicated to helping you improve this and you can reach them on 0333 999 8372, they'll be happy to help. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“Highly would recommend staying away from this company, they have messed me about from day 1 trying to get more money out of me for no legitimate reason. If you do decide to choose this company then good luck on getting information that you have the right to see such as No Claims Bonus (NCB) proof as I contacted them multiple times and were still not able to provide the information.”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hello Jordan, I'm sorry to hear you feel this way and I hope you have since managed to speak to someone to look into this for you. If you have had any trouble locating the proof of your no claims bonus, our customer service team should be able to help with this and you can contact them by calling us on 01733 308 370. Hopefully once you've spoken to someone, you can get any issues you may have sorted. ~Ethan.

Posted 4 years ago

“Highly would recommend staying away from this company, they have messed me about from day 1 trying to get more money out of me for no legitimate reason. If you do decide to choose this company then good luck on getting information that you have the right to see such as No Claims Bonus (NCB) proof as I contacted them multiple times and were still not able to provide the information.”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hello Jordan, I'm sorry to hear you feel this way and I hope you have since managed to speak to someone to look into this for you. If you have had any trouble locating the proof of your no claims bonus, our customer service team should be able to help with this and you can contact them by calling us on 01733 308 370. Hopefully once you've spoken to someone, you can get any issues you may have sorted. ~Ethan.

Posted 4 years ago

“Highly would recommend staying away from this company, they have messed me about from day 1 trying to get more money out of me for no legitimate reason. If you do decide to choose this company then good luck on getting information that you have the right to see such as No Claims Bonus (NCB) proof as I contacted them multiple times and were still not able to provide the information.”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hello Jordan, I'm sorry to hear you feel this way and I hope you have since managed to speak to someone to look into this for you. If you have had any trouble locating the proof of your no claims bonus, our customer service team should be able to help with this and you can contact them by calling us on 01733 308 370. Hopefully once you've spoken to someone, you can get any issues you may have sorted. ~Ethan.

Posted 4 years ago

“Highly would recommend staying away from this company, they have messed me about from day 1 trying to get more money out of me for no legitimate reason. If you do decide to choose this company then good luck on getting information that you have the right to see such as No Claims Bonus (NCB) proof as I contacted them multiple times and were still not able to provide the information.”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hello Jordan, I'm sorry to hear you feel this way and I hope you have since managed to speak to someone to look into this for you. If you have had any trouble locating the proof of your no claims bonus, our customer service team should be able to help with this and you can contact them by calling us on 01733 308 370. Hopefully once you've spoken to someone, you can get any issues you may have sorted. ~Ethan.

Posted 4 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.”

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Posted 4 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 4 years ago

“My daughter changed her car three months ago and had a new box fitted. Immediately we noticed that there was a 20 odd point disparity in scores between the old and new boxes. I called Hastings straight away and a lovely lady offered to investigate. Eight weeks and none phone calls later (and three requests to be put through to a supervisor to no avail) I have been informed that my daughter’s policy is being cancelled in four days time (too short a time for the complaints procedure). We now have lost eight months worth if policy payments because she will be starting a new policy from scratch. The frontline customer service staff are fantastic and very helpful but they are totally let down by inept management that refuse to look at evidence (we have screenshots of both box scores) I can not recommend highly enough that any considering a Hastings policy go elsewhere..... (ps insurance ombudsman is now involved)”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi Jason, I'm sorry if you've had a negative experience. We have a dedicated SmartMiles team who look into how to improve your score and you can reach them on 0333 999 8372. If you're looking to go to the Ombudsman, you'd have to raise a complaint through us first, if you email us at contact@hastingsdirectsmartmiles.com with your policy details and complaint points, we'd be able to raise on for you. I hope you're able to come to a reasonable outcome. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“Ive just had an interesting chat with a customer service worker for hastings smart miles. When i asked if the scre was worked out by percentage? He replied no?? I the asked if it was possible for him to send me an email explaining the scoring system. His reply. "Oh no sir its company policy not to divulge the way we score YOUR driving". I then asked. So how do we know if your scoring us correctly or incorrectly. His answer. "Well sir we at Hastings don't like to give out our secrets for competitors to steal" At this point my lip was bleeding. I had to bite it that hard to stop me laughing. What are Hastings afraid of? Why can they not just divulge the way they calculate their scoring method. Or is this a cute way of stopping you scoring to high. Therefore making excuses to raise your insurance premiums. There's a funny smell to this. Maybe it's B/S. I'll leave you to decide!!!......”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hello Trevor, Thank you for your feedback and apologies that it seems there has been hurdles when trying to get straight answers. The scoring system is no mystery or secret, your braking and acceleration scores are generated via G-force and if you brake too late or accelerate too quickly your score will be affected. Your time of day score is quite simple in that if you drive between 10 pm or 5 am again your score will be reduced. The speed score is calculated via a GPS signal that is found in the telematics box. Your braking and acceleration score has lesser bearing on your score than your time of day and speed, if you speed between 10 pm and 5 am, your score will be heavily affected. If you wish to discuss this in more detail, please don't hesitate in contacting the team on 0333 999 8372. ~ Jamie

Posted 4 years ago

“Absolutely the worst first time insurance I could have went to, constantly emailing and threatening to cancel my insurance claiming it was due to my driving. Then demanding to change near £200.00 in cancellation fees. Disgraceful!”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hello Olivia, Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry to see your experience has been a negative one. We do require you to have a score above 40/100 and are very transparent about this, the reason we try and contact you is to offer help, support and advise to improve your score. If you call the team on 0333 999 8372 an advisor will be able to assist you further. ~Jamie

Posted 4 years ago

“Very confused with how sensitive my Hastings smart miles telematics box is? Each time I drive my car (Vauxhall Corsa) my overall score declines. It is currently showing up as a good overall score of 61/100 but I’m very worried why my score seems to in no way shape of form improving? I’ve had my policy for nearly 3 months now and I’m just struggling to figure out how to keep at least a good score to avoid any cancellation. Being a new young driver I don’t want insurance to be anymore difficult to afford than what it already is and the stress of worrying about something that shouldn’t be so stressful! I’ve read everything about my policy and about the insurance company on how I can improve etc. Queries about my score : Acceleration : Since taking out my policy my acceleration score 90% of the time declines, normally by 1 or 2 points each journey I make. So I did my own experiment on how I could improve. I began by using 1st gear just to pull away with and crawling in traffic, 2nd gear for crawling in slow moving but not standstill traffic and building up speed. Then 3rd gear for driving in 20 zones and in built up areas and other roads for example which may have many parked cars to then build up some speed to change to 4th gear in 30/40mph zones. I only use 5th gear while on dual carriageways and on the motorway. This did manage to start building my score up again but only for a short while. I managed to build my acceleration score from 53/100 to 59/100 just for it now to fall back to 51/100 even though my driving hasn’t changed since that time of improving... it doesn’t make sense. It’s even caused me to stall many times, especially on hills as I’m too scared to rev on the accelerator thinking that my score is going to drop. I live in a city where there are many steep hills and slopes so sometimes it’s unavoidable. Braking - Now braking is my worst score! I’ve got 4/100. I’m considering getting myself a dash cam to prove that I keep more than enough good distance behind other cars and giving myself plenty of time to brake. Could it be that I may have a problem with my brake pads? I’m not sure but I am having them changed this upcoming weekend and I’m hoping new brakes might help improve my score and performance. Even on a sunny clear day I brake in plenty of time and as smoothly as I can almost like I’m in icy conditions! I think they are too harsh with the braking score. Sometimes you can’t help needing to brake sharply or suddenly, especially where I live, other drivers just have the audacity to pull out in front of you or chance dangerous manoeuvres! Has anyone else managed to improve their braking score or is there no going back? Speed - My speed score is pretty standard. It is 80/100 even though I know I never speed. I can not stand speeding, even in 20mph zones. I believe it’s that speed for a reason. Black box or not I keep to the rules of the road on that one. I believe my score may have dropped because a road may not be updated on their system yet. There is a new dual carriageway in my city that’s recently changed from a 30mph to a 40mph and I use that road at least twice a week. Could be the culprit so I’m not too worried about that as I trust Hastings will have there’s record of roads updated regularly. Time of day - I understand and I know that is has been stated on the policy that there is a ‘curfew’ between 10pm and 5am. Hastings do state that driving after 10pm could affect your score but understands that people can’t always avoid driving after this time. Especially for me I get the odd shift at work which requires me to finish at 10pm. Even though I rarely get a shift like that, I still have to drive myself safely home otherwise it’s a 2 hour bus journey and why should I catch a bus and be less safe when I have a car and license! I’ve very rarely drove between these hours and the latest I’ve ever drove is 11. I do believe they should extend the hours between 11/12 till like 5. I know they say that accidents are more likely to happen between the hours they have stated and at least they give a bit of way with that. It’s not advisable to take the policy if you have to drive after 10pm regularly. I do disagree with having a curfew, it doesn’t make driving feel as free as it should be. I know they’re trying to avoid accidents and look out for their drivers but really? If something bad is going to happen it’s going to happen and can happen any time of the day. I don’t tend to drive after 9pm anyway but when I need to drive later it can be very frustrating. Overall, it’s just an average black box and telematics system. I believe that some people can get faulty problems with them and I don’t believe they’re always true. What ever happened to us relying on technology now a days. It’s proven that all types of technology isn’t always correct so the same out look should be for the black box. Not too long back the Daily Mail flagged up an article ‘Can you really trust your vehicles black box ?‘ So far I won’t be renewing with Hastings smart miles if this problem with the black box persists until I see improvements again. It can not be blamed just fully on my driving, they also need to realise that new drivers don’t learn how to drive properly until after passing and driving on their own. Also take in to consideration that every car feels different to drive and drivers need a chance to get use to their car and how their car works. For example my corsa could give a completely different score to an Mercedes or Fiat as they all work different in some way? And how do they expect to receive more customers when all they seem to do is get bad reviews? Won’t surprise me if they go bust when everyone stops renewing with them or serious legal action is taken against them by the sounds of things. My personal experience so far is 40/100 and it’s now up to Hastings if they want to be fair to me and their other customers that seem to be having the same problems as I am. All they need to be is more considerate and have more faith in their drivers. Fingers crossed I see improvements !”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hello, I'm sorry to hear you feel this way and I hope you have since managed to speak to someone to look into this for you. We do have a team specifically designed to help you improve your score and they are our first response team. You can contact them on 0333 999 8372 to look into this for you but in the meantime we'll be sure to pass your feedback on to the relevant department. If you do have any further queries around your policy and you need to get in contact with us, you can email us at socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com. ~Ethan.

Posted 4 years ago

“My son had a black box fitted from Hastings Direct (his second, first was a different coy but dearer than the renewal quote from Hastings hence the move) and the scores he receives are laughable. Please avoid this company if you want to insure your child. I have been out with him and watched his style of driving and then looked at his scores. I was amazed at how bad they are. It’s either broke or they expect him to drive Miss Daisy around??? Looking to source a new provider and pay that little bit more. Their threatening behaviour is alarming for a young lad. Frankly just S**t!!”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi, I'm sorry to hear this is the case. We do have a first response team who will be happy to advise you on how to improve your score and you can speak to them by calling 0333 999 8452. I hope this issue is soon resolved for you. ~Lillie

Posted 4 years ago

“AVOID AVOID AVOID!! I took out the policy January this year, received an email in February stating a low score. At this point requested the iPhone link app. to measure performance. No link received. Called twice more, received no communication. Tried to go on line to register, but you can not without a password that they should forward you. Called again, to which they asked for a password, explained I had not been sent one. Later in September received another low score rating, at which I searched the net an ideal of how they measure performance. I do not break hard, and rarely out late. My car stationery for best part of the day. November, I receive another low score, and notice to cancel policy. (IF THEY CANCEL, YOU WILL BE PENALISED BY OTHER INSURERS) On calling, they explained my performance and actually stated it was not that bad on most area's but I should drive more in the day if I have a rare late night out, (surely stationery is safer?) and that I must accelerate to fast between gears if my breaking was controlled? I explained that I requested the dashboard several times, to which the Lewis, taking the call said he understood and that he would check calls logged, go to the underwriter and email back the next day. Guess what, he did not. But received another cancelation letter the following day. Another call was made, and Lewis did not take my call as he said he would, but another representative said that my call logs where not found, only one requesting the Dashboard. He said if we had not receive it we should have kept contacting them ….. REALLY? If they record all calls, they must have evidence they sent the email with iPhone link, or evidence they posted out a pass word ?? I asked for their complaints policy procedure, He said I would receive an email from their complaints department. Nothing as of yet. Today, I have spoken to Tasha, who was very helpful in cancelling the policy. One team member who actually come through. Please read through these reviews, I wish I had. It is a total rip off. And hassle a new driver could do without. No claims bonus here, they will cut your policy short, and try to charge you for cancelling too.”

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Posted 5 years ago

Hello there, I'm sorry to see you have had such a negative experience especially if you have tried so hard to get assistance from us. We would like to understand why this matter has arisen and why we were unable to help you as we should have. Please can you email us at socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com with your policy number, vehicle registration and date of birth along with this review so that we can ensure it gets raised with the Customer Relations department. As soon as this is investigated, we will get back to you. ~Jamie

Posted 5 years ago

“The price is good but its not worth the amount of stress they put you under to keep your score above 40. It sounds easy enough but they will f**k you over at every given opportunity. Taking points off you for no reason. They say there curfew isn’t strict but it is and once you score drops good luck trying to recover from it.”

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Posted 5 years ago

Hello, I'm sorry to read that you had a poor experience with your Smartmiles policy. Hastings Smartmiles does disclose that the time of day will affect the score before the policy is bought, I'm sorry if this information wasn't seen before purchase. If you're still insured with Hastings, I hope your time with us improves. You can contact the Smartmiles team on 01733 308 380 if you need any help with your policy. ~Theo

Posted 5 years ago

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

Hastings Direct Smart Miles Reviews