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Hastings Direct Smart Miles Reviews

3.3 Rating 1,958 Reviews

57 %

of reviewers recommend Hastings Direct Smart Miles

Company Reviews

Product Reviews

3.3

Based on 1,958 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

Sort by: Most Recent Most Recent Highest Rated Filter: None None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“Do not deal with this company there suppose to refund my payment in full if I decide to cancel within 14 days. I cancelled within 2 days and they charged me £40.00 How can they get away with this it’s written in law that you get a full refund if you cancel within 14 days.”

Posted 3 months ago

“I m driving with black boxes on the busses for the last 10 years and i m awarded for the last 15 years for my safety driving...that box is inaccurate, very bad calibrated ,showing you are on the phone while phone is moving and they said is accurate...accurate means honedty...you try to overtake a staller and it shows speeding...you brake to avoid a bike cuts your way in a single file it shoes to much brake...but most annoying is yhst they trying to tell you that you are a bad driver after 25 years no claim without any blame worth accident...time to wske up ...as for the one 97 score....it looks suspicious...how it vomes so many drivers to be bad and only few to be good...another propaganda of underestimation minds and psychological bullying....”

Posted 4 months ago

“Daylight robbery - stay away from Hastings Direct. I was not informed about the black box and app when I purchased insurance online. They customer journey experience is deceitful - I didn't want the black box and they sold me the Smart Miles policy. They have harassed for the last two weeks. They have bombarded me with text messages, emails and letters remind me to keep driving to keep my score high. This is NOT the policy I bought and they pushed it upon me and they are now saying it was my fault. I am left with their extortionate cancellation fee of £45 and £75 outstanding balance. This is after being with them for less than a month. DAYLIGHT ROBBERY. I wouldn't recommend Hastings Direct Insurance to anyone. Pay more elsewhere but have peace of mind - they are robbers!”

Posted 4 months ago

“Hasting Direct sent me numerous correspondence after 2 weeks of being insured with them to say I'm under the score of 30 and within this correspondence it tells me that I need to improve, which I do and my score goes into the 40s. Next thing they are contacting me to tell me they are cancelling my policy. What was the point of telling me to improve? Really not worth using this policy”

Posted 5 months ago

“After trying to connect the black box to my phone a dozen times with no joy they emailed me and said they would cancel my insurance finally I did connect it and it worked but it doesn't record all my journeys it say once you have connected as long as you have your phone with you it will record your journeys but that is not the case they sent me an email saying they were having technical problems I don't know what the problem is but its not recording every journey”

Posted 5 months ago

“Not happy with Hastings black box insurance.They emailing a lot and stressing ..always not happy and i was i worrying while driving if black box works or not -lots of stress while driving.Not always their black box works..My final turning point and cancelation was because they said i must drive at least east once a week or my insurance will be cancelled! From 29 th of August london is in Ultra Low Emission every trip cost me £12.50 (they are not interested- they want data every week) Zone (ULEZ) expanded on 29 August 2023 and to cover all London borough .My car car was parked in one place from 29th- Hastings insurance was stressing me and asked to drive every week (they need my driving data or insurance will be cancelled. Stay away from them. What would happen if I'm ill or go away for few month abroad or not reading emails .? Not worth it any penny..”

Posted 5 months ago

“Useless YouDrive with Hastings - Would give 0 stars if possible. Took me 2 days to get the stupid app and device to work with my Android phone and still it doesn't record all journeys/data? Customer services and tech support still can't tell me why??? Now having to charge phone all the time because the app uses up battery and Hastings insist you turn off power save/battery optimisation. Then the driving criteria? Despite driving for 25 years with only one accident which was not my fault (cut up by idiot on roundabout) I am scoring low all the time usually failing on braking despite all other scores being 100% but still overall score down. Worrying about speed, acceleration, taking corner at normal speed instead of the Hastings apparently obligatory 5 mph and braking too quickly. Constantly slowing other road users and would say this kind of driving necessary to keep scores down is actually more risky. Scared of braking if a car suddenly stops or someone pulls out or a pedestrian steps out in road or even too hard at traffic lights/junctions? Absolutely ludicrous. If my 'normal' driving is such a risk how have I avoided accidents for so many years??? Really not worth the money saved but probably stuck with it for the year now.”

Posted 6 months ago

“Absolutely terrible i am.an experienced.druver cant get score abive 15 no speeding or any poor driving constantly worried about how to get score up when driving a hinder rather than a help”

Posted 6 months ago

“Insured the Sons car through this lot and what a big mistake. This has to be the most useless company as regards insurance. Have been driving over 40 years and some 400000 miles covered and have never seen the likes of it in my life of driving. Insurance was taken out with this lot and Black Box fitted he had one with another company the previous year and had no issues, but the mistake I made was trying to help him with the young driver insurance scams. This company is a total scam. His score had been in the 70 to 95 range and by reading the reviews hear he was doing good. Anyway he had used the car for a short journey with me in it as a passenger and as he was approaching a side road a car decided to pull out he applied the brakes but not what I would call hard, but not a normal breaking event. His score was 30 as the journey was short this had a bearing on his score as well. He then had not used the car as was off school due to being not at home. It would appear that score are a average over some made up time which I am still not sure how it's worked out. The bottom line from what I can see if your score is low because of some event you need to drive more to get it back up but you need to apply certain factors like time of day and the roads you drive on. He received a letter about his driving score and his policy being cancelled. He then received another letter about getting his driving back on track. Then another email telling him his policy would be cancelled due to his score falling below 30 which was clearly the result of him applying his brakes. I spoke to them and to give some credit the person I spoke to appeared to agreed that looking at the stats it was some what unfair. Any way I cancelled the policy as by the look of things it was going to be cancelled anyway and I moved it inline with my own. He is now on a policy with no black box and can use his brakes when he needs to without feeling the need to be thinking should he apply or hit the object. His insurance was a bit more expensive but a way better company. My word of advice is steer clear of Hastings I really could not trust them if there was to be a claim if this is the way they treat people. The number of people I have passed comment on about this company does surprise me. It is certainly a company I will never be with or any of my family and my advice is if you don't want scammed you should do the same or you will regret it.”

Posted 6 months ago

“Reading these negative reviews from poor drivers complaining about low scores are hilarious! Dangerous drivers never think they are dangerous! I’ve been using it for twelve months and have a score of 97. I really like the app and personally think all car insurance should use this device because it makes you drive more carefully.”

Hastings Direct Smart Miles 5 star review on 29th September 2023

Posted 6 months ago

“Hastings Direct takes your money and then finds all sorts of trivial issues to fail you on - such as: acceleration, cornering, etc. Then they advise that they’re gonna cancel your insurance. When you contact them, they try to get you to cancel the policy, so they can take more of your money - using the argument ‘it would not look good for future insurance if you tick the box when asked if you’d ever had insurance cancelled’. Paid £865 and only to receive £600 back after a couple months. HIGHWAY ROBBERY!!! WORST COMPANY I’VE EVER HAD THE DISPLEASE TO ASSOCIATE WITH!!!”

Posted 6 months ago

“Such a money grabber insurance company. Had the Hastings you drive that their telematics/ tab driving scores is impossible. Then they will cancel your insurance and deducted almost 20% of your actual amount of insurance paid in just 47 days!”

Posted 6 months ago

“Typical robbing insurance company... I received an email that my car insurance was due for renewal a week before my renewal date (aware that I was selling my car and did not need insurance, I ignored it). I continued as normal, checked my bank account a week later and the new policy renewal price had been taken from my account. They claimed that I had signed up for auto-renewal but I don't believe I would have as every year prior I have rung up and rearranged my insurance. After calling to cancel my policy - aware that if I cancelled within 14 days I would receive all my money back - they informed me that there are still charges that must be paid! Insurance companies should not be given any authority to auto-renew your policy without specified consent at the time and the arrogance to still try to take my hard-earned money is appalling. Terrible customer service, typical tactics, and horrible company, will never be using Hastings for insurance.”

Posted 7 months ago

“Had a black box and then had a fault accident. We were assured don't worry keep insurance for 30 days so can add new car! Nope threats to cancel insurance as score dropped. Explained We ve no car so can't improve score. Didn't care! Instead had to cancel so didn't go against in the future. Well they then wanted the whole year premium!! Over 2.5k. Been an awful experience. They ll still not been in touch with the 3rd party.”

Posted 8 months ago

“Avoid this insurance company and don’t get sucked in by there cheaper prices. The black box insurance that they sell is a way for them to get your money and then they cancel your policy. The customer service is shockingly bad. The black box data is over sensitive and if you were the best driver in the world they would still cancel your insurance.”

Posted 8 months ago

“do NOT get this black box, it is not worth the low price. God forbid you go round a round about faster than 2mph or build up speed to merge onto a motorway. This thing critiques everything! i literally can’t drive without losing points due to using motorways and multiple roundabouts every trip. I try to drive waaaay slower and go round bends slowly but it doesn’t matter what i do - my score sits at around 30 AND if someone else uses your car, the drive isn’t recorded but you lose points anyway?? so stupid”

Posted 9 months ago

“Partner had a fault accident and the car was taken to storage, garage has been assigned, but the car is awaiting collection for it to be assessed for repairs or write off, paid extra at the start of the policy for a hire car, 3 weeks on, and I keep being told until the car is not assessed either for repairs, then a courtesy car will be given by the garage, if its a write off we get a hire car. This is a complete joke, pay for comprehensive and hire car so that you are not left stranded without a car, and Hastings do not honour this, and to make matters worse the complaints team are a complete waste of time, another week or 2 before anything can be done. Totally understand a shortage of parts at the moment, but why pay for the extras when this is not honoured, a hire car should be provided until a decision is made. Would never use Hastings as an insurance provider ever again.”

Posted 9 months ago

“Having insurance is a necessary item we need to have with a hope that we never ever have to actually use it. Well after many years of careful house ownership I had to call on my insurer Hastings Direct. I discovered a crack in one of my walls and feared I had subsidence. I contacted Hastings right away but they just were not interested ...their excuse that they don't actually insure me , one of their underwriters do but they didn't know who that was! After many calls and being passed from pillar to post i managed to find out who my insurer was. The company they had used "Get out and run brothers inc" were as much use again. They passed me on to loss assessors who after many months came and had a look and said yep it's subsidence. These guys then put together a quote of the work without actually doing a full survey. The work they detailed equated to some paint wallpaper and to patch up some plaster. This is with major cracks appearing through the building. Then after another long wait an engineer came to do boreholes and check drains and water. This was 6 weeks ago. I have not been contacted by Hastings or the insurer at all to explain what is going on. So if I was you I really would avoid they have let be down beyond comprehension.”

Posted 10 months ago

“They were cheap, but when I had to make a claim they have been absolutely useless. I submitted the claim in August 2022. It's now May 2023 and after them never proactively contacting me (I've always had to chase them) my repair has still not been carried out.”

Posted 11 months ago

“You can’t literally brake. I called them, explained it must be faulty as when I tested this I’ve been driving like miss daisy. The best driving in my life that any human could do, when I was given a score of 51 out of 100 for sudden breaking, it’s clearly faulty or a conspiracy to mentally want people to crash or take away one’s insurance for increased premiums, they can not answer. These should not be legal, are EXTREMELY dangerous & mentally damaging. Hastings fix take down the breaking element. If you can’t break people will die! Is that what you want?”

Posted 11 months ago

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Hastings Direct Smart Miles is rated 3.3 based on 1,958 reviews