Name: Hastings Direct Smart Miles
Rating: 3.34

“Staff are very friendly for the most part, but the scoring system is awful and far too harsh. Cancelling my policy now and going elsewhere, they’re awful and improvement is nearly impossible.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Kieron, I'm sorry to hear you're looking at leaving us and I do understand the frustration this may have caused. We'll be sure to pass your feedback on to the relevant department and hopefully we'll be able to offer you a competitive price in the future. ~Ethan.

Posted 4 years ago

“Took out this policy for my son. His girlfriend has the same policy. He had someone out to put the telematics box in his car,yet his girlfriend and some of his friends had to fit their own. He has received a threat to cancel his policy as his braking score is extremely low,yet he brakes in plenty of time. Once a week he drives to college which is in the country side. So its₩ lane driving. Yes sometimes you have to brake harder than normal due to other drivers. He has been given several reasons why his braking is low and they are all a load of bull. Who else is having these issues?? We really dont need the added stress especially the way he is being spoken too on the phone by Hastings. His braking score has been the same for the passed 3 months and has not moved. I have driven uis car with 25yrs experience yet his score still doesn't move. They tell him the box has updated their end. Personally I think it's a faulty box.any advise before I start really complaining.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Karen, 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. When setting up a policy with us, we do make sure you are aware that some vehicles need one of our engineers to come out and fit the box to your vehicle, whereas other vehicles allow you to fit the box yourself. That would just depend on the location of your car battery and how easy that is to fit. However, if you'd like to discuss your score, we do have a first response team who will be happy to advise how to improve your score. If you'd like to speak to them, you can call them on 0333 999 8372. ~Ethan.

Posted 4 years ago

“DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. Paid £100 for a black box got a 94/100 and was congratulated, they promised a discount , from day one I was sorry I fitted a box because you get a lot of stick from other drivers for driving correctly ! My quote for renewal with discount came back at double last years cost, the promise not to increase is just bull.....DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Christopher, I'm sorry to see your experience with our SmartMiles policy was not a good one. With such a high driving behavior we would expect to see a good reduction on your renewal quote however, if there has been a claim in the year or any other discrepancies during this time, the quote can be higher. All quotes are also generated in 'live pricing' so can change constantly. ~ Jamie

Posted 4 years ago

“i have had the policy for a year no problems im looking to reneiw and have been told if scored drop below 40 it wont be cancelled is this correct?”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Rob, Yes, that's correct. We're pleased you've been happy with your policy and we'd like to thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. ~Ethan.

Posted 4 years ago

“This is not company to do business with. I bought one of their policies on the understanding that it promotes cheaper car insurance for careful driving. What nonsense. I know how to drive. I have been driving for over 50 years which includes driving professionally for part of my driving career. I completed a year with a score of 94/100. on receiving a renewal quote from this company, the premium had risen considerably. I contacted this company and I was not given an explanation for the dramatic increase except that insurance is apparently calculated on a daily basis. I wonder then what on earth had happened on the day my renewal was created. I carried out a search and found comparable insurance much cheaper. This company places stringent restrictions with driving habits and there is no advantage. It creates an environment of dangerous intimidation from other road users and there is no reward. My message is, unless this situation is unique to me (which I doubt), don't bother with telematics. it is expensive in itself and clearly doesn't make a difference.”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hello there, I am really sorry that we weren't able to offer you a competitive renewal quote and that you feel you've had a negative experience with us. We thank you for previously insuring with us and we're sorry to be losing you as a customer. ~ Amber

Posted 4 years ago

“A couple of months in and fine so far. It seems worth the hassle for significantly cheaper insurance and I'm pleased that it makes me observe the speed limit 100% of the time - tricky at first but now it's just habit. It was the only vaguely affordable way to insure my daughter on my car so unfortunately it lumps both of us together as one driver even though I am the main user and have been driving for 25 years. We're losing more points than I expected on accelerating but maybe that's fair feedback. I'd like more info about how this is measured though as I suspect it is related to how/when I am changing gear rather than actual acceleration. The 10pm curfew is a bit on the early side and we lose around 5/100 points each time we travel after 10 although we get them back over time - I would avoid getting this insurance if you know you regularly have to drive after 10pm. I personally think they should change this to 11pm to cater for people who work and have a social life!”

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Posted 4 years ago

“Never have I experienced such poor customer service if I ran my business like this I would be bankrupt in a month Staff have no interest in customer service Payed upfront £1600 pounds for a policy for my son with smart miles box last November he got all the usual threats every one gets to cancel for late night driving not driving etc etc Cancelled policy told no refund as a claim was outstanding against my son which has since been thrown out contacted Hastings after this and the now don’t recognise our policy number what a load of bull will be taking this much further”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello, I do apologise if you feel you've had a negative experience with us and I hope you have since managed to speak to someone to look into this for you. Without looking at the policy, we're not able to confirm what has happened in your circumstances. However, we can raise a complaint on your behalf if you contact us at contact@smartmiles.com. We'll do our best to help in any way we can. ~Ethan.

Posted 4 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 4 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 4 years ago

“The WORST. Hastings direct has caused me nothing but stress!!!! Please save yourself the trouble. Lazy, inconsiderate and sloppy! Way more hassle than it’s worth. The worst communication and correspondence team I’ve ever experienced. Various mistakes constantly made on there behalf yet no effort to rectify. If you want anything done you have to call them 10 thousand times! This company will find any opportunity to squeeze money out of you, i have even had claims put on my account that did not even exist!! They will find any opportunity to try and cancel your policy and even tried to cancel me because I changed my job ( even though I made it explicitly clear that I would not be driving to work). Impossible to communicate with, and when you do finally get of hold majority of the team are RUDE. You can just tell the don’t care about you or your problems. Please young drivers, STAY AWAY!!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello, I'm sorry to read that you had such a poor experience with us and if throughout your time you did not receive the level of customer service you deserve. Please be aware that the occupation is a rating factor on the policy so whether you drive to work or not the correct information does need to be recorded on the cover or the policy would be invalid. If you have since cancelled the policy with Hastings Smart miles, I hope that you were able to find suitable, competitive cover for your vehicle. Also if you do wish to raise a complaint with the Smart miles team concerning the poor experience you've had, please contact them on contact@hastingsdirectsmartmiles.com so this can be raised for you ~Theo

Posted 4 years ago

“Do not go for this company you honestly would rather pay a bit more to save your self from the worst company out there! I had an accident in which my cars structure was damage so my car was a right off. I spent THREE weeks without a car because that’s how long it took them to give me a price and resell it to me. bare in mind I am pregnant and they had no consideration. They don’t ever call you you have to chase them up every day and each tel member has completely different information and tells you a completely different story! Three weeks of struggling then I got the car back and that was the shock on my life during the accident the front pumper was damaged and that’s about it.. I get the car back and it looked like it had been through a word war I couldn’t even recognise it. scratches all around the car seats have been ripped apart and broken the radiator was hanging off the car wires you name it the whole front bumper was ripped off and bent to fit inside the car all the lights were ripped off when they were completely fine prior to the accident tape all over the car pieces were missing a bad a quote to fix it for £800 within a week to then become £2000 and minimum two weeks wait. They couldn’t care less and acted like it wasn’t their fault disgusting company honestly”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello, I'm sorry to hear you've had an accident and I do appreciate the frustration this could have caused. I hope you have since managed to speak to someone to get some clarification around the damage to your vehicle and the outcome of your claim. If you do have any other questions around your claim or would like to get in contact with us, you can email us at socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com. We'll do our best to help in any way we can. ~Ethan.

Posted 4 years ago

“After reporting the damage caused to my car by Rs and showing you the pictures of the bodged wiring you have the cheek to send me a letter saying that it’s ok to do that and I should contact other people to sort it out . You were very quick to not insure my son when he put a exhaust on his car which was professionally fitted but won’t recignise poor workmanship by people you contract to fit smartmiles boxes . You’ve just took there word for it without even looking at the car which I find totally out of order . I would say to everybody having a box fitted make sure it’s fitted to the batterie and not solderd and cut into the main wiring loom . A very upset customer Lewis white”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Lewis, I'm sorry to hear you feel this way and I hope you have since managed to speak to someone in regards to this. For future reference, if you do need to get in contact with our smartmiles team, you can contact us on 0344 800 2561. Alternatively, you can email us at socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com. We'll do all we can to help with any questions or queries you may have and we will do our utmost to help in any way we can. ~Ethan.

Posted 4 years ago

“Absolute disgrace of a system that gives the underwriters more control of us than law or even legalese. My son has been on this system for 5 mths and after paying to date a large sum of money, his insurance is being cancelled because he doesn't pull away or brake correctly and drives after 10pm too much. Insurance corps like all corps are control mechanisms stealing our hard earned cash whilst controlling us like they are our parents!! Will be taking legal action, they bribed my son with "If you leave you won't have cancelled insurance to deal with" so people won't have a leg to stand on in court. We refused this disgust also!! Will be chasing down directors of both hastings and the under writers, might turn up at one of their functions!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Mark, I'm sorry to hear you feel this way and I hope you have since managed to speak to someone to explain the reasoning behind the cancellation. Without looking at your son's policy it's difficult to understand why the score has dropped so dramatically. We are very transparent with our terms and conditions on our website about driving between 10pm to 5am, the reason we have this time frame as an insurer, we know that most accidents happen between these hours and we do have a responsibility to ensure our younger, more inexperienced drivers are safe on the road. We do suggest that you don't drive between these hours but we do understand that sometimes you may need to. For any further questions around the score on the policy, you can contact our first response team on 0800 048 2955. We'll do our best to help with anything we can. ~Ethan.

Posted 4 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”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 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 4 years ago

“I CANCELLED MY POLICY ANS I WAS EXPECTING A CANCELLATION CHARGE AS PER THEIR TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF £45, BUT THEN I WAS HIT WITH AN ADDITIONAL £125 IN "OTHER FEES AS PER TERMS AND CONDITIONS". I LOOKED AT THEIR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND NO WHERE DOES IT STATE THAT UPON CANCELLATION YOU WILL BE CHARGED OTHER FEES. WHEN I CALLED AND ASKED THEM ABOUT THIS, I WAS REFERRED TO THE PAGES ON "LEGAL STATEMENTS PAGE 2" AND PAGE 25 AS WELL AS THEIR FEES PAGE. NO WHERE I GUARANTEE YOU DID I FIND ANY TEXT STATING THAT YOU WOULD BE CHARGED ADDITIONAL "OTHER FEES" FOR CANCELLATION. THEY RELY ON THEIR CUSTOMERS JUST NOT BOTHERING TO CHECK THEIR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND GET AWAY WITH CHARGING ADDITIONAL OTHER FEES WITH NO REAL JUSTIFICATION. AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello, I'm sorry to read about this and I appreciate the frustration the cancellation costs would have caused. We're unable to look at the cancellation of the Smart miles policy itself here, however a document should have been sent which showed the specific breakdown of the costs that were incurred when the policy was cancelled. If you look through the document and there any costs that you do not agree with please contact the smart miles team to discuss this. They can be reached on 01733 308 380 ~Theo

Posted 4 years ago

“I CANCELLED MY POLICY ANS I WAS EXPECTING A CANCELLATION CHARGE AS PER THEIR TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF £45, BUT THEN I WAS HIT WITH AN ADDITIONAL £125 IN "OTHER FEES AS PER TERMS AND CONDITIONS". I LOOKED AT THEIR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND NO WHERE DOES IT STATE THAT UPON CANCELLATION YOU WILL BE CHARGED OTHER FEES. WHEN I CALLED AND ASKED THEM ABOUT THIS, I WAS REFERRED TO THE PAGES ON "LEGAL STATEMENTS PAGE 2" AND PAGE 25 AS WELL AS THEIR FEES PAGE. NO WHERE I GUARANTEE YOU DID I FIND ANY TEXT STATING THAT YOU WOULD BE CHARGED ADDITIONAL "OTHER FEES" FOR CANCELLATION. THEY RELY ON THEIR CUSTOMERS JUST NOT BOTHERING TO CHECK THEIR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND GET AWAY WITH CHARGING ADDITIONAL OTHER FEES WITH NO REAL JUSTIFICATION. AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello, I'm sorry to read about this and I appreciate the frustration the cancellation costs would have caused. We're unable to look at the cancellation of the Smart miles policy itself here, however a document should have been sent which showed the specific breakdown of the costs that were incurred when the policy was cancelled. If you look through the document and there any costs that you do not agree with please contact the smart miles team to discuss this. They can be reached on 01733 308 380 ~Theo

Posted 4 years ago

“My daughter (20) is a very good driver. She has been driving for over 3 years and previous black boxes were never a problem. I have been in the car when she has driven long journeys. Her driving was excellent. No speeding, no late breaking, sudden acceleration etc yet she struggles to keep her score over 40. It just doesn't make sense. We had the threats of cancellation which really stressed her out and has spoken to them a number of times about how to improve her score. It just doesn't make a difference!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Jon, I'm very sorry to read that your daughter has had a negative experience with her telematics policy. I appreciate what you have said and perhaps other aspects could be affecting her score such as the time of day she is driving. If you do speak to the smart miles team and provide them with the policy reference, they can take a look and perhaps advise what exactly was the reason to the low scores. I hope this has since improved or if she is now insured elsewhere, that she has a more positive experience with her new insurer ~Theo

Posted 4 years ago

“Absolutely shocking! I have had a black box with another company for over 5 years with well above average scores. With Hastings the data is completely incorrect they think I've done 220 miles when I've actually done over 3500 so making my scores low, they actually make the figures up. I have been in contact with the technical department who have not even answered and have taken to emailing my mileage every day to prove how incorrect their data is. I am disgusted with this company, I think it is a complete scam and I will be contacting the Ombudsman!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Donna, I'm very sorry to read about the poor experience you had while you were with Hastings Smart Miles and that it has caused you to raise a complaint. I hope that the steps that you have taken has yielded some positive results and I hope that the complaint is being dealt with in a satisfactory manner. The Financial ombudsman may request that a complaint is raised internally before referring to them. You can do this with the smart miles complaints team by visiting: contact@hastingsdirectsmartmiles.com ~Theo

Posted 4 years ago

“We had just finished our first year with a score of 91. The black box has worked well for my 18 year old daughter if you drive within the speed limits, don’t slam the brakes on & not too mad with the acceleration the scores stay high. My only gripe is the 10 night time curfew as she finishes her part time job at 11 as with most students. The curfew would work better for 12 till 6. They were by far the better price very happy with the renewal which has halved from last year they really do reward safe drivers.”

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Posted 4 years ago

“Avoid at all costs. My son broke down scored 0 despite informing Hastings. Really hard to build score on breaking acceleration... old car? No support when he phoned them. Score 0 for the day if out passed 10 pm. Threats of cancellation during his A levels.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello, I'm sorry to read that your son struggled to get to grips with the scoring parameters on the telematics box and I can appreciate this would have caused some frustration. We do suggest speaking to the First Response Unit if our Smart miles customers have any problems with the scores. They specialise in training your drivers to work with the telematics box so they can get the best our of their driving. They can be reached on 0800 048 2955. Driving between the hours of 10pm and 5am is a measuring parameter on the policy and the company does strive to disclose that in this time frame can negatively impact the driver's scores. I'm sorry if this information wasn't seen before this cover was purchased ~Theo

Posted 4 years ago

“Avoid at all costs. My daughter has just had notification three weeks from her renewal date that her policy is being cancelled. She had a note one month in to this policy saying her score had dropped below 40. When she rang she was told it was one incident of breaking that had brought the score down. She pointed out that a tractor had pulled out on her and she had no alternative but to break. The customer care consultant was sympathetic and told her not to worry about it and to ring should she every have to break suddenly. She then continued to drive incident free for the next 10 months and received this letter out of the blue to say her policy is being cancelled and charging her £195 for the privilege. Crooks in my mind, putting young drivers in financial difficulty and making her lose out on 1 years no claims 3 weeks before her policy is due for renewal. The ombudsman needs to step in, in my opinion, based on the horror stories amongst these reviews. I will never entertain them for any insurance again! I would have given a zero if it had been possible.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hi there, I'm sorry to see your daughter is in this position. We wouldn't penalise her for one braking event though as an insurer, wouldn't be fair put her in danger. We average the braking over the whole journey and if there is some late braking, this will have a negative impact on the overall score. We do have a dedicated team who can advise and support during this process. The First Response Unit can be contacted on 0800 048 2955. ~ Jamie

Posted 4 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