A recent article published by Bodyshop Mag argued that 49% of drivers would not choose telematics insurance for fears their data would be sold to other companies, and 62% still think it is too ‘big brother’.
So we’re taking this opportunity to give you the truth about telematics insurance with insurethebox. Please note that this information applies to our product only – other telematics policies might work differently.

Spot anything we’ve missed? Tweet us over at @insurethebox and we’ll answer your question and add it to this article.

What happens if you catch me speeding?
Let’s start by saying we obviously do not want you to break the speed limit, ever. It’s there for a reason and that reason is to stop you having an accident. No brainer.

That said, the whole essence of our product is that we incentivise and reward safe driving. So we will give you rewards every month in the form of Bonus Miles if you drive safely.

However, if you regularly drive over the speed limit you might not benefit from these rewards and if you persistently speed, or excessively speed, we may proceed to cancel your policy.

When it comes to renewal, your driving safety is something we take into account when calculating your price. So if you’ve consistently broken the speed limit over the year you might not get as attractive a price as someone in the same circumstances who’s driven safely all year, and in extreme circumstances we might not be able to offer you a renewal quote at all – so it pays to drive safely.

Is my data safe with you? Will you sell it to other companies?

When you buy a policy with us you give us two different types of data: your personal data (the information you fill in when you do the quote form, make changes or file a claim) and your driving data (provided by the box in your car).

Your personal data is stored on our secure servers, and is used to help us assess your insurance needs. We do not store information for more time than is necessary, and we follow all guidelines from the Information Commissioner’s Office to protect your information at all times.

Your driving data lives in our secure data warehouse. We only use the elements we need, so we don’t sit tracking your every movement in our Head Office, we have much better things to do. Here are the facts about how we use your driving data:

  • We will use your driving information to encourage you to drive safely
  • We will use your driving information to help us reduce fraud, by checking if another driver is making a false claim against you, or if you are making a false claim
  • We will only share your driving information with our trusted business partners. We won’t sell it to anyone
  • We will not release your driving information to the police or to any civil authorities unless we have your permission or we are required to do so by law, or we suspect fraud or attempted fraud
  • We will stop recording your information if you sell your car or if your policy is cancelled, or you choose not to renew
  • We will not provide you or your representatives with your driving information for use in civil claims or criminal investigations or proceedings.
Will you be watching everything I do?
No. We will be translating your driving data into a picture of how safe a driver you are. If you have an accident and the box sends us an alert, only then will we have a look at your location on Google Maps because – believe it or not – we might have the chance to save your life if the accident’s really serious. Thanks to the box in your car, we can potentially let the emergency services know what’s happened and where you are, so they can reach you as quickly as possible.
Will you tell my parents where I am?

The short answer is no – the online Portal that customers see only shows numbers around individual journeys; we do not show specific locations, and there is no map that someone could use to track your location at any given time. That is very much a myth. If your car is stolen or you have an accident we can potentially see your location in our Service Centre, but it’s not something that’s available for customers.

The longer answer is that the online Portal is set up with access granted to one person only (for data protection reasons), and that person is the policyholder. Here are a couple of scenarios to clear things up:

Muhammad is 18, he needs to buy car insurance. His Dad sorts it all out for him and Muhammad isn’t involved at all – he just wants to get driving. So this works out as:

  • Policyholder is Dad
  • Policy is in Dad’s name
  • Only Dad has access to the Portal
  • Dad earns the No Claim Discount at the end of the year (providing he doesn’t make a claim)
  • Dad is the payer
  • Muhammad is the main driver.

If you’re a young driver worried about your parents snooping on you, this is the scenario you want to avoid. Hate talking on the phone? You don’t even need to speak to us. You can sort it all out online. Just make sure you sort it out yourself, even if mum or dad is paying (lucky you!). Here’s the solution:

James is 17 and needs insurance. His lovely Mum has agreed to pay for it for him. So he fills in the online quote form with all his details, then when he gets to the payment page he asks his mum to come over and fill in her details, then he fills out the rest of the form himself.

  • Policyholder is James
  • Policy is in James’ name
  • Only James has access to the Portal
  • James earns the No Claim Discount at the end of the year (providing he doesn’t make a claim)
  • Mum is the payer
  • James is the main driver.

For data protection reasons only the policyholder can access the Portal, so make sure you arrange your own insurance even if you’re not paying.

Will the black box interfere with the way my car functions?
No, the only connection the box has with your car is to provide power, and it needs very little charge at that (less than a car radio) so it should not drain your battery as long as it is in good working order. Other than that, everything the box needs to work is inside the box itself, including the computer software and a sim card.

Hopefully you feel a bit more confident buying black box insurance with us now. As we said at the start, if there’s anything else you’d like to know, tweet us at @insurethebox and we’ll answer your question and add it to this article.