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Telematics insurance, commonly referred to as black box car insurance, is when a small tracking device is fitted to your car to monitor your driving habits.
The black box is designed to monitor how you drive on a day-to-day basis – the good and the bad. The safer your drive, the lower your insurance premiums could be when it comes time to renew. It can be a great option for younger drivers with a limited driving history looking to get cheaper car insurance long-term.
With black box insurance, your driving habits will be tracked and monitored via a device in your car. This device will use telematics technology – hence the proper name, telematics car insurance.
The ‘black box’ will monitor your driving style to establish if you’re a safe driver and, if you are, it could help you save money. When your car insurance provider gets to know how you drive, they’re more inclined to offer you a personalised quote.
As for the car insurance element, you’ll still be picking between the usual three levels of cover: third party-only, third party, fire and theft, and comprehensive car insurance.
There are three main forms of black box device you can have installed when taking out telematics insurance:
Your black box will record:
Black box car insurance is most commonly for inexperienced or young drivers – usually those between the ages of 17 and 25.
Young drivers draw a short straw when applying for their first car insurance policy. For example, we found that the average car insurance quote for a driver aged 17 was £5,371.07.[1] In comparison, the same new driver aged 27 would pay on average £1,636.02.
This is because young drivers are considered to be more at risk of being involved in a car accident due to inexperience. But, with a black box, your car insurance provider can monitor your driving skills and habits.
Installing a black box provides new drivers with the opportunity to show their provider that they are safe drivers. This should help you save money on your car insurance premium.
This isn’t to say you can’t get black box insurance if you’re over the age of 25. However, you may find it harder to find a policy, as many telematics cover providers have an upper age limit on their policies.
When assessing more than 400 quotes using our driver profiles, we found that black box insurance was the cheapest policy 47.06 per cent of the time.[2] For our 21-year-old driver specifically, 96.46 per cent of the cheapest policies were telematics.[3]
Not only is black box insurance often the outright cheapest option, it can make your cover less expensive in the long term. For example, with some telematics policies, once you’ve had the policy for a year, your driving score will be reviewed when it is time to renew. If you have driven safely, you should be rewarded with a lower premium. However, if your black box records poor driving skills, such as speeding, your premiums could increase.
However, not all black boxes need to be permanently installed on the car. Some providers have options for a plug-in device or a sensor connected to your smartphone. With the latter, some car insurance providers may update your premium more regularly or at any time before your renewal. This could work in your favour, if you have a good driving score.
Through our research, we found that the following were the most common cheap black box insurance policies[4]:
| Black box policy | Frequency as cheapest overall policy (%) |
| Hastings YouDrive | 29.90% |
| Insure the Box | 5.39% |
| Admiral Littlebox | 3.92% |
| Bell | 3.43% |
| Quotemehappy.com Connect | 2.70% |
It’s important to note that the cheapest policy available to you, telematics or otherwise, will be determined by your own driving profile and may not feature the policies above.
Telematics car insurance can be highly beneficial for young drivers. The cost of car insurance for under-25s rose by over 66.90 per cent in the 12 months to February 2024, according to Consumer Intelligence[5], and black box insurance can be a way to soften an eye-watering premium.
However, as with any product, it’s always a good idea to have an idea of the advantages AND the disadvantages of black box insurance before committing to a policy.
✓ Improve your driving skills
With telematics car insurance you will receive customised tips on improving your driving skills via your provider’s apps.
✓Saving money on your premiums
By driving safely, and having a good driving score you could save money on your premiums.
✓It’s fairer
You won’t be penalised for other drivers in your age group driving recklessly. If you’re a safe driver, your black box will record this and let your car insurance provider know.
✓ Theft-deterrent
If your car is stolen, your black box might be able to provide valuable data and help the police locate your vehicle.
✓Evidence in an accident
If you’re involved in an accident, data from your black box could be used to determine who was at fault. This can in turn help speed up your claims process.
X Hidden fees
Some car insurance providers may charge for fitting or disconnecting your black box
X Higher premiums for unsafe drivers
Regularly slamming on the brakes or accelerating fast could increase your premiums, as this goes against some of the safe driving rules for black box car insurance.
X Journey restrictions
Most policies have limitations on mileage.
X Driver score not shared
Your driver score and any other data are not shared with other insurance providers. If you decide to switch providers, they won’t see your good record and you may have to rebuild your good driving data.
X Named driver
If you have a named driver on your policy who doesn’t drive safely, this could work against you. Most likely, your insurance provider will not be able to tell who is driving the car at that time; if their driving skills are poor this would be reflected in the overall driving score.
By installing a black box, young drivers are given the opportunity to avoid high premiums simply because the rest of their age group might drive with less caution than older drivers. To get the most out of your black box, there are particular rules to follow.
Your car insurance provider will consider you a safe driver if you follow these guidelines:
Just like you would with any other type of car insurance, you should always shop around and compare deals.
The best way to find telematics insurance quotes is via comparison websites. This way, you can receive multiple quotes to compare prices and coverage.
To receive telematics car insurance quotes, you’ll usually need to provide the following:
This can vary from provider to provider, but usually, you can view your black box data via a mobile app. Through the app, you can view your journeys and see how safely you have been driving. Data may take up to a few days to appear in your app and it can take longer than that when you have recently installed the black box.
No, the data from your black box will never be shared. The only time data from the box would be shared is if a police inquiry has been made or you’ve been involved in a serious incident, at which point the police might request the data. At no other times will it be shared with third parties.
Black box insurance policies typically last for one year at a time. But, this can vary from provider to provider and it will depend on how long you agree to have the black box installed for with your provider. If you’re unsure how long this is, you can always check your policy documents or contact your car insurance provider to find out.
When you agree to a black box insurance policy, one of the requirements is usually to disclose your mileage. If you end up exceeding this agreed mileage, your premium is likely to be affected.
[1] We ran car insurance quotes using an amended version of our 41-year-old persona, varying their age. This persona is a civil servant living in Southampton, who drives a 2016 Nissan Qashqai 1.6L N-Connecta DIG-T worth £9,125. The car is driven 6,500 miles a year and is parked on a private driveway. We also set their driving experience, no-claims bonus, and number of children to zero. We then used the five cheapest policies to calculate the average premium for each of our chosen ages. Data collected on 3 June 2024.
[2] We ran 408 quotes using variations on our three main driving personas. We calculated which car insurance policies most frequently appeared as the cheapest option for our driver, and then the percentage that were specifically black box car insurance policies. Data collected between 22 April and 4 June 2024.
[3] We ran 113 quotes using variations on our 21-year-old driving persona. Our 21-year-old persona is a civil servant driving a 2016 Skoda Fabia 1.2L SE TSI 90 worth £6,980. The car is driven 6,500 miles a year and is parked on a street near his home. He has been driving for four years, has a one-year no-claims bonus, had a non-fault accident in 2023, and lives in Southampton. We calculated which car insurance policies most frequently appeared as the cheapest option for our driver, and then the percentage that were specifically black box car insurance policies. Data collected between 22 April and 4 June 2024.
[4] Based on the top five most common cheapest black box insurance policies from 408 quotes using our three main driving personas. Data collected between 22 April and 4 June 2024.
[5] Consumer Intelligence Car Insurance Price Index, February 2024
