Compare black box car insurance quotes

The black box in your car links to a satellite to measure your usage, allowing you to check your own driving online.

The black box typically tracks and measures:

• if you brake sharply
• whether corners are taken gently, or not
• instances of sudden veering
• your speed compared to the speed limit on any given road
• your acceleration speed
• the time at which the car is being driven
• the number of miles you drive on any one journey
• your annual mileage
• the type of roads you are driving on

With a traditional black box and telematics car insurance policy, your insurance provider will send out an engineer to fit the black box behind your car’s dashboard. It will usually take about an hour to install and you may need to present your driving licence and V5C registration document. 

There are several types of telematic devices, the main ones being:

• The black box will automatically start recording your driving, so you don’t need to switch it on.
• If you choose a plug-and-drive device, you’ll be able to install this yourself by plugging it into the charger port. 
• With a smartphone app, there’s no installation at all. You simply follow instructions to download the app onto your smartphone. In some cases, you’ll have to start the app before your journey.

In most cases, you can leave a black box in your car for as long as you want to. If your insurance policy comes to an end, your insurer will most likely deactivate your box, rather than remove it. If you would like to have it removed instead, you may need to pay a fee, details of which will be on your provider’s website.

To have a traditional black box removed, you’ll need to speak to your insurer who’ll send an engineer to remove it. You may be charged for any damage caused to a device you remove that the provider requires returning. 

If you have a plug-and-drive device, you simply unplug it yourself. If you want to use it in a new car, you can plug it back in. But don’t forget to let your car insurance provider know what you’ve done.

Don’t forget to add removal or end-of-contract costs into your overall insurance budget as it’s important to know the total insurance cost for any period of time.

If there’s a limit on the number of miles you can drive each year and you go over that limit, there may be a fee involved.

However, if you know in advance you need to drive more miles, you may be able to ‘buy’ more miles. Or your premium may be amended to reflect the higher mileage.

In order to cut the risk of you having an accident and claiming on your policy, your insurer may place some restrictions on where and when you drive.

This might mean you cannot drive late at night, for example, or if you do, that’ll be factored into your insurance quote and could make it higher.

Some people don’t like the idea that their insurance company is monitoring them and knows where they are and for how long they stop. However, the telematics device will not affect your car’s performance, it’s hidden away and besides, who wants to pay more for insurance than you must?

Why not read our guide to dispel the myths about black box insurance?

Some insurers can increase your premium if you’ve demonstrated bad driving behaviours, such as speeding, so you need to be careful how you drive at all times.

If you drive at dangerous speeds on a regular basis, your insurer might even consider cancelling your policy.

Put simply, yes. Because the telematics box records your car's position, if your vehicle is stolen it can help your insurer or the police track it down.

The black box measures how the car’s driven, not who’s driving.

That means if you are handing your car to mechanics, or someone else is driving under their own insurance, their driving skills will be reflected in your policy too.

It's best to make sure anyone driving the car knows this before handing them the keys, as their bad habits could push up the cost of your policy - even if they’re driving under their own temporary car insurance.