Black box car insurance

[Isaulte]

My DS is currently having driving lessons, and the plan for if (when!) he passes is that we share my 10 year old 1.25l car until I get a new one.

If he does get insurance with a black box, what happens if I am sharing the car? My little bit of research has revealed that an older driver named on the policy would bring the cost down, which is great... and I obviously drive sensibly at all times anyway - i think my main concern is any curfew, as although my own late night social events are few and far between, I often pick up DS/DH late at night and wouldnt want to be jeopardising DS's policy. I've known of an insurance company threatening to cancel because of curfew being broken a few times.

Does anyone have any experience of sharing cars where a black box is fitted?

Thank you!

I'll be honest, this is why we didn't have the box insurance, our friends did and their dd was penalised for work shifts ending late.

We have had three different black boxes (Tesco, Admiral and my policy). None of them had a curfew.

Sorry no experience of sharing , but we have found this whole black box / limited miles business to be a pain. We probably should have researched it better, but because my son took a job about 20 miles away he has soon used up all his miles and now has to pay a fortune to add extra miles. My dh sorted it out but it all seems ridiculous to me. He now has had to take the only local job he can get so that he can walk and his car is sitting unused in the driveway despite being a careful driver and scoring good results on the black box. It's a shame it's so hard for young drivers unless you have parents who are loaded because so many jobs for young people are unsocial hours.

Just got my DSD 18 (just passed test) insurance through insure the box, and they seem quite good. There are no curfews or penalties.
She was £932 for a year which I thought was v reasonable. That’s with me as a second driver and with a limit of 6000 miles in the year, but she can “top up” with more miles if she goes over and it wasn’t too expensive.

When I took out insurance for my daughter it was only about £80 more for the year without the black box so I didn't bother. She's a careful driver but I didn't want to limit times/mileage etc. I'd get quotes for with and without

Same here, DD went with Insure the Box and they were the cheapest. It's been 5 months and no issues at all. They came to fit the box within a couple of days. No curfews.

I think it's possibly a lot cheaper for dd's than ds's !

Thanks for your responses - its a relief to know that there are options out there minus the curfew! And your feedback is really useful.

If, when we get to the point of insuring the car for DS, there is an option for a box, we will probably go with rather than without. He doesn't need to travel far atm and I would rather the little angel on his shoulder prevailed over the little devil... especially when in control of a vehicle. It worked (eventually!) for my friend's DS, anyway .

I didn’t know they applied curfews, our DDs are not yet old enough to worry about car insurance.

Have a look at the policy conditions and see if you can get one like mentioned without the curfew.

I do believe it has got my DCs into good habits having a black box for the first couple of years at least.

I'd always want a new driver to have a black box, ime they really have a positive effect on driving behaviour.

I think the curfew is a thing of the past, lots of insurers do policies without them

I got the coop young drivers policy and that came with a black box however there was no curfew or mileage restrictions. If you drove carefully they would give you a discount every quarter, you could log in via a "dashboard" and look at things such as speeding, heavy breaking and careful cornering.

Mine went from being £114 to £70 by the end of the first year so I thought it was fab. I'm 27 now and direct line won't give me a black box and my insurance is £80 a month with 7 years NCD .

I mean £114 to £70 a month btw. Not year.

DS2 was with Ingenie when he passed his test. They don’t have a curfew and his policy came down by about £200, over the year, iirc.

We insured both DSes on our 1.4 Polo. We didn’t have a black box on that.

I've just done a quote with insure the box and was quoted £3500! I'm 24 and a new driver.

I would look at all of the different comparison sites, I have got quotes thousands cheaper than that.

crazy while one insurer can be the cheapest for one person, it can be astronomical for another. No one knows the reasons why.

As a new driver, try adding on a second driver, who has plenty of experience and no points / claims. It should bring your quotes down a fair bit, even the cheapest ones.

The one we had, dd had to click on her app so that the black box was only activated whilst she was driving. So even if there had been a curfew (there wasn't on ours) it wouldn't have affected you and your times.
We did have a mileage limit for her and her driving had to be no more than 40% of the total use /miles driven of the car.
Ours was possibly Reassure. We were sent the black box in the post to fit ourselves. Nobody came to do it.

IME black boxes seem to vary a lot. We didn't - thinking about the curfew which wouldn't have worked for either of my dc just getting to / back from work on ealry / late shifts, but there are lots that don't have the time curfew, but then they have the limiter miles or something else.
there are so many factors that affect insurance plus many more the companies just seem to make up and pluck figures from the air the only thing to do is to look when the time comes, with you own set of circumstances. It takes a few hours, but, when saving hundreds, or even thousands, that is a few hours well spent.

I've just done a quote with insure the box and was quoted £3500! I'm 24 and a new driver.
What mileage did you put? I think they are a more competitive insurer for those on very low mileage. Also, what car do you have and will there be another driver insured on the car? I think my DD came down a lot because I am also insured on it and I have a perfect record (although not sure why that would make a difference as I've never driven her car!).

@swingofthings I put in 8k mileage on a 09 plate 1.0l Chevrolet matiz and I haven't put on an additional driver but I haven't on my quotes elsewhere.

Very odd. DD got it for £1500 for a 1.4l car 04 reg 18yo 6000 mileage. Have you tried lowering it (for interest if only) because I think that's what made a huge difference for her.

Wow. I know postcodes make a difference, etc (although I doubt ours is cheap) but at 18, dd' 1.2 Corsa she got down to £1050. I think it helps putting me and dh on it, but £3500 is ridiculous.

The ridiculous quotes really mean that the insurer doesn't want to insure you. Maybe they have had a run of claims from drivers with the same profile as you and don't want any more.

I don't think you can expect too much science behind the quotes, it'll all be done by computers and algorithms depending on the individual insurers experience as well as general trends

Whatever you do... do not use More Than Smart Wheels for car insurance....i insured my son with them and they were a nightmare....charged us an astronomical cost for extra miles....penalised him for speeding....my son insisted he was driving at the right speed so i got them to check and yes they had the roads down as 40 when it was a 60....this happened every month and i had to call every single time.....steer well clear !!!!