Car Insurance ‘Black Box’ a good idea? We find out.

We’ve been testing a new ‘Telematics’ App from Confused.com which mimics the ‘Black Box’ technology insurers are offering in an attempt to make car insurance cheaper.

The inexorable rise and rise of car insurance premiums is a fact of life, and will continue until government gets a handle on ambulance-chasing lawyers and the UK’s idiotic whiplash claims industry.

But if you’re looking to find a way to cut your insurance premiums, then having a ‘Black ‘Box’ fitted to your car to monitor your driving so you get charged for how much – and how well – you drive looks a promising idea. But how do you find out if a telematics box in your car is a good idea?

We’ve been testing a new App for Smartphones from Confused.com, called MotorMate (developed with the help of RoSPA) which mimics the telematics in an insurers’ black box of tricks to monitor your driving and see just what a black box option could do for your insurance premium.

The MotorMate App – available for Android or iPhone – is a doddle to use. All you need do is fire up the app at the start of your journey, click a big ‘Start Journey’ button and keep your phone in the car. The App then uses GPS to monitor your driving and speed and gives you a score for the journey (you just click a big red button at the end of your journey to complete the cycle).

We had some interesting results across half a dozen drivers at Cars UK, all of whom came out with scores in the ‘Average’ section, with one exception.

That exception was our resident ‘Plodder’. By her own admission, driving is a means of getting from A to B; nothing more. We use her input on reviews for stuff like ease of driving, how much you can fit in the boot and how simple and intuitive the controls are. She’s not the world’s greatest driver, but she keeps to the speed limit and plods around quite happily. She managed to hit 5 stars on every journey, making her ‘Peter Perfect’ in the eyes of the App.

Which does show that if you are looking for a way to cut your insurance premium, and are prepared to drive sedately and within the speed limits, you can probably save a chunk of money. But if you are prone to drive to the road conditions rather than the posted speed limits, beware.

A swift 90 mile journey on the motorway – keeping up with traffic and probably averaging around 80mph – saw the App awarding us just one star, and a similar length of driving a review car swiftly round back roads – but mainly within the 60mph limit – saw a similar sorry rating.

But we did find that we could generate four and five star journeys quite easily by sauntering round back roads within the speed limits – and resisting the temptation to push through corners – and keeping to a steady 68mph on motorways and dual carriageways. So it can be done.

We would have liked to have seen a bit more feedback about exactly what caused the low scores – was it speed, quick changes of direction, time of day or other factors – but despite that the App does a good job of showing you whether you could benefit from an insurance Black Box in your car or not.

The MotorMate App is free to download from Apple or Android.

Disclaimer: Although we loaded the MotorMate App on to the phones of all our drivers from the iPhone App Store and Google Play Store to get a proper overview, Confused.com did send us a Samsung Ace Smartphone with the App preloaded.