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Get a quoteOne in six who buy 'black box' car insurance don't know how it works – could it save you money?
Consumer Intelligence found young drivers can save more than £2,000 with a telematics policy
One in five drivers have bought car insurance that uses a black box or app to track how they drive, according to new research from Consumer Intelligence. Yet some who take out these policies say they didn’t realise their driving would be monitored.
Telematics insurance uses GPS data to assess driving behaviour, and safer habits are often rewarded with lower premiums. But the findings suggest many people still aren’t clear on how this cover works when they buy it.
Here, we'll explore what telematics policies are, how much they can save you, and other ways of getting cheaper car insurance.
What are telematics policies?
With conventional car insurance, insurers make educated guesses about how risky a driver you are based on the information you give when applying for cover.
Factors such as your age and driving experience, the type of car you drive, what you use it for (for instance, commuting or just leisure), where you live, and your claims history, all feed into estimates of how likely you are to claim and the types of claim you'll make.
By following your driving more closely, telematics policies give you more credit for how you drive in practice.
These policies have been around for decades now, and come in various shapes and sizes. Some use devices installed in your car, while others use fobs which you can attach to your windscreen, or apps running off your smartphone.
Similarly, while some policies take account of your driving habits – such as cornering, braking and speed – others prioritise broader factors such as your mileage or the times of day you drive.
- Find out more: how black box insurance works.
Do telematics policies save people money?
According to Consumer Intelligence's pricing data, based on quotes offered to thousands of drivers this month, a telematics policy was the cheapest option 42% of the time. Where they were cheaper, it was by £228 on average.
The potential savings were biggest and most common for drivers under the age of 30.
Drivers aged 17 to 19 face the steepest premiums, and the cheapest telematics premiums were about half those of the cheapest conventional policies. The price difference was over £2,000.
| Age | How often telematics policies are cheaper | Median price difference (£)* | Median price difference (%)** |
|---|---|---|---|
Overall | 42% | £228 | 27.8% |
17-19 | 82.8% | £2,172 | 115.8% |
20-24 | 74.6% | £289 | 34.6% |
25-29 | 50.8% | £124 | 19.5% |
30-34 | 37.2% | £105 | 14.4% |
35-39 | 24.6% | £86 | 11.5% |
40-44 | 21.9% | £105 | 16.5% |
45-49 | 20.2% | £109 | 16.5% |
50-54 | 14.9% | £82 | 12.5% |
55-59 | 21.5% | £163 | 19.8% |
60-64 | 18.1% | £192 | 23.0% |
65-69 | 16.2% | £227 | 21.9% |
70+ | 17.4% | £177 | 22.9% |
Data source: Consumer Intelligence, November 2025. Based on prices collected for 6,868 customer profiles.
*Difference between the cheapest telematics policy and non-telematics policy where a telematics policy is cheapest.
**Median price percentage difference calculated using the telematics price as the base.
- Find out more: best car insurance 2025.
What drivers think of telematics
Despite the savings available, many drivers are uneasy about having their driving tracked.
In a survey of 742 drivers by Consumer Intelligence, more than half said they’d feel negatively about being asked to use a monitoring app or have a black box fitted.
Among those already on a telematics policy, 17% (around one in six) said they hadn’t realised their driving would be monitored when they bought the cover.
Matt Mather, research manager at Consumer Intelligence, said: ‘In regard to telematics, consumers generally react negatively to the idea of having their driving monitored, regardless of their age. Unless the industry gets better at communicating the benefits of such policies, consumers may continue to mistrust and avoid them.’
Other ways of getting cheap insurance
While telematics cover could mean you pay significantly less, it's not the only way of getting your premium down.
Which? research in May found that haggling at renewal saved drivers £64 on average – some negotiated more than £200 off their annual premium.
We've also found that both the time of the month and the time of day you renew can have a dramatic impact on the quotes you're offered.
Check our guide for more on these and lots of other ways to bring down the cost of your cover.
- Find out more: How to find cheap car insurance.
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