Here are some of the queries we're most commonly asked. If there is something you would like to know, this is a great place to start.
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OBD
If you’ve checked that there’s no debris or any obstruction stopping the self-fit box being pushed in fully, then give us a call on 0333 2309 272 and we’ll talk you through what to do next. If your OBD port is faulty we may look to arrange for you to have a fitted black box instead.
12v
If you’ve checked that there’s no debris or any obstruction stopping the self-fit 12v being pushed in fully, then give us a call on 0333 2309 272 and we’ll talk you through what to do next. If your 12v socket is faulty we may look to arrange for you to have a different self-fit box.
Take a look at our help page to check where to plug in your self-fit box in your car. Just enter your car details and our location tool will do the rest.
Once your insurance has been cancelled, just place the self-fit box in an envelope (we’ll pay the postage) and post the box back to us. All you need to do is:
Once you’ve cancelled your insurance, just pop your self-box in an envelope (we’ll pay the postage) and post the box back to us. All you need to do is:
If you think the garage may have damaged or interfered with your self-fit box, you should give us a call on 0333 2309 272 as soon as you get the car back so we can check to make sure the box is still sending us a signal. If your car has been in the garage and you think it may have affected your driving feedback, you can let us know the details on the garage form and we’ll take a look for you.
OBD
When you plug in your self-fit OBD box, a red LED light will flash. This shows it’s working. Once you’ve plugged in your self-fit box and we’re receiving a signal, you’ll receive an email asking you to set up your driving feedback account. If you haven’t received this email it may be a sign that something’s wrong, and you should give us a call to check on 0333 2309 272.
12v
When you plug in your ingenie 12v box into your 12v socket (blue tip first), press firmly until it’s securely in place. After a few seconds you should see a green ring on top of the box to let you know it’s connected. Then turn on your ignition for a couple of minutes to make sure your socket has power. You’ll then receive an email asking you to set up your feedback account. If you haven’t received this email it may be a sign that something’s wrong, and you should give us a call to check on 0333 2309 272.
OBD
The ingenie self-fit box is a small cube shaped device which plugs into the OBD port (or the on-board diagnostics port if you like to be fancy) in your car. It’s super simple to plug this in yourself, but if you’re not sure where your OBD port is, just check out our handy box location checker on our help page .
12v
The ingenie self-fit 12v is a small device which plugs into the 12v socket in your car. It’s really easy to plug this in yourself, it’s usually in the front console area, but if you’re not sure where your 12v socket is, just check out your car’s handbook.
The self-fit box in your car records speed, acceleration, braking, cornering and mileage. It also collects data on your car’s GPS location, which may help the police recover your car if it’s stolen.
To find out more details contact us via web chat.
If you need to change the car on your insurance, just speak to us on live chat and we’ll go through updating your details with you.
The driving feedback is based on how the car is being driven, not how an individual human behaves. Because we didn’t put a spy cam on the box, we can’t tell who’s driving. Someone messing up your feedback? Get some advice.
Right now we only offer insurance if you’re the main driver but you can add a parent as a named driver. This is actually a much better idea, as it means you’ll be building up your own No Claims Discount right away. Get some more information about No Claims Discounts.
Yes, as long as your car is being fixed by one of our approved repairers.* You can also get Upgraded Replacement Car cover, which gives you a free replacement car for up to 21 days if you crash or your car is stolen.
Have a look at the full details.
* Subject to availability
Yes, and it’s a very good idea! It costs £29.99 for the whole year and covers you for things your insurance doesn’t – like money lost if you can’t work after a crash.
You get legal representation cover up to £100,000, to help you get back anything that wasn’t insured in an incident that wasn’t your fault.
Check the full policy information for details.
That’s fine, as long as the owner is your parent, husband/wife or civil partner and you have their permission. You will need to be the registered keeper of the vehicle and have your name on the V5C document (log book), though. Find out more about a car’s V5C.
We offer 3 types of UK breakdown cover which you can take out at the same time as you buy your insurance.
Roadside – if you break down further than a mile from home, call any time and we’ll send out someone to repair your car by the roadside. If it can’t be repaired, we’ll take it to a garage or location of your choice within 10 miles of the place you broke down.
Roadside & Recovery – everything above, plus we’ll recover the car and all its passengers to any UK location of your choice.
Total Breakdown – everything you get with Roadside & Recovery plus home start and alternative travel or accommodation if you can’t drive your car to your destination.
Find out more about your breakdown by contacting us.
Travel outside of the UK from 1st January 2021
While a trade deal has been agreed with the EU, the decision regarding membership of the free circulation zone has not been finalised. Therefore, you will need a Green Card if you take your car outside of the UK.
What is a Green Card?
A Green Card is an internationally recognised proof of motor insurance cover which must be printed and taken with you when driving abroad.
How to get a Green Card?
You can arrange a Green Card for your trip by speaking to us on live chat. Please give us 14 days’ notice where possible so we can process this for you.
Get the full story on modifications.
If you don’t get your documents in this time, please email service@ingenie-insurance.co.uk or speak to us on live chat to check everything’s OK.
When it comes to mileage, you’re in control. When you fill out our quote form, tell us how many miles you think you’ll drive over the year. Our handy calculator will help you work out an estimate.
It’s really important that you’re as accurate as possible because if it looks like you’re going to drive more than you’ve estimated, you’ll need to buy more miles. Don’t forget to include any additional driver’s miles in your estimate.
If you would like to add more miles – just speak to us on live chat. If you use up all your miles, we’ll get in touch to let you know you need to buy more. If you continue to drive over your estimate your insurance could face cancellation.
The cost of buying more miles varies and remember there’s a £30 admin charge for making a change to your insurance.
We only collect data related to your driving, so we can give you feedback. We promise:
If you have a question about your insurance, need to make a claim or want some help with your driving feedback, you can find all the phone numbers you need on our contact page, in your feedback account or on the ingenie app.
You can also get us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram if you need to chat about anything.
Congratulations! You rock. Just let us know about your pass as soon as possible so we can update your details and get you on the road. Speak to us on live chat to get fully insured and you’ll be ready to go.
FYI: it’s very likely your insurance will go up when you change from a provisional to a full driving licence. This is because you’ll be driving by yourself for the first time and will probably be doing a lot more miles than when you were a learner driver, which can increase your risk of having a crash.
If you’d like to add someone to your insurance for temporary cover, just speak to us on live chat and we’ll look into that for you.
With ingenie, you can have a maximum of 3 named drivers on your insurance. If you want to add a named driver just speak to us on live chat.
If you plan to use your car outside the UK after 29th March 2019, you’ll need to have a Green Card.
A Green Card means you’ll have proof of cover when driving in:
ingenie will get your Green Card directly from your insurer and post this to your home address. To request your Green Card please call us on 0330 678 0652 14 days’ before you plan to travel so we can process this for you.
If you paid by instalments, your insurance will automatically renew on the policy end date – you can cancel this feature at any time, you just need to let us know by contacting the live chat team here
If you paid in full, your insurance will automatically expire on the policy end date (if you don’t call us to renew). You’ll get a reminder email about 17 days before the end date, with all the new details of your renewal policy, so there’s time to make up your mind. We’ll be sorry to lose you!
If you cancel your policy before the end of the first policy year, you’ll need to pay some cancellation fees. If you’ve got a fitted black box you’ll pay up to £105 to cover the cost of the black box and its fitting, plus any cancellation charge.
You only earn a No Claims Discount for a full year of insurance, so cancelling does mean no NCD for that year.
You can see the list of possible charges here.
Hey, things change. If you need to change the car on your insurance, just speak to us on live chat and we’ll go through updating your details with you.
Keep in mind that the car is part of how our insurers work out how much your insurance will cost, so you may need to pay some extra – or we might even give you money back. If you’re planning on buying a new car, be sure to check that your insurance will cover it. It’s also a good idea before you buy the car, to check how much more it might be compared to what you already pay.
There’s a £30 admin charge for making changes to your insurance.
If you’ve got a self-fit black box, we’ll advise you whether you can still use it in the new car or if we need to send you a new device. In most cases you’ll be able to take your self-fit box with you and plug it into your new car. If you need help finding your OBD port, you can use the location checker on our help page.
When you leave ingenie, the black box in your car becomes your property. If you’ve got a self-fit box, we’ll send you a Freepost label to send the box back to us as the box can be reset and used again. It’s good to recycle!
If you’ve got a fitted black box, you don’t need to have it taken out because we deactivate it remotely so it stops collecting data. If you’d like the box to be removed by one of our engineers, it costs £85 and you just need to call our box fitting team on 0330 024 1086.
Find out more about our fees and charges.
Yes, you’re insured from your insurance start date, even if you haven’t had the black box fitted.
We’ll send out your self-fit box within 14 days of you buying your policy, and you’ll need to fit this to your car within 10 days of receiving the box.
If you need a fitted black box, we’ll contact you the day after you buy your insurance to arrange your box fitting, which will need to happen within the first 10 days of your insurance starting.
If we’re worried that you’re driving dangerously or you get more than one Dangerous message in the same area of your driving (like speed or braking), we may get in touch to have a chat about how to improve. This would include tips on how to improve your driving, helping you work towards earning good driving discounts at renewal.
Getting Dangerous messages means you’re likely to pay more for your insurance at renewal, and if you get 3 of them in a quarter for the same driving category, you’ll lose 30 points from your driving score. This 30-point penalty will stay in place until after your next 3-month driving review.
If you get 6 Dangerous messages for speed, this will result in a Highly Dangerous message.
Warning: driving at unacceptably high speeds can mean an immediate cancellation of your insurance.
We assess these areas of your driving with the GPS and accelerometer data from your black box.
We measure acceleration (g-force) using the accelerometer in the box. Acceleration means the rate at which speed changes. So, if your speed increases rapidly over a short period of time, it will mean more acceleration than if you speed up gradually.
Braking also uses your box’s accelerometer data and is basically the opposite of acceleration: the rate at which your car slows down.
Cornering looks at the rate at which your car turns. The 2 main factors that determine the g-force generated when cornering are the angle of the corner and the speed at which your car is travelling. The tighter the corner, the slower you should approach and travel around the bend.
We calculate your speed using the GPS signal transmitted from your box – it’s the rate at which you move from one point to another. That speed is then compared to our database of speed limits across the country. Doing speeds that could get you a speeding ticket and points will affect your driving score.
If you get a Highly Dangerous message:
Warning: driving at unacceptably high speeds can mean an immediate cancellation of your insurance.
Not a problem – happens all the time. Send us an email to connect@ingenie.com with the garage’s address and the date and time they had your car. We’ll check this against your driving data and update your feedback if necessary. Don’t worry – we’ll make sure your driving score and discounts aren’t affected by your mechanic’s over-enthusiastic checks.
If your car has recently been in the garage and you think this might have affected your feedback, just fill in this form and we’ll be happy to check this for you.
The heatmap is linked to your driving feedback and shows you the areas where you can improve in each driving category.
You can use the heatmaps to focus on improving your braking, cornering and speed, on the specific roads you find yourself driving on regularly.
Read about your ingenie Young Driver insurance in detail in your policy documents - Find out more