Tracker Information, facts and fiction....

Stolen Vehicle Tracking / Insurance Approved Trackers and Thatcham Accredited Tracking

There are many levels of Thatcham GPS/GSM tracking accreditation, these are broken down and graded into categories.  These categories depend on a host of different factors and are often stipulated by insurers before providing theft cover, insurers will frequently refer to these as 'Cat.' rather than ‘category’; for instance an approved alarm and immobiliser would be a Category 1 (or Cat.1), an immobiliser is a  Cat. 2, whilst tracker systems and tracker products are rated either Cat. 6, Cat. 7 or Cat. 5.  However, not all alarms, immobilisers and GPS tracking systems and tracker products are rated by Thatcham and would therefore, not be accepted by your insurers.  In other words, you could install a tracker offering a wide array of features, all mandatory to a Thatcham rating but ….if it has not been through the Thatcham tracking accreditation process the system will not be accepted by insurers if they have specified an accredited car tracker system as part of an insurance policy.

Confusingly, Thatcham Cat. 5 is the highest level of GPS tracker accreditation and is usually only required by insurers when a vehicle is over a level of around 60K whereas a Cat. 6 or Cat. 7 tracker may be required for vehicles over 35k.  This is only a ball-park figure and insurers will vary their requirements according to a range of criteria from theft in the area to your own personal circumstances.  For this reason it is not fair to suggest that you might receive a reduction in your motor policy if you fit an insurance approved tracking system or tracker to your vehicle.  You may find that your policy stipulates a particular Thatcham rating or you might simply be asked to fit a tracker without any accreditation at all!

Having a Thatcham approved tracker product should give you the peace of mind that both the unit and manufacturing process have been rigorously tested by Thatcham (the Motor Research Centre based in Thatcham funnily enough) before being issued with a Thatcham Cat 6, 7 or 5 vehicle tracking rating. 

Many people opt for Cat. 5 insurance approved trackers simply because they have an irreplaceable vehicle, or because they are concerned with issues like OBD or key theft.  A Cat. 5 tracker type product will have a driver recognition tag which would need to be carried on every journey, without this card present the tracker would trigger as a potential theft and would prompt a call from the secure monitoring station.    

A Thatcham Cat. 6 Tracker, on the other hand, does not have driver tags and would trigger as stolen under more basic circumstances; if the vehicle were towed or put on to an open top trailer or if the vehicle battery was disconnected (both of these situations also apply to the Cat. 5 tracker insurance approved tracking product as well).

Listed below is a very brief outline of what to expect from the two main GPS tracking accreditations.