Home address on sat nav/car app

snerkler

snerkler

Suspended / Banned
Messages
26,078
Name
Toby
Edit My Images
No
I’ve just ordered a new car and the app is a lot ‘fancier’ than the one for my current car allowing many more features. One of these is to add a home address.

Now I’ve always been led to believe that storing your home address is not a good idea because of someone nicks your car they know your home address and that it might be empty, or you’re someone that has your house keys on the same fob as your car key and take it to a dodgy garage or valet etc they can get into your house.

Now I don’t have my house keys on the same fob as my car key, and if someone nicks my car I doubt very much they’d drive to my house to rob that as well given that it increases the chances of getting caught so is it really a bad idea?

I don’t think I’d put my exact address in but was thinking of putting my postcode in as that’s obviously an area rather than specific house.

Do others worry about this?
 
Not heard that concern before personally, and I've always had my home address in my portable and built-in satnavs over the last 20 or so years if not longer. I guess there's a chance of that scenario, but the reality surely is that if the stolen car were driven to the owners house, it would be inviting attention from police or owner; and I doubt thieves bother even trying to sell on stolen satnavs these days do they? However I do think using just the postcode is a good idea as a risk mitigation tactic.
 
lindsay said:
Not heard that concern before personally, and I've always had my home address in my portable and built-in satnavs over the last 20 or so years if not longer. I guess there's a chance of that scenario, but the reality surely is that if the stolen car were driven to the owners house, it would be inviting attention from police or owner; and I doubt thieves bother even trying to sell on stolen satnavs these days do they? However I do think using just the postcode is a good idea as a risk mitigation tactic.
Click to expand...
Thanks, pretty much my thoughts tbh, but I thought best to check (y)
 
I share your concerns. I have never entered my house no only the postcode. Probably over cautious but better to be on the safe side.
 
Never have included my home sat nav.

I use a nearish postcode.....but not in the same sub set area. Afteral I know where I am going once close to home ;)
 
It's never occured to me that it might be a problem, not that anyone is likely to steal my car as I keep my keys on a chain, but I can see how using the post code would be a sensible option.
 
I have always entered my home address as a couple of streets over from where actually I live. Comes from the time when a few people from work were driving my company car.
 
We have our "home" address set as Mrs Nod's business. Pretty sure we can find our way to our real home from there!

Funnily, both our main cars came with all the relevant documentation carefully redacted to hide previous owners' details but both still had residential addresses set as the old home addy...
 
We’ve never put our home address in the car satnav, and yet it still “knows” where we live and will show a house icon on the screen. I presume it’s because it recognises how often we head back there. There doesn’t seem to be any way of getting rid of this particular satnav memory either.
 
I do have my home postcode in my Satnav but it is portable and not left exposed when I am not in the car (normally locked in the boot). However, the SATNAV takes you right to my home even though the postcode applies to the entire street. I do keep all my keys together but only give the car key to any service agent. It is not just security as I may need to use my house keys myself during the time the car is away. Of course any potential burglar will have to cross the crocodile infested moat then climb the drawbridge under a hail of arrows.

Dave
 
Last edited:
We have a “house surveillance system” even if anyone did attempt a break in….. a couple of very observant neighbours. One’s a curtain-twitcher who wants to know everybody’s business, so she can gossip about it to her church cronies later.
The other is a lovely friend and neighbour who generally keeps an eye on our place, and puts out the bins and feeds our cat if we’re away. (We reciprocate of course).
 
most sat navs use store previous route used data anyhow so it would be easy for someone to simply look at the logs and see where your home is anyhow so its a bit of a moot point.
 
Never put in my house satnav or address postcode. Only need to get to a area/road that I have travelled before and then follow my nose.

Trevor
 
Suggest putting the address of the nearest police station down as 'home'.


My own car has a standard Insignia/LaCrosse/SaabNG9-5 nav system that thinks the car is in Belgium and forgets all your inputs after you have turned off the ignition, Our Golf has nav but we use Waze on apple CarPlay but my work address is as 'home'. Whereas we sometimes need to get directions home, the instances are outnumbered by directions to other destinations.
 
it's surprising how many people leave something with their name and address in the car somewhere
not intentionally but never the less it happens

a post code in a sat nav is not something i worry about but my house keys are separate from my car keys so if somebody wants to steal my car and follow the sat nav and bring it back please do
there's usually somebody in :)
 
I'd be ok with mine (2021 MINI). It would send them somewhere weird.

I talked to it and gave it one of the Birmingham Airport car park postcodes and it tried to send me to Belgium. Happens all the time.
 
I put in the local police station as Home.
 
snerkler said:
I’ve just ordered a new car and the app is a lot ‘fancier’ than the one for my current car allowing many more features. One of these is to add a home address.

Now I’ve always been led to believe that storing your home address is not a good idea because of someone nicks your car they know your home address and that it might be empty, or you’re someone that has your house keys on the same fob as your car key and take it to a dodgy garage or valet etc they can get into your house.

Now I don’t have my house keys on the same fob as my car key, and if someone nicks my car I doubt very much they’d drive to my house to rob that as well given that it increases the chances of getting caught so is it really a bad idea?

I don’t think I’d put my exact address in but was thinking of putting my postcode in as that’s obviously an area rather than specific house.

Do others worry about this?
Click to expand...
No I don't worry about it and I have a hard time believing there is any real risk of someone also robbing a house based on finding it in a sat nav mostly for the reasons you've mentioned, it just doesn't make any sense. Even putting that aside, sat navs usually store the recent routes and destinations so if there's all these cunning thieves ready to rob houses from your sat nav it's trivial to work out where house is even if it's not set as a home location.

I've always had my home address configured on my sat nav because it's more convenient. If I have the spectacularly bad luck of having my car stolen, it's near to the house and it also happens to be a thief who cross specialises in house burglary then I'll still be relying on my cameras and locks the same as I am with any other potential burglar.
 
Suvv said:
I put in the local police station as Home.
Click to expand...
You've got a local police station........wow, oh so lucky;)

They shut and redeveloped the site of ours some years back. The nearest is now about 3.5 miles or approx 5 miles depending on the which to choose.
 
Last edited:
Always use a local address susch as a supermarket or post office.
 
Sat Nav...... I never use it in the UK. I manage OK just reading road signs.... The only time I ever use it is when I'm driving to somewhere I don't know in Thailand....
 
TheFiend said:
Sat Nav...... I never use it in the UK. I manage OK just reading road signs.... The only time I ever use it is when I'm driving to somewhere I don't know in Thailand....
Click to expand...
I do use it but have always been of the opinion that you should never slavishly 100% rely on it. By that I mean you should always know where you are going i.e. sat nav is a guide.......and great for ETA info and traffic issue updates.

Having said that in specific unknown areas I have been caught out.
 
TheFiend said:
Sat Nav...... I never use it in the UK. I manage OK just reading road signs.... The only time I ever use it is when I'm driving to somewhere I don't know in Thailand....
Click to expand...
I use it as a 'back up', or to find a specific location once I've got to a town or city (y)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nod
TheFiend said:
Sat Nav...... I never use it in the UK. I manage OK just reading road signs.... The only time I ever use it is when I'm driving to somewhere I don't know in Thailand....
Click to expand...
I am mainly using it for the traffic information which is updated rapidly on Tom Tom. I have avoided many hours of hold ups because of this. I once set out for home in the west country from Nottingham along with two other cars and while on the A42 my SatNav urgently told me to turn off immediately due to an accident ahead on the M42. The journey home was ten minutes longer due to this diversion. The next day I checked with the others. One of them had a SatNav but not Tom Tom and ended up in the queue around the accident but were directed away from the M42 eventually and lost about an hour. The third car had no Sat Nav and were about 3 hours late. A similar scenario has occurred several times.

I also find that it is valuable when driving through a strange town or city. You really need to concentrate on driving and the traffic not searching for road signs.

Dave
 
Dave Canon said:
I am mainly using it for the traffic information which is updated rapidly on Tom Tom. I have avoided many hours of hold ups because of this. I once set out for home in the west country from Nottingham along with two other cars and while on the A42 my SatNav urgently told me to turn off immediately due to an accident ahead on the M42. The journey home was ten minutes longer due to this diversion. The next day I checked with the others. One of them had a SatNav but not Tom Tom and ended up in the queue around the accident but were directed away from the M42 eventually and lost about an hour. The third car had no Sat Nav and were about 3 hours late. A similar scenario has occurred several times.

I also find that it is valuable when driving through a strange town or city. You really need to concentrate on driving and the traffic not searching for road signs.

Dave
Click to expand...
My sat nav has done this on multiple occasions, the best was knocking 8 hours off a journey back from Gloucester. It took me right round the houses, single track country lanes etc but I got home for tea rather than the early hours of the morning (y)
 
Just curious. Those that are concerned that your satnav could lead a car thief to your home address, why does this concern you? Is your house any more special to a burglar than anyone else's? If someone wants to burgle a house, why do they need to steal a car and check the satnav?
 
Marc said:
Just curious. Those that are concerned that your satnav could lead a car thief to your home address, why does this concern you? Is your house any more special to a burglar than anyone else's? If someone wants to burgle a house, why do they need to steal a car and check the satnav?
Click to expand...
None too sure but some years ago an article that advised against putting the "home address" into satnav might have been about those with high end/high value vehicles i.e. likely a prime target residence for burglary.

Fast forward to 'today', who knows which house might be targeted......so why draw attention to it ???

Afteral, if a thief sees your car as attractive enough to steal they or their criminally minded friends might think your house or the specific area that you live could be easy pickings???
 
Box Brownie said:
None too sure but some years ago an article that advised against putting the "home address" into satnav might have been about those with high end/high value vehicles i.e. likely a prime target residence for burglary.

Fast forward to 'today', who knows which house might be targeted......so why draw attention to it ???

Afteral, if a thief sees your car as attractive enough to steal they or their criminally minded friends might think your house or the specific area that you live could be easy pickings???
Click to expand...
Maybe, but they can just go to posh areas to find such homes. They don't need to steal a car with the home address in the satnav
 
If a car is stolen away from its home address, it means that at least one occupant isn't there.
 
Marc said:
Just curious. Those that are concerned that your satnav could lead a car thief to your home address, why does this concern you? Is your house any more special to a burglar than anyone else's? If someone wants to burgle a house, why do they need to steal a car and check the satnav?
Click to expand...
There were articles advised you against it for reasons that have already been mentioned.

1) If your car is stolen away from home there's a chance the home is empty
2) If it's a high value car there's a chance there's things worth stealing from your house
3) The main reason was for those using valet and dodgy garages where you might have left you keys on the car key fob and they have access to your house.
4) Similar to reason 4, if you've left your car keys in the car (you'd be amazed how many do this)
 
snerkler said:
There were articles advised you against it for reasons that have already been mentioned.

1) If your car is stolen away from home there's a chance the home is empty
2) If it's a high value car there's a chance there's things worth stealing from your house
3) The main reason was for those using valet and dodgy garages where you might have left you keys on the car key fob and they have access to your house.
Click to expand...
Though I don't do this when using reputable garages (they know my home address!) my car has a 'valet' setting, locked with a 4 digit PIN code, that IIRC locks the infotainment system in regard to the satnav and other accesses :thinking:
snerkler said:
4) Similar to reason 4, if you've left your car keys in the car (you'd be amazed how many do this)
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
snerkler said:
1) If your car is stolen away from home there's a chance the home is empty
Click to expand...
And a chance it isn't. Would be a hell of a risk
snerkler said:
2) If it's a high value car there's a chance there's things worth stealing from your house
Click to expand...
See my last reply

Marc said:
Maybe, but they can just go to posh areas to find such homes. They don't need to steal a car with the home address in the satnav
Click to expand...

snerkler said:
3) The main reason was for those using valet and dodgy garages where you might have left you keys on the car key fob and they have access to your house.
4) Similar to reason 4, if you've left your car keys in the car (you'd be amazed how many do this)
Click to expand...
There's no accounting for stupid
 
Very few burglars where I live because it is in a Cul de Sac off a Cul de Sac. If a burglar was spotted, they have little time to escape the area. This has been tested in that a potential burglar was looking around a nearby house and was spotted by a retired policeman (Chief Superintendent) who call 999. The local police stopped him and arrested him before he escaped the Cul de Sac. The target family were on holiday and the burglar a member of his church. Be careful who you tell that you will be on holiday but a good idea to tell the policeman who lives next door. It was interesting that the young constable who made the arrest came round to see my neighbour to say thank thank you for such an accurate description (a pity more of the public are not as good). This young policeman did not realise he was talking to a retired cop which was even more encouraging that any of us would have received the excellent police service.

Dave
 
Another general thought....

I have never kept my car and house together on the same key ring.

Also, as my car key is now a 'keyless' fob as are many/most modern ones. I always remove the "back up" physical key every time it goes into a garage environment. NB I think I have read of any issues re: doing this or not but as the keys have a unique radio code which I understand the local dealerships cannot duplicate(?) but the metal back up key could potentially be copied!
 
Not sure about your key and fob BB but the keys for mine are purely keys to get you into the car if the fob battery is dead. Once in, the fob must be held in a specific spot, presumably so the car's power can induce enough voltage in the fob to actually start the car. Never had to test this theory since the car's told me when the fob battery's on its way out and I keep a spare battery in the glove compartment.
 
Nod said:
Not sure about your key and fob BB but the keys for mine are purely keys to get you into the car if the fob battery is dead. Once in, the fob must be held in a specific spot, presumably so the car's power can induce enough voltage in the fob to actually start the car. Never had to test this theory since the car's told me when the fob battery's on its way out and I keep a spare battery in the glove compartment.
Click to expand...
AFAIK you are correct think you are correct in that without the fob ('dead' battery or not) the car will not start and again AFAIK the alarm will activate.

However, I have no idea if a skilled thief can overcome either situation if they can get into the car. But with the physical key entry can be gained and if nothing else avoiding risk of contents theft.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top