The threat of points on your licence and a £60 fine has turned in-car hands-free kits from useful add-ons to essential accessories.

Although a Bluetooth headset is a handy and cheap option - particularly for multi-vehicle users - a fully fitted in-car set-up has better sound quality. We tried 10 of the most popular Bluetooth systems to find the best.

The type of kit we preferred came ready to link to the vehicle's car stereo via standard connectors. This means the hands-free device detects an incoming call and pauses the sound source to put the phone through the vehicle's speakers. All our test kits were equipped at the very least with a mute lead to allow this.