Car insurance

[Chris KC]

[quote pid='20941' dateline='1545406029']
My ‘other’ cars tax and insurance are six months apart and the insurance is paid by direct debit. On one occasion all the paperwork came through at the appropriate time so all was fine until I tried to tax the car on line six months later.  DVLA had no record of the car being insured. Call to insure revealed that they had failed to take the payment out of the bank and therefore I was indeed not insured. I should have checked my bank account more carefully but it isn’t always obvious with so many direct debits and standing orders.
 
So be warned it isn’t just ‘the small print’ that one needs to read!
 
Roger

That would have been an interesting situation if you had been stopped by the police, with the insurance company failing to take the money but still issuing the certificate.

There was no insurance certificate issued.
 
The paperwork was the usual 20 pages or so of policy inclusions exclusions etc with the covering letter telling me ‘you have nothing to do your insurance will be automatically renewed on…….’ So I did nothing.
 
The insurers did say that as it was their error they would have stood any claim against me during the time I wasn’t insured. As insurance can’t be backdated they did not make a charge for the period I wasn’t covered.
 
I wonder however if there had been a claim if the insurer would have honoured their word.
[/quote]
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Don't forget money is only part of the story - you would still arguably have been driving without insurance and that could have consequences, however benevolent your insurer was feeling.

[Roger Goldthorpe]

[quote pid='20941' dateline='1545406029']
My ‘other’ cars tax and insurance are six months apart and the insurance is paid by direct debit. On one occasion all the paperwork came through at the appropriate time so all was fine until I tried to tax the car on line six months later.  DVLA had no record of the car being insured. Call to insure revealed that they had failed to take the payment out of the bank and therefore I was indeed not insured. I should have checked my bank account more carefully but it isn’t always obvious with so many direct debits and standing orders.
 
So be warned it isn’t just ‘the small print’ that one needs to read!
 
Roger

That would have been an interesting situation if you had been stopped by the police, with the insurance company failing to take the money but still issuing the certificate.

There was no insurance certificate issued.
 
The paperwork was the usual 20 pages or so of policy inclusions exclusions etc with the covering letter telling me ‘you have nothing to do your insurance will be automatically renewed on…….’ So I did nothing.
 
The insurers did say that as it was their error they would have stood any claim against me during the time I wasn’t insured. As insurance can’t be backdated they did not make a charge for the period I wasn’t covered.
 
I wonder however if there had been a claim if the insurer would have honoured their word.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Don't forget money is only part of the story - you would still arguably have been driving without insurance and that could have consequences, however benevolent your insurer was feeling.
[/quote]

…………And I am the first to condemn those who drive without insurance……….
 
It just goes to show how easily one can overlook such a simple transaction with potentially disastrous consequences.
 
Roger