Motor Insurance Database Showing As Uninsured

noojam55

Hi,

I wondered if anybody could help. My car is on automatic renewal with one of the subsidaries of the Admiral Group. My insurance ended and started at 17:45 last night.

Last night I phoned to ensure that all was OK as they hadn't attempted to take any money off of my credit card for it. I was assured that it was OK and that I was defintley covered (this was after 17:45). I checked on the website www.askmib.com at 6PM and I was showing as insured.

However this morning when I went to check, before going to work it showed as "Not on motor insurance database - do not drive". I phoned my credit card company and they confirmed that the credit card was active and good and that nothing had even been attempted by the insurance company to take the money.

Naturally after waking up a good friend to take me to work, I phoned the insurance company who assured me that I was insured and that the reason why it does not show on the database for 14 days is "fraud reasons" - and that as long as I have my certificate, I am insured.

After asking them whether the police use this databse and being assured they did, I was informed that if I get stopped then I can expect to be asked for proof of certificate of insurance and then this would be adequate enough to be released on my way.

Could anybody with a knowledge of the MIB Database help?
Thanks,

oldagetraveller

Although not fully conversant with the MIDB I do know there is a delay. My car tax and insurance both renew a few days apart, insurance first. As a result of this I am not able to renew road tax online because the MIDB has not been updated and and the DVLA website always inform that there is no insurance for the vehicle. I refuse to pay extra for 6 months tax so this doesn't happen.
So it's a 12 mile round trip to nearest P.O. with insurance cert, etc.! Used to be 4 miles until latest P.O. closures.

noojam55

Funnily enough, that is what the guy said on the phone with regard to the DVLA and mentioned fraud. But I've never seen the delay before? On any of mine or my friends policies? It seems strange to happen this one time?

Thanks for your help.

Oscar_The_Grouch

The rules are that any insurer has to have 95% of vehicles on the MID within 7 days of going on cover. In most cases, this is academic as the insurer will put the vehicle on to the database immediately the policy starts so if you are insured with a "direct insurer" there should be no delay.

Where there is a broker involved, there are 2 ways the information gets onto the MID:

1. the broker does it on behalf of the Insurer
2. the insurer does it the next day.

Where it's option 2, this relies on the transmision of data via Electronic Data Interchange or EDI. If there is something wrong with the transmission or a missing digit at any point, this can cause the EDI message to fail. It doesn't mean you have no cover; it just means that there has to be human intervention to correct the data.

Sorry about the ramble on here, but I have a friend who works in EDI and he goes on and on about it!!

The person that told you your details would not appear on the MID for 14 days was probably telling you something they have been "told to say to get you to go away".

The thing to do is change your renewal date; start your next policy 7 days earlier and you won't have the problem again.

noojam55

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

The rules are that any insurer has to have 95% of vehicles on the MID within 7 days of going on cover. In most cases, this is academic as the insurer will put the vehicle on to the database immediately the policy starts so if you are insured with a "direct insurer" there should be no delay.

Where there is a broker involved, there are 2 ways the information gets onto the MID:

1. the broker does it on behalf of the Insurer
2. the insurer does it the next day.

Where it's option 2, this relies on the transmision of data via Electronic Data Interchange or EDI. If there is something wrong with the transmission or a missing digit at any point, this can cause the EDI message to fail. It doesn't mean you have no cover; it just means that there has to be human intervention to correct the data.

Sorry about the ramble on here, but I have a friend who works in EDI and he goes on and on about it!!

The person that told you your details would not appear on the MID for 14 days was probably telling you something they have been "told to say to get you to go away".

The thing to do is change your renewal date; start your next policy 7 days earlier and you won't have the problem again.

As saracastic as it sounds, and absolutely not intended that way, thank you for your interesting insight into how it works. This would explain why this evening I magically appeared on the database!

flutterbyuk25

When I worked at DVLA we were advised that it takes normally 78 hours for insurance companies to update MID from renewal/purchase of insurance.

x

Quote

And herein lies the problem. No-one seems to have the first clue how long it takes to update.

Overnight
24 hours
48 hours
72 hours
7 days
3 weeks

Take your pick.

What's the big problem with going to the Post Office? I know you can renew your tax online, but there might sometimes be circumstances when you can't. You didn't always used to be able to.

As for the person who refuses to tax their car for six months so this sort of thing doesn't happen? More fool them.