Renewing car tax online - insurance?

jammin_2

So my car tax runs out at the end of this month. Need to renew it, plan to do so online.

I'm in Europe at the moment, have my car insured locally and so it's not on the MID.

I intend to insure it in the UK for one day, using a company such as tempcover.com. One day's cover will cost £13 and will show the car as insured on the MID, for that day. So, that's the day I'll renew my car tax.

Question is, the Tax Disc Application website says, "Please note, to complete a relicensing transaction valid insurance needs to be on the database on the day the new tax disc comes into force."

So, what does this mean, that the new tax disc will not come in to force until 01/08/09, and my insurance needs to be on the MID for this date? In which case, am I better waiting until 01/08/09 before I insure / tax? Does this have any implications with regards to being a day late taxing the car? If I insure / tax now, does the tax disc get issued today, or do they wait until 01/08/09, re-check the MID and then issue the tax disc?

Hintza

Hmm think you could struggle with this to tie it all in. If you are abroad are you not breaking their rules as well by not registering the car wherever you are?

jammin_2

Hintza wrote: »

If you are abroad are you not breaking their rules as well by not registering the car wherever you are?

Na, not for the first six months. You have six months to register it in the Member State of residence, assuming you're still resident by that time. There's an EU directive on it I found a while back. I'll try and find it again, hang on..

Edit: here it is.

Quentin

jammin wrote: »

If I insure / tax now, does the tax disc get issued today, or do they wait until 01/08/09, re-check the MID and then issue the tax disc?

If you want to take out tax for 1/8/09, then irrespective of what date you apply, the insurance cover must be in place on that date. (eg you can apply today, have no current insurance cover, but must have a policy that covers your car on 1/8/09)

daveyjp

Get insurance, check it's on MID then buy your tax. It will start on 1 August if everything is in order, no further check is carried out.

Quentin

It won't work if the insurance taken out doesn't cover 1/8/09.

jammin_2

Quentin wrote: »

If you want to take out tax for 1/8/09, then irrespective of what date you apply, the insurance cover must be in place on that date. (eg you can apply today, have no current insurance cover, but must have a policy that covers your car on 1/8/09)

Thanks Quentin.

Thing is though, if I apply today, I have to have insurance today otherwise I cannot proceed with the online application. It tells me:

Insurance could not be found


Sorry it has not been possible to locate insurance details for the vehicle on the Motor Insurance Database at this time and you are unable to complete your application for a tax disc using this service.

So, possibly there are two solutions:

• Insure today (£13 for one day's insurance), wait for 24 hours for DVLA's link to the MID to update. Come back tomorrow, apply for the tax disc which will take effect from 01/08/09. Re-insure on 01/08/09 for another one day's insurance, so paying another £13. Total cost £26 and I'm not convinced that it'll all go swimmingly, what with DVLA's link to the MID seemingly not being in real time.

alternatively,

• Do nothing until 01/08/09. Insure for one day as per previous plan, apply tax disc online either same day or next day (again, depending on whether DVLA "sees" the car as being insured on the MID). Total cost £13. Any implications with the DVLA though, with the car being untaxed for maybe a day, possibly two?

jammin_2

daveyjp wrote: »

Get insurance, check it's on MID then buy your tax. It will start on 1 August if everything is in order, no further check is carried out.

Well this is what I was hoping, but are you sure? I mean, when buying car tax online, and the DVLA site links to the MID, does it check only that insurance is valid now, or does it check that insurance is valid now and will be valid on 01/08/09? If not the latter, does it not re-check on 01/08/09, to ensure insurance is still valid, before issuing the tax disc?

Quentin wrote: »

It won't work if the insurance taken out doesn't cover 1/8/09.

Ah, so are you saying it checks both that insurance is valid now and will be valid on 01/08/09?

Quentin

jammin wrote: »

:
So, possibly there are two solutions:

• Insure today (£13 for one day's insurance), wait for 24 hours for DVLA's link to the MID to update. Come back tomorrow, apply for the tax disc which will take effect from 01/08/09. Re-insure on 01/08/09 for another one day's insurance, so paying another £13. Total cost £26 and I'm not convinced that it'll all go swimmingly, what with DVLA's link to the MID seemingly not being in real time.

alternatively,

• Do nothing until 01/08/09. Insure for one day as per previous plan, apply tax disc online either same day or next day (again, depending on whether DVLA "sees" the car as being insured on the MID). Total cost £13. Any implications with the DVLA though, with the car being untaxed for maybe a day, possibly two?

Your plan (A) won't work - as posted previously, the insurance needs to cover 1/8/09. So when you try to buy tax online it will say no insurance in place, as it checks for cover from 1/8/09.

Plan B might work, assuming the insurer is on the ball - they don't all update as quickly as you seem to think.

Taxing one day late makes no difference (as long as the car is not seen on the road at any time untaxed).

Quentin

jammin wrote: »

Ah, so are you saying it checks both that insurance is valid now and will be valid on 01/08/09?

No.

It just checks that there is cover in place for the first day the tax comes into force.

If there is, then the application is processed and the disc sent out in advance.

If a policy is in place that expires prior to (in this example) 1/8/09, then the online application will fail.

jammin_2

Got it.

Thanks for your help Quentin.