Renewing car tax online - insurance?

Chippy_Minton_2

Why do you need UK road tax if your car is not in the UK?

flutterbyuk25

You will struggle with this as the MID isn't normally updated instantly/in 24hours. It depends on insurer, but when I worked at DVLA we were told it takes up to 72hours to update. Check with the insurer to see how long it takes for them to update MID before purchasing.

Your other option is to buy the day policy and get someone (family/friend etc) to use that, plus your V5C and MOT to tax in Post Office in UK and have the disc sent out to you.

Or you can post insurance, MOT, V5C and payment to local DVLA office and they can tax it for you and send to you abroad if you enclose letter with your address. However this is a very risky option, as if the letter is received after the 1st your insurance will not be valid and therefore cannot get tax.

HTH

x

zzzLazyDaisy

Have you checked what two weeks' insurance would be? There often isn't very much in it, as most of the cost is in the admin fee. That would get you over both dates and save you a lot of messing about.

Quentin

Holding insurance for July is pointless in this exercise.

When issuing tax, they are only interested in the car being taxed on the day the tax disc comes into force.

jammin_2

Chippy_Minton wrote: »

Why do you need UK road tax if your car is not in the UK?

Because it's registered in the UK and we bring it back frequently for visits.

flutterbyuk25 wrote: »

You will struggle with this as the MID isn't normally updated instantly/in 24hours. It depends on insurer, but when I worked at DVLA we were told it takes up to 72hours to update. Check with the insurer to see how long it takes for them to update MID before purchasing.

As it happens, prior to opening this thread, I bought a one-day policy from ecarinsurance.co.uk yesterday, for today. This morning I checked the MID online and my car was not showing as insured. I sent ecarinsurance.co.uk an email asking them what's the story, and they emailed back saying that they do not inform the MID of Short Term policies (their words). I replied stating that it says on their website that they do indeed inform the MID of policies, and I can't find anywhere where it suggests that this excludes short term policies, so please inform the MID accordingly. A couple of hours later, the MID was showing my car as being insured.

So, what I've learnt from that is, insurance companies can cause the MID to be updated more or less straight away - if you push for them to.

flutterbyuk25 wrote: »

Your other option is to buy the day policy and get someone (family/friend etc) to use that, plus your V5C and MOT to tax in Post Office in UK and have the disc sent out to you.

Didn't think of that! This may be a very good option. May I ask though, say I buy a policy now, in advance, for one day on 01/08/2009, can I tomorrow print out the policy certificate which would have been be emailed to me, post it over to someone in the UK together with my V5C (car is under three years old), and, say they receive it on Monday next week - can they go and tax it straight away, before the 01/08? Or would they have to wait until the 01/08, hence buying the tax on they day the insurance is valid and on the day the tax is due?

flutterbyuk25 wrote: »

Or you can post insurance, MOT, V5C and payment to local DVLA office and they can tax it for you and send to you abroad if you enclose letter with your address. However this is a very risky option, as if the letter is received after the 1st your insurance will not be valid and therefore cannot get tax.

Thanks flutterbyuk25 - another option to consider.

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

Have you checked what two weeks' insurance would be? There often isn't very much in it, as most of the cost is in the admin fee. That would get you over both dates and save you a lot of messing about.

Good idea. £51.49, compared with £13 for one day. I like your thinking, but that'd be a last resort if I'm honest. Prefer to save the 40 quid.

Quentin

jammin wrote: »

May I ask though, say I buy a policy now, in advance, for one day on 01/08/2009, can I tomorrow print out the policy certificate which would have been be emailed to me, post it over to someone in the UK together with my V5C (car is under three years old), and, say they receive it on Monday next week - can they go and tax it straight away, before the 01/08? Or would they have to wait until the 01/08, hence buying the tax on they day the insurance is valid and on the day the tax is due?

YES!

You need only show them a certificate showing the car insured for the day the tax comes into force! (Though beware jobsworth po officials who don't realise that genuine certificates are now printed off on line!)

Quentin

Here's the moneysaving way to achieve your objective:

1) Just buy an annual policy from prudential to start on 1/8/09

2) Once policy is set up, buy your tax.

3) Pru give you 14 days from receipt of the documents to change your mind and get a full refund. Exercise this right.

4) Job done. FREE!

jammin_2

Quentin - once again - thank you. Great tip indeed.

The only flaw in that is, according to Pru's website:

For car insurance and breakdown cover, you are entitled to cancel your policy within 14 days of receipt and your premium or part premium (as applicable) will be refunded in full provided you have not made a claim under the policy and provided you have returned your certificate or policy documents (as applicable) to us.

Being that I don't live at the UK address the car is registered to and hence policy documents would be posted to, it might be a problem for me to cause the policy documents to be returned to Pru within 14 days of receipt.

However, your idea has prompted me to now search for other insurance companies who offer a similar full-refund option, yet who offer documents by email (or else don't expect the return of paper documents).

Quentin

I know swiftcover let you print everything off on line. They also let you cancel like this, but do charge £25.

davemorton

I thought all on-line insurance dealers had to give you the 14 rule, due to distance selling (?). If so, use an insurer like Adrian Flux or as Quentin says Swiftcover, as they do everything on-line, then you can also just tax it on-line as they will inform the DVLA with it being a years cover. Just look about for the cheapest cancellation charge, but I would imagine there are some out there that are free.