Should I keep my insurance/registration papers in my car or in my pocket?

Johno100

Licence in my wallet, comes in handy for ID, shame I am too old to need it for proof of age.

Printed off insurance certificate in the glove box. As everything is electronic nowadays I don't consider that a problem as if it goes missing I can just download another, come to think of it I could wallpaper the house with them.:rotfl:

V5 and MOT safely filed away at home.

In addition:

Askmid - https://www.askmid.com ,

Direct Gov MOT checker -https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history-vehicle#what-you-need-to-know

Ford EDIS system - http://www.etis.ford.com/vehicleRegSelector.do

all bookmarked in my smart phone.

Mankysteve

Captain_Flack. wrote: »

Where do you dig these things up from?

Did that come in when they removed the blood test from the RTA?

Its common for people to buy pay monthly car insurance to get the cover note the cancel the insurance. I would just stick to the driving photo card in my wallet so you can prove you who you say are. They can check mot and insurance via there date terminal or a quick phone call.

Dukesy

I have my "big green file" in my house. It has everything in it for every car we own, including all the insurance docs, v5, mot certs and so on. They are never kept in my car as I don't like the idea of someone getting their hands on all its paperwork if it was nicked.

When my car was written off last year, the police (and ambulance) attended as the other driver had knocked me over before she hit my car. They checked all of my details without needing to actually see any documentation in person, and on that basis I'd say there is no point in carrying your paperwork around with you.

Richard53

Driving/riding locally, I leave them safe at home. If I am going further afield in the UK, I have a zipped nylon case which I use to carry V5, insurance certificate, MoT and driving licence. I change the contents depending on what vehicle I am using. The case stays with me, not the bike or car. It's not so much that these things are necessary in the UK, but it might make a traffic stop quick and easy if I can show who I am and that the vehicle is fully legal, without further investigation. Having said that, I probably wouldn't bother unless I was going to be away for a few days, and having to produce it all within 7 days was going to cause me bother.

Going out of the UK, I always carry all of the above. In some countries it is a requirement, but even if it's not, it's easier to have it all there to show rather than hang around while they decided what to do with Johnny Foreigner. If I were going to a country where corruption was endemic, I would probably take several photocopies of each document for handing out, and keep the originals buried well down in the luggage.

As others have pointed out, the ehow advice is for the US, where it is a legal requirement to carry certain documents. Doesn't apply here.

Jamie_Carter

Captain_Flack. wrote: »

Where do you dig these things up from?

Did that come in when they removed the blood test from the RTA?

Don't you mean RTC??

Captain_Flack.

Jamie_Carter wrote: »

Don't you mean RTC??

No Road Traffic Act.:D

Aretnap

Mankysteve wrote: »

Its common for people to buy pay monthly car insurance to get the cover note the cancel the insurance. I would just stick to the driving photo card in my wallet so you can prove you who you say are. They can check mot and insurance via there date terminal or a quick phone call.

Indeed, but as dacouch alluded to in post 5 the certificate still has an important purpose. If you present a valid certificate at the roadside a police officer has no right to seize your car - even if he believes that it's not valid. That might not stop him seizing the car if it shows up as uninsured due to an error on the MIB database,* but the seizure would be unlawful and you'd automatically be entitled to have the the release fee refunded and for compensation for consequential losses (eg taxi fares).

If you don't present a certificate and the cop reasonably believes that you're not insured then he can legally seize your car. In that situation you have no automatic right to compensation if it turn out that you do have a valid policy in place and you're left appealing to the police's better nature to get your release fee back.

That sounds like as good a reason as any for keeping the insurance certificate in the car. I wouldn't keep the V5C in the car though.

*The database isn't perfect and such mistakes do happen sometimes, particularly when the policy has only recently been taken out.

ioscorpio

RTA Road Traffic Accident
RTC Road Traffic Collision

I used to work in the claims industry and RTA was the terminology used.

spacey2012

The danger of keeping a original insurance document in the car is if you are involved in a serious RTC, the document you or your relatives may require is nowhere to be found.

In the days of insurance companies trying it on as a national sport, not the best idea.
If it offers third party cover for other cars and the car gets screwed, the local chav is now in possession of a valid insurance certificate that covers other cars.

Quite a handy thing to have for a thief, they get a driving licence as well and the trouble caused is not worth contemplating.

londonTiger

Police would much prefer to use the MID database than to ask for paperwork. By all means keep a paper copy if you have an unusual insurance situation like if you are insured as a person to drive any passenger vehicle, like someone who moves car hire fleet vehicles around.

Or if you're travelling to Europe and have EU cover and the countries you are visiting do not have access to the UK MID.

Otherwise it's a complete waste of time and a security liablity (more so the logbook rather than the insurance certificate - although having any paperwork with your address on is a liability).

Police will never ask you for your insurance documents or your v5 documents so why bother with it?

If your car is towed away by police and they will only release the car if you provide proof of insurance and ownership it might bebetter to have that at home so you can retrieve it than to tell the jobsworth at the impound that the documents are in the car - which he would respond "sorry so I am not authorised to remove items from the car" -