MSE News: Drivers struggle to renew road tax

magpiecottage

I did mine a couple of weeks ago.

I notice, though, that the date the Prime Minister boasted of planned tax cuts a new stealth tax was brought in as whenever a car is sold now both the old and new owners will have to tax it for that month.

Norman_Castle

MSE_Helen wrote: »

The DVLA's website has struggled to cope as thousands went online to try and renew their road tax...

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Drivers struggle to renew road tax




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Renewing road tax online has never been an option as it was abolished in 1937.

alastairq

I notice rather a lot of contributors to this thread are of the opinion that,VED should have been paid earlier in the month, or, at a Post Office, etc, and those late payers have only themselves to blame?

We are all aware of the ability to pay VED up to 3 weeks earlier, or more [not before the 5th of the preceding month].

Which is fine if one's budget allows for this to be possible.

Or one is only paying 3p!

But for many, especially those on today's enforced tight budgets, being able to shell out a hundred quid or more, early, maybe isn't possible.

Being able to pay for VED up until the very last minute is extremely useful.

Especially as quite a lot of people get paid monthly...and that pay hits one's account, at the latest, the last banking day before the new month!

Maybe Post Offices, too, are not so accessible, either? Or don't stay open until 9 o'clock at night? Or the queues are incredibly long, as everybody engaged in online business is in front, with 20 parcels each to be weighed, stamped, recorded and posted?

I would not worry too much if the DVLA site is temporarily stuck!

They do have their 5 day let-out clause...[although one's vehicle should not be [seen?] on the road during that time]...so a slightly late payment won't be of concern to them....I suspect.

Iceweasel

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Renewing road tax online has never been an option as it was abolished in 1937.

Now, now Norman it takes people time to get used to changes.

A bit like the MOT Test - seeing as how we haven't had a Ministry of Transport since 'just the other day' in 1981.

As for the general public understanding the difference between DVLA, VOSA, DSA, VOSA, DVSA, etc. - you can forget it as the old names will live on forever.

And don't even think of the NI equivalents.

Strider590

alastairq wrote: »

I notice rather a lot of contributors to this thread are of the opinion that,VED should have been paid earlier in the month, or, at a Post Office, etc, and those late payers have only themselves to blame?

We are all aware of the ability to pay VED up to 3 weeks earlier, or more [not before the 5th of the preceding month].

Which is fine if one's budget allows for this to be possible.

Or one is only paying 3p!

But for many, especially those on today's enforced tight budgets, being able to shell out a hundred quid or more, early, maybe isn't possible.

Being able to pay for VED up until the very last minute is extremely useful.

Especially as quite a lot of people get paid monthly...and that pay hits one's account, at the latest, the last banking day before the new month!

Maybe Post Offices, too, are not so accessible, either? Or don't stay open until 9 o'clock at night? Or the queues are incredibly long, as everybody engaged in online business is in front, with 20 parcels each to be weighed, stamped, recorded and posted?

I would not worry too much if the DVLA site is temporarily stuck!

They do have their 5 day let-out clause...[although one's vehicle should not be [seen?] on the road during that time]...so a slightly late payment won't be of concern to them....I suspect.

A fair view, but not everyone gets paid at the end of the month, my previous employers always paid on the 5th of the month, often leaving people running short from around the 25th onwards.

I think there is a lot of laziness involved, but not just in actually paying up, I think people are too lazy to really get a full understanding of when and how early they can pay.

There are also people who MOT and tax their cars within a few days of each other (those idiots who get held to ransom by dodgy garages). They leave the MOT until the last minute as they don't realise you can get it done earlier, but because they don't want to tax a car that's going to cost a fortune to fix they also hold back on the tax. It's all pretty silly, but that is how a lot of people think, too lazy to educate themselves using the wealth of information available.

My MOT and VED are split 6 months apart, which is probably a part of why my 10yr old beast hasn't failed an MOT since I bought it in 2008.

So basically, yes there are mitigating circumstances for many who are stuck trying to pay up, but in a lot of cases they've only bought it upon themselves.

Norman_Castle

Iceweasel wrote: »

Now, now Norman it takes people time to get used to changes.

A bit like the MOT Test - seeing as how we haven't had a Ministry of Transport since 'just the other day' in 1981.

The MOT test is still referred to as the MOT test https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/the-mot-test and it still exists.

Road tax does not exist. It is no more. It has ceased to be. It is an ex tax.
VED is not road tax.

Bigtwin

Government department in massively expensive IT failure shocker.

System

Road Tax became the common, familiar name for the annual vehicle tax long before the majority of us were born and it stuck and will continue to be called that regardless of the protestations of the pedants.

No different to Hoover becoming the common term for a vacuum cleaner or Biro the common name for a ball-point pen.

Hintza

Just went on to check something and the DVLA website is down, the phone lines are busy all 249 of them, some things never change with government departments.

ElkyElky

Gee, it really annoys some people that others call it road tax. I call it road tax like the majority of the people, knowing full well it isn't 'road tax' but actually VED and based on the emissions of the vehicle.

Who cares what people call it. We all know what is meant when they call it 'road tax'. Get a life. Find something productive to whine about.

On that note, my road tax is due at the end of next month and I always buy it when the reminder comes in otherwise I'll end up forgetting. £280 something or other, pretty sure my road tax has gone up a fiver since last year. Hate road tax but what can ya do other than pay up and shut up. Road tax, argh!