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any - missed tax renewal - gordonbennet

close shave bit of panic thismorning.

Opened the DVLA letter to discover SWMBO road tax ran out end of Jan, we must have missed the reminder somehow, luckily the letter was a last chance and its now retaxed, only glad she didn't get pulled or that the DVLA didn't auto generate a fine.

I have put all cars on the text reminder service for MOT tests, but is there does anyone know the same service for VED?

Never had this trouble when the tax disc was in the window, so i'm going to write the expiry dates in felt tip on the inside of the screen in the usual place.

any - missed tax renewal - badbusdriver

close shave bit of panic thismorning.

Opened the DVLA letter to discover SWMBO road tax ran out end of Jan, we must have missed the reminder somehow, luckily the letter was a last chance and its now retaxed, only glad she didn't get pulled or that the DVLA didn't auto generate a fine.

I have put all cars on the text reminder service for MOT tests, but is there does anyone know the same service for VED?

Never had this trouble when the tax disc was in the window, so i'm going to write the expiry dates in felt tip on the inside of the screen in the usual place.

I pay mine by DD for just this reason. I know it works out dearer, but it isn't much.

any - missed tax renewal - ExA35Owner

The AA app will check via databases for you and then nag via your mobile phone. You can add other reminders too. MoT, tax, insurance, servicing.

any - missed tax renewal - RichardW

There's no charge for putting it on annual DD.

any - missed tax renewal - skidpan

There's no charge for putting it on annual DD.

Yes there is. Mine is due at the end of the month. £30 or £2.63 a month (£31.50???). I make that an interest rate of about 5%.

any - missed tax renewal - Avant

I thought the extra amount was charged only if you paid monthly or every 6 months, rather than annually in advance for the whole 12 months.

Edited by Avant on 19/02/2018 at 12:02

any - missed tax renewal - RichardW

There's no charge for putting it on annual DD.

Yes there is. Mine is due at the end of the month. £30 or £2.63 a month (£31.50???). I make that an interest rate of about 5%.

That's monthly - if you opt for a one of payment annually by DD it renews atuomatically at no extra cost.

any - missed tax renewal - Engineer Andy

There's no charge for putting it on annual DD.

Yes there is. Mine is due at the end of the month. £30 or £2.63 a month (£31.50???). I make that an interest rate of about 5%.

That's monthly - if you opt for a one of payment annually by DD it renews atuomatically at no extra cost.

Correct Richard - the 6 month one-off payment also costs (or at least it did for me on my form, at 25p more each time) slightly more. Odd though that they say the 'one off payment' is a direct debit - does that mean you are directing them to take whatever it costs each year until you cancel it, or just this one year?

Probably the latter, but if so, I don't see the point in doing so as you can only set it up by handing it over AT the local post office, so you may as well pay it using your debit card anyway (its not as though that takes ages to do).

If it is the former, then that could be just as bad as not paying, as people often forget to cancel direct debits, say, after selling a car, moving home (e.g. for ground rent or service charges), or, obviously, when that person dies. Certain direct debits, such as for council tax, can be set up on an ongoing basis (more of a 'continuous payment', similar to that which the RAC & Co like for reduced-price breakdown cover) to pay whatever the council says each month should be paid, but most are down to the individual to arrange the amount taken and duration.

I suppose, unlike with MOTs, the DVLA may think its not worth them just emailing/texting us as the amount in VED we owe changes each year, and we'd have to check the blank forms we would have to fill in, either online, or (especially for those who aren't computer-savvy) at the post office that they were wholy correct. At least the automatically filled out form (just requiring us to mark a cross to what we want) in the post makes mistakes less likely, and could be caught early enough to be changed before needing to pay.

any - missed tax renewal - Manatee

Exactly the same this morning, Done it now. I don't recall any earlier reminders but I'm wondering if I signed up for email or SMS ones and missed them.

any - missed tax renewal - Engineer Andy

Exactly the same this morning, Done it now. I don't recall any earlier reminders but I'm wondering if I signed up for email or SMS ones and missed them.

As far as I can tell from looking at my most recent VED reminder (sent in early Dec 2017, due on 31st Dec [paid at my local post office]) I got in the post, as well as on the gov.uk website, there isn't anything to change reminders to email or texted ones from postal versions. I would suggest, for those who don't receive a reminder, that they contact the DVLA initially to check:

  • That one was sent in the post (and when), and;
  • Whether it was sent to the correct address. If someone has moved, or a car recently changed ownership, sometimes the owner doesn't tell the DVLA of this (or doesn't send the correct form or it gets lost in the post/goes to the wrong address), or the DVLA don't update the details, or the reminder itself gets lost in the post.

For postal problems, its worth reporting this to Royal Mail, as sometimes they could have dodgy staff opening post in the hope of stealing items, or, more commonly these days people's and their car's identity. I suspect its more prevalent in temporary staff, e.g. those taken on around the busy Christmas period for example.

Even outsiders, i.e. thieves, can do the same - a man drove all the way from his home in the London area to my home town 40-50 miles away to steal post (identities) such as bank/credit card statements etc - he targeted those homes (especially flats) with mail boxes, stuffed them with the free newspaper or suchlike, then followed the postman round, also gaining entry on the tradesman's button and taking the post that was jammed into the boxes because the flap wouldn't close, due to the newspaper. Luckily I saw him acting suspiciously, spoke to neighbours who told me about missing post, and then reported this to the Police, who, with the help of the sorting office, nabbed him in a 'sting' operation the following week.

To be honest though, I suspect the issue is most likely with the DVLA computer system not automatically sending out reminders at all or to the wrong address, then just with the reminder just getting 'lost' in the post (some sorting offices are worse than others).

any - missed tax renewal - gordonbennet

Glad its not just us, we were mortified, we never try to cheat the system, but can't help being scatty, it's been a wake up call.

Interesting that MT had the same problem today, i wonder if the intial reminders didn't go out reliably last month.

On the subject of post, we sometimes have the odd letter go astray, our bungalow was built years after the others here so our address is 2b, which on more unoffical communications we get them to address us as 2bee, as depending the case used the odd letters has gone to 26 or 28, we also had a huge bundle of letters one day from the PO with an explanation and apology note, apparently they had a thief at the sorting office, must have been a right game trying to piece all the letters for various addresses when they raided his stash, it had been going on for some time.

The present postie doesn't make such mistakes, anyway he knows our house is the one with a mail box set in the gates and three dogs are going ballistic as he puts the mail in, when he rings the box for a signed delivery we always apologise for the racket, but he doesn't seem to mind.