I have found out something this week that might be interesting even to the DVLA.
The reason that there are alot of cars that have no road tax, is because the owners are insuring the cars in thier own country, and with that they think that is okay to drive over here with no tax or Mot. Until there is an accident.
|
I know a few non UK residents who are all law abiding - they tax the car in the country of registration (so have to do the MOT equivalent as well). However I believe if they keep the vehicle for more than 6 months in the UK then it has to be re-registered here (if I understood correctly). I assume that they could not tax the car here unless they registered it here. To drive over here they need European wide third party cover from their own country. Anyone driving a battered foreign reg car, might as well display a big notice with "POLICE, please pull me over" down my way.
Don't forget UK drivers sometimes take their cars over to France assuming their insurance is european wide
|
"Don't forget UK drivers sometimes take their cars over to France assuming their insurance is european wide"
Tha's because all insurance policies have to cover you for the whole of Europe, 3rd party only.
|
|
|
|
I tried to renew the motorbike tax online. Found a slight flaw in the system.
If your insurance and tax need renewing in the same month you will have to renew the Tax Disc at the Post Office.
We renewed our insurance on Sat. 11th Aug. We asked the insurance co. how long to update the database, two to three days was the reply, we then tried to buy our road tax on Friday 17th and "unable to verify insurance details" message came up.
Contacted insurance company again to be told the database takes upto one calendar month to update.
Yet another well thought out IT project.
|
But your car can be confiscated and crushed if you don't have valid and current insurance; if the data base is out of date you could lose your car thanks to IT incompetence
|
|
|
Gmac,
I think the trick is to have the insurance renewal a few days after Tax is due or out of phase with Tax completely. If you change your vehicle a long time before the ins. renewal date then the insurance company will just adjust the details and you pay(or are credited) with difference in premiums, but renewal date stays the same.
Anyway point is you need to plan when you buy another vehicle so to aviod Tax, ins and MOT all falling on same date. Using dealer "free 1 week" ins. and buying 6 months Tax one year then 1 years tax the next are all ways of knocking these costs out of sync.
|
My old insurance was still valid when I went to Tax.
Sounds like my old insurance was not recorded on the database DVLA use for insurance checking.
Also backs up my lack of confidence in any automated system introduced by a government body. I was stopped last year by a Traffic Patrol (yes they do still exist in some parts of the country) on the A19 in Cleveland/N. Yorks. border. The reason for the stop, it was early March and still a little early for someone to be out on a bike this had raised the officers suspicions, a quick computer check had the bike reported as being stolen in Aberdeen. The bike has never been to Aberdeen and has never been stolen.
Why would I want to stagger everything to do with the bike and car throughout the year ? I want to insure, tax and MOT it once and know that August is the month for the bike and November is the month for the car. Job done, forget about it for the rest of the year. I can't be bothered with this Tax it in January, MOT it in April, Insure it in September stuff. I'd forget something. It's easier just to keep everything together.
|
"I can't be bothered with this Tax it in January, MOT it in April, Insure it in September stuff. I'd forget something. It's easier just to keep everything together."
It spreads the cost. For me, the three of those together are now about seven hundred, and will be knocking a thousand as the new road tax bites next year and onwards so I'd rather not do it all in one month.
|
>>"It spreads the cost"
That's down to personal finances and how you structure yours. I know roughly how much I need to save each month to give me the money at the end of twelve months at renewal time. The money is building up, and working for me, in the interim.
|
Agree with dispstick.
Problem is that if you fail the MOT and are presented with a hefty bill for repair, you may not have saved enough money to cover this and pay for tax and possibly insurance (although many pay monthly).
But if you have money enough to cover these costs at all times, then no problem.
I also wonder if the insurance update time for the government database is down to the insurance company rather than the government. Hopefully someone who works in that industry can tell us.
|
Agree with dispstick. Problem is that if you fail the MOT and are presented with a hefty bill for repair you may not have saved enough money to cover this and pay for tax and possibly insurance (although many pay monthly).
Repairs are a separate budget. If you service the vehicle regularly then you have a pretty good idea what is coming up.
OK, there are exceptions to this like EGR valves resulting in blown engines but no amount of moving the MOT, insurance and tax months will help you out with a 5k blown engine bill.
People manage their money differently. My personal preference is to deal with the paperwork once and have done with it.
|
|
|
|
|
The reason that there are alot of cars that have no road tax is because the owners are insuring the cars in thier own country
You can not currently insure a car in different country if it has foreign plates. It's a myth.
--------------------
[Nissan 2.2 dCi are NOT Renault engines. Grrr...]
|
You can not currently insure a car in different country if it has foreign plates. It's a myth.
How is it a myth ? Most insurance companies are global anyway. You can go to XYZ in England or XYZ in Germany. One might be plc, the other GmbH or whatever but they will still be part of the same group.
P.S. I just got a quote for the bike from a company in another European country (just for a cost comparison) and had no issues obtaining the quote and they are quite happy to insure the bike even though it's registered in another country. Insurance is insurance whether you crash in Portugal or Finland you still have a repair bill.
|
How is it a myth ?
It's a myth because no regular foreign company will insure British resident in British spec car, on British plates for use in Britain. That's not only because odds and beyond regular calculation that Helga or Svetlana in foreign call centre can do using their web forms but also because you can't just join insurance market in foreign country by printing out attractive enough number to anyone who asks. There are securities to be made, laws to be observed, rules to be followed and so on, so forth. Cost of specialist insurance companies, that would take one off approach and actually calculate the odds to provide you with such bizzare quote wouldn't leave you with much to justify saving £200 on tax disc.
People who drive without tax discs do so because penalties and odds of getting caught are much lower than cost of any insurance + tax. Not because they found brilliant Fully Comprehensive quote for their battered Ford Escort from Borat & Co. in a Principality of Cracosia.
--------------------
[Nissan 2.2 dCi are NOT Renault engines. Grrr...]
|
The German insurance company I use insures my two German plated cars and my UK plated car without any problem.German insurance is in three parts Third part,Part,Fully Comp,and you get free unlimited green card for all EU countries and a policy printed in English so I can tax the UK based car,I must admit that I do have both a German and UK address.
But Smarttrams is correct in saying that the UK enforcement of traffic violations is the joke of Europe,having said that most of the polish I deal with their cars are properly taxed and insured as one said to me you have no chance of getting caught in the UK but crossing Germany with an unisured car is risk not worth taking and when they return to Poland any unpaid bills and fines will be waiting for them the Polish and Czech police are pretty tough and thorough by UK standards.
|
|
|
|
