In car insurance certificates recommended

by Gill Montia

Story link: In car insurance certificates recommended

The insurance comparison website, Insurancewide.com, has been alerting drivers to the benefits of keeping a copy of their insurance certificate in the car.

Anyone failing to do this could risk a fine and confiscation of their vehicle, should they be stopped by the police.

Insurance companies are required to submit a driver’s insurance details to the Motor Insurance Database, which forms part of the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB), within 10 days of the policy being taken out.

However, recently a Direct Line customer, whose vehicle was being driven by his daughter, had his car confiscated as the result of a system error.

James Harrison, chief executive of Insurancewide.com, has pointed out that this is a case of guilty until proven innocent but the fact remains that if an insurer is late in providing new policy details to the Motor Insurance Database, a driver can be deemed to be uninsured.

In this respect plans to provide more customers with an electronic copy of their certificate of insurance as soon as it has been purchased are helpful.

According to the MIB, 97.5% of insurers provide details of new motor policies within 14 days of their being set up; 80% achieve this within 48 hours.