FYI: Check your car IS registered AS insured !

In a few SECONDS you can double-check that your car is OK...

Listened to a feature on BBC Radio 4's You & Yours the other day where they were raising the issue of the NATIONAL MID database of cars WITH insurance - ie that (a) stops the police from siezing your car as uninsured; (b) allows you to road tax it online; etc.

There's an "ASK MID" (Motor Insurance Database) website run by the Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB) given responsibility for collating all the UK's insured cars, that you can just input your car's reg # and double-check that your insurer has got your reg # on there properly...

http://www.askmid.com

Worth a few seconds for a little bit extra peace of mind...

The Man from Del Monte, he say yeeesssss

Good find. Fortunately, I'm legal.

interesting, found someones car that isnt

Interesting find. All but one of my previous cars are no longer insured. Written off I expect

One of my cars isn't insured and it says it is!

I just checked my previous car KE52OJZ i think that car may have been written off too, i feel sad now. If its sold to a garage would it show as not insured too???

If its in trade it probably wont come up, most places dont have to add them in to the Mid

mine is on there, I'd be slightly worried if it wasn't!

Oh no my coop's not on there!

Great find, I can now memorise reg numbers of chavvy/shabby cars I see about the poorer parts of rhyl and see if they are insured!

Can you expand on this Adam, which trade are you referring to?

I spotted a 2 year old M5 on our site last week that looked decidedly dodgy, the rear plate was held on top of another with bits of string. The plate came up uninsured.

It was also unrecognised by DVLA's vehicle check.

Worryingly my OH cinq is not one there! But I know it is insured as I paid the insurance in full last december! Concerned!

Dont crash it

Phoned insurance company and they confirmed it is insured, yet still not shown on the database!

dont worry guys, it can take upto 30 days for a reg to be added, according to my friends that work in insurance.

My bike is listed as uninsured, even though it was re-newed 3 weeks ago.

In that case not coming up on the DVLA check it was some one up to no good and you should have reported it, probably Freshly Jacked from a local carpark or trafic lights!

With motor trade policys you only have to Add the car to the MID if its a Personal (owned) car and that has to be done within 14 days of buying it, if its a stock car there is no need legaly to add it to the MID

Thats Very wrong, the insurance company's have a legal duty to add vehicles to the MID witin 14 days Guide time of 7 days, mainly due to the fact the police will take your car if its not on the MID and you dont have your insurance cert with you

Discovered yesterday - when trying to tax online - that my kit isn't on the register. And it damned well should have been; just been on the phone to Adrian Flux to get a paper certificate through so I can tax the damn thing.

When i had insurance with Aon mine never showed up as been insured, and it was checked lots of times by the police.

That site can't be reliable as it says "not on the insurance database", when entering my registration. My insurance was renewed 22.8.08 an I have verification, so I wouldn't rely too haevily on it. In fact, I wouldn't set any store by it all from the above experience!

Its EXACTLY the same data the police use, the only time it wont be on there is if your insurance co have messed up!

In that case, its' unreliability has just been proven as I have both certificate of insurance and receipt for payment in full.

It just goes to show, doesn't it?

Not the site mate its your insurance company thats failed to update the Mid

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/Motorinsurance/DG_071948

well thats rather a good little tool
After re-insuring Angelica after 2 months sorned (and having major withdrawal symptoms) i decided to wack it on the plastic and get her back out to play so i just checked and she's on there.
Altho i wont have a tax disc to display for a few days

my coop ...she legal

strangely enough, my old 1986 Ford Orion is on there as well..I sent it to the knackers yard about 10 years ago and there was nothing salvageable left on it!!!!

The really worrying thing - if you go through an ANPR camera and get stopped if you don't have the insurance paperwork and the MID reports your car for not being insured the police will seize your car then. You will then be left to make your way home, get the insurance certificate and go to the police station. It could be quite a hassle if you live a long way from where you get caught - and all this due to an error caused by your insurers/the MID.

Be warned - this happened to a friend who was working in Leeds from near me. A fun train ride back to Wycombe the following day, collect certificate, train ride back. The really worrying thing is that all this hassle is most likely caused by some tard somewhere not doing there job properly, and the insurance company offered no form of compensation for the lost day's work, the hotel room and the travel expense.

The police should contact the insurance company at the roadside if you know who you're covered with. The certificate is as good as useless because you can get one by taking out a policy and then cancelling it.

Its probably another example of loads of computer data going"missing". Seems to be the thing in Britain at the moment. Probably on someone's USB key they took home and left down the pub!!

Of course he tried to get the police to contact his insurers but was met with the response it is not up to the police to prove he is insured, that is the duty of the driver. It is not the first time I have heard of this either, there was a spate of it happening near us:

http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/3643840.BFP_reporter_s_car_wrongly_seized/

The problem is you innocently insure your car and for whatever reason the database finds no details it is you who is inconvenienced.

But according to that link the police did contact the insurer - it was the insurer's fault that one of their call centre monkeys said that the policy had lapsed and they were offering to pay compensation to the driver.

True, though the same effect - some tard somewhere hasn't done something right causing an effect on an innocent.
I can also imagine the attitude of my friend didn't help as he can be a bit short and rude at the best of times.