Just been pulled over by the police

This happened to me! Just send all correspondence to the police, the email you have shown here should be enough but send everything. They closed our case once we did this. Which insurance company are you with?

Did you ever log back in in may to see that the policy said active ?

Not everyone has this luxury! Unfortunately we have had two cars stolen (live in an area that is targeted for car thefts) and two no fault accidents that wrote our cars off.

The main insurers won’t touch us now, and we pay almost £200pm

We had similar, got a letter from police that I'd been spotted driving with no insurance.

Insurance said we had no policy.

They checked and it was their error at renewal so they sorted and back dated our policy.

@Outandabout43

You need to check your payment actually went out as your email mentions a refund.

You need to have a paper trail to prove you have paid and have valid insurance.

What a bizarre response! Just because you haven't heard of them doesn't meant they're not a valid insurance company!

Op there's so many rules and regs about insurance companies having to treat customers fairly, so as you've got the evidence that they are having system errors but your policy was valid you should be ok - the police can't accept an email at the side of the road as proof of insurance if the motor insurance database says not insured - emails can be very easily faked. Just call first central customer services line - you don't need to speak to the complaints team yet, you need to speak to the team that deals with policies. If they can't resolve it, make a complaint. If they can't sort it out for you, you can cancel the insurance and receive a refund and reinsure it elsewhere.

Did you ever receive a certificate of insurance?

100% insurer error.

You're covered. They will resolve on Monday.

Don't let it ruin your weekend.

I work in insurance. This happens all the time.

Posted too soon, they won't 'go back on' covering you since March unless they could somehow prove insurance fraud (driving convictions undeclared at any time etc) or they were never able to take payment (in which case you would know). There are strict statutory regulations they have to adhere to and it's not worth their Financial Conduct Authority licence.

This happens lots to all insurance companies and is caused by errors updating the MID (motor insurance database). When you call them they'll issue you a letter of indemnity to give to the police.

Ring them on a different number today. You don’t need to go through complaints, it needs sorting asap. I hope you get it sorted.

@Outandabout43 hope you are ok, what a nasty shock.

1st central are a reputable insurer and it sounds like you've done nothing wrong.

I definitely don't think you should be waiting til Monday for the complaints line to open! Call through to customer services 0333 043 2085 first thing this morning - they open at 9am on Saturdays. Personally I'd have phoned the 24 hour claim line on 0333 043 2011 on the off chance they could help - maybe you could do that if you're up and about?

But in the documents you will have a certificate of insurance? I'd print a copy of that.

The police will be pretty suspicious because tons of people claim to be insured when they're not.

One of the dodges is to take out an insurance policy, so you have the documents, emails etc... and then cancel it shortly after and get a refund, and then hope that just showing the email to police will work - it doesn't, but there is no end to some folks idiocy.

Fingers x you are insured and if you aren't can show that you had every reason to believe you were (ie, proof you've paid, no evidence of any cancellation/end of service etc.)

It's not a complaint (yet) it's an important enquiry, there is a problem with your insurance and you need to speak to someone urgently. If you can't then that will be a complaint.

Edit: I wouldn't drive until the insurance is sorted out, it could get much worse if you have an accident and the insurance really isn't valid for some reason.

I'm also interested in what was refunded?

Also the wording 'I can confirm you have been' this could imply that you are no longer (hence the refund) as I would expect it to say 'I can confirm you are and have been'

For those saying about her partner having cover to drive on his own insurance, the car still needs to be insured by someone for his third party to be legal (in the vast majority of cases)

Anyway OP, I hope I have misunderstood the email and all is ok. I would also phone them this morning, someone will be able to look and see if your policy is active.

I must be the only person who read this and thought 'maybe you don't have insurance '

That only works if the car being driven is correctly insured too, otherwise it could be used to insure a cheap 'decoy' car but drive a more expensive car registered in another person's name.

OP this sounds awful and a similar thing happened to an acquaintance of mine. Had all the emails, was paying by DD and honestly thought she was correctly insured but something had gone wrong with the admin so it wasn't registered on the database. However I don't know the outcome of whether or not it was sorted.

Ok.

@SwingTheMonkey I haven't read the whole thread..... as you are aware!

🤦‍♀️ 😆!

I'm not embarrassed at all, just amazed at you tho king you can play MN 👮, very very funny though.

I’ve been very helpful - as you can see if you read the whole thread.

You, however, are embarrassing yourself. I’m going to presume you’ve had too much to drink.

@SwingTheMonkey are you the Mumsnet police? 

Don't question me on what I "pick up" on, it's really up to me!

And what's your answer to the actual question OP asked?

It was what if she's not covered, she's concerned about her DHs job.

I've been helpful on that point.... you on the other hand 🤷‍♀️.

I don’t need to do anything 😂

You had a go at pp because they suggested op use a different insurance provider. Which she should. The one she’s using is shit. I said as much really soon into the thread but you chose to pick on the pp.

@SwingTheMonkey I didn't see your response.

As I said it's the here and now that matters, not the future.

You need to address your tone comment to @Inlaw she started the "it's 3am" comments, like the whole wide world is on the same time zone.

HTH.

I said the same - if the insurance company has fucked up again, she should move to another company. Why didn’t you pick on me? And fyi - it’s 8.30pm here. Not everyone is posting from the uk.

@Inlaw good to see you back and tagging me 👋

You don't even take your own advice and stop tagging people.

You came up with an unhelpful and twatish comment.

Own it?

Do rage me again, it's 4.30 now....