to whine when I know others are worse off?

[THECliffRichardSucksEggsinHell]

I know this Christmas will suck for a lot of people and I know many are struggling right now so I feel really guilty for even moaning, but here goes:

The car (my car) failed its MOT a month ago on emissions. It's burning oil and no matter what dh has done, it just keeps on failing. The MOT has now run out on that car so it can't be driven and needs to be scrapped.

We therefore have to buy a new car. Quite an expense so close to Christmas. As it's my car which I don't use much, we opt for a second-hand Honda costing just under a grand. We got that last weekend, phoned the insurance company to swap the insurance over and are waiting for the papers to come through. The tax on the car ran out at the end of Nov but we can't tax it without the papers. They were sent on Tues but we haven't got them yet.

This morning dh rings from work. His car broke down on the way there. He managed to limp it into work but it's getting towed now to the nearest garage.

That means we have no car.

I am meant to get to the train station tomorrow morning and dh is taking our ds and 2 of his friends to watch an ice hockey match tomorrow evening as ds' birthday treat. The tickets are booked and he's been looking forward to it for months.

Even if the insurance papers come tomorrow, the Post Office shuts at 12pm. We don't get our post until around lunchtime.

What am I going to do? Dh has work on Monday too, how is he going to get there? We can't afford for him to take time off now.

What a bloody nightmare!

Thanks for listening.

Can you ring insurance and see if you can access your insurance certificate online and print it off. I know I can mine.

Can you call the insurance co and ask for the number you need for the tax disc?

Which you can do online and once its done you are immediately covered even without the disc, because if and when say a policeman checks it will show on your records that you have paid.

You can get your tax disc online all over the weekend so you are sorted!

www.gov.uk/tax-disc

Well when we spoke to them on the phone they said they couldn't send it by email or even a covering letter - maybe it's different if you are swapping it over from one car to another? We explained that we needed it asap because of the tax running out so they said the best they could do was to fax it for a tenner. Well we don't have a fax or know anyone who does.

We didn't think it would be too much of a problem as obviously we didn't envisage dh's car breaking down today. I can't phone them as it's not my name so they won't speak to me. Dh will have to try and goodness knows when he will get back.

I'll get him to give them another ring tomorrow morning.

We can't do it online either because we've just bought the car, so the PO need to see the logbook and send it off for us. We have to go in.

Could he get a lift share or a taxi on Monday? What a shame about the tickets is there any public transport?

Where we live, there is no public transport to get ds and his friends to the ice hockey and as for dh, he travels 45 minutes to work every day - everyone else lives in the city. No-one lives near us. He gets up at 4.30am and sets off at 5am to be there for 6am.

I don't think the insurance company will help us because we need to transfer ownership too which is probably why they can't just give us a reference number for the PO.

It's such bad timing it's unreal. We really are stuck. Family live 200 miles away, the closest friends we have are away for the weekend, etc. We are stuck.

It's stupid though because we are insured. It's just the road tax.

How long do you get if road tax expires? What happens if you drive with expired road tax (just thinking a fine might actually be cheaper than taxi fares).

Is there not a local shop or hotel that would accept a fax for you? It wouldn't cost them anything.

Around here? We are out in the sticks. Nearest shop is the village shop a mile away and I doubt they've heard of a fax machine.

Worth a try I suppose.

Have put out a call on facebook but have had no response.

If you drive with no road tax, your insurance is invalid so really not worth the risk.

Hope you get something sorted!

Would something like this work for you?

www.freefaxtoemail.net/

(Note I have no experience of the company - I just googled.)

tax the car using the website . It will check the reg. no against the insurance DB. You don't need to display the disc Until it arrives as the police will be able to check on the database that the vehicle duty has been paid.

Oh Lord, right have asked local B&B if they will take fax for us and they said yes, so will walk there tomorrow (are insurance companies open on Sat?) and get it, then will get bus to Post Office in town or a lift.

Dh still not home yet.

Thank you, should print all this off!

Churchill's Insurance Company - they will not send a fax on Saturday as their fax office is closed. They won't send an email. They refuse to help at all.

We have the old log book, the post office need to send that off so that the new log book will be sent to us.

The PO won't do anything without the insurance certificate, which the insurance company won't give us.

We have tried every avenue.

That is Churchill's by the way.

We are phoning the DVLA to see if they can do anything.

DVLA say we have to wait for certification. They won't do anything. Just kept saying we need the certificate.

It most probably doesn't apply in this case, but people saying "tax online I haven't been to the post office in years" are lucky because this isn't always possible as I found out. I always have to go to a main post office to tax my car even though it has valid certificates, as the MOT doesn't show up on the searches. I couldn't understand it at first because I had the MOT in my hand but apparently it's because it is only valid for another few weeks and the system won't accept it unless it has a certain length of time left on it. A very unfair glitch!

Can you hire a car for a few days?

Yy to car rental

Can you cancel your insurance and go with a different company. I'm with Hastings Direct and they e-mail your certificate within minutes.

"dh is taking our ds and 2 of his friends to watch an ice hockey match tomorrow evening as ds' birthday treat. The tickets are booked and he's been looking forward to it for months. " Do the friends' parents have cars - could someone else drive them all there?

Well the story had a happy ending. The postman delivered the insurance certificate at lunchtime, the main PO in town stayed open on Sat afternoon thankfully so dh whizzed up straight away and got it taxed!

Brilliant!

I could not believe the attitude of Churchill's though and as soon as we can, we are going to switch companies. They could not have been more unhelpful.

ds was in tears thinking that he might not be able to go. Car hire would possibly have been an option, thankfully it didn't come to that.

I still have no car now, which is a real pain when you live where we do, but I'll just have to manage. My stress levels are still coming down!