Just been pulled over by the police

[Outandabout43]

Fuming right now.

Been on a night out with work, partner picked me up, he is a named driver on my car.

Had issues with insurence when I renewed. Noticed policy was inactive after paying yearly fees. Spoke to insurence who apologised, stated the policy will be activated and gave £100 as a gesture of good will, this was in may

Police just pulled us over. Breathalysed DH driving the car and stayed we had no insurence. Checked policy and it's come up again as inactive. Have been told we have 7 days to prove insurence or DH will get 6 points in his license, this will effect his job.

I'm mortified. Obviously I'll contact insurence on Monday, but what if they say we are not covered. I've attached a screenshot of email provided by insurence but I'm really panicking now. What do I do??

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.

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.

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.

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?

@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.

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.

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

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

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?

This is why you should ALWAYS insist on getting the insurance certificate emailed to you- even if you are paying and it seems fine. I've had insurers before who were slow at sending it out and I always demanded they send it immediately. If you have the certificate there can be no arguments and it gives you peace of mind. Also, check the details too- on two occasions my insurers have made a mistake with the reg number- getting the digits the wrong way round etc - ensure it's all correct.

Sounds like you'll be fine OP but always, always, demand they send the actual insurance certificate so you have it if needed.

I would assume they want to see something dated recently. As someone has said people buy insurance then cancel it so they have the certificate.
Just give them a call

A similar thing has happened to me. I was buying a new car and told insurance. An admin error meant that my current car was deleted from the national database and we got pulled over by the police on the way to pick up new car.
The insurance company admitting being at fault but it was a big headache and stress getting it sorted out. We moved our insurance to a more reliable company. I think you should too.

OP - in the email it says something has been refunded AND they're sending you a cheque. Did they refund the insurance amount and stop your cover? I think, ultimately, it's up to you to check your policy is valid and given all the issues you've had with the insurance company, and the fact when you log in you can see it says invalid, I'm not sure you're going to be able to claim you didn't know.

Oh my GOD it’s INSURANCE . With an a

The refund was for the initial DD payment, however as ended up paying in full they reimbursed the initial payment for dorect debit

I do wonder that wrt to your DH and the 6 points, if he states that you had informed him that as is partner you had included him as a named driver and you will willing to back that up with a letter/in court then it is possible for him to use that as a defence. In which case you are going to be in more trouble but him as unwitting partner mihgt come out okay.

First direct are awful. I'll never renew my insurance with them.

Don't wait until Monday. You don't need the complaints line, you just need to speak to anyone at customer services today who can check what's happened. You can make a formal complaint later.

God this is so funny what idiots some people are ... I'm not sure why you've had a pile on.

Tbh - the op said she has paid so all she has to do is call the insurance company and sort it out.

I don't know why continued supportive and constructive was needed as the first person who said call the insurance company nailed it.

I agree why keep using a shit insurance service

It's not First Direct. It's 1st Central

This. It's not clear if they simply refunded you the initial fee and then stopped the insurance or if it carried on. You should have checked this- not to make you feel bad but this is your responsibility, did you get an insurance certificate- I presume not? are they taking payments currently?- you seem very vague about all of this which is a bit odd.

There must be an emergency number for the weekends. Try any you can find. Also
put it back in them that they record every call. Thank goodness you have the text.

Did you receive insurance documentation when you paid for it?
Did you get anything in the post from them?

Check your emails, it might be in there as an attachment.

Regarding ‘using Churchill or well known name’ the poster might not even be in England.

Also this- they must have a claim line open or some way to report an accident as they always say you should report claims immediately and accidents dont only happen mon- fri 9-5 so there must be some kind of way to contact someone out of hours

This is true.
OP A COPY OF AN EMAIL IS NOT PROOF OF INSURANCE you must have an insurance certificate.
The police aren’t interested in an email.
As car driver(s) you must have insurance, so when you had the calls/ emails with the insurance company it’s your responsibility to make sure you have the insurance cert and the schedule that goes with it.