If I never have an accident and have an insurance policy on my car, how do the police know if its valid?

Question

Like say I never have an accident, I HAVE a policy on my car and can produce an insurance certificate when they ask for one, how will they know if my policy is valid?

Answer 1

Insurance, MOT and driving licence details are now downloaded to the police national computer.If anything is invalid it will flag up on their system.

Answer 2

First of all, its too late to change it, but you should always call the police if you are in an accident, no matter how minor. If this guy didn't want you to, then thats his problem. He probably either doesn't have insurance or didn't want to get the cops involved for some other reason. If the accident is your fault, then you should get another estimate because $1000 is a lot for a couple of scratches, however there might be more damage. And to be honest you might be getting away with paying less if you pay him the money, then having to pay a deductible and having your insurance go up. Good luck and just remember to never let someone talk you out of calling the police, in fact if you have a cell phone, you should call before you even get out of your car to talk to the other person.

Answer 3

They won't know for sure unless they were to call and an officer won't do this. This is part of the problem. A person can obtain a 6/12 month policy with a carrier that allows monthly payments and then never make those payments. The insurance card will still make it look like a policy is in force but it won't be.

Still, this does not solve any problems if that person is in an accident as once the innocent person finds out, they can have the police issue a citation for no insurance. The person w/o insurance is still responsible for the loss the same as if they did not have any proof of insurance at the time of the loss.

Still, each state requires certain information to be on the insurance card. This always includes the dates of the policy. Most personal policies last 6-12 months so effective dates on the card will not allow them to be used past their expiration time.

Answer 4

Hey Johndude,

Yes most of the above in the UK is correct, the DVLA computer database tells us police if your policy is current or not, if you cancel it after taking it out, within a few days you car will say INS NOT HELD on a PNC or police national computer check and the control room will inform us of this fact.

Otherwise if its during the day we can call your insurance company or the motor insurance beuera and ask them to confirm you policy is still valid, its takes as long as a phone call to get a answer.

Answer 5

in the UK there is a data base on which every car number issued by the DLV is registered and against it is recorded if the tax is paid, if there is a current insurance and an MOT if that is required. The police can contact the data base either by an internet link or by telephone. They can confirm the details in a few minutes. Of course they do not know if you have just taken out insurance that day but they can confirm this by ringing the insurance company or broker on the certificate

Answer 6

The police computers have all details of every vehicle on the road.The computer will tell them the registered owner, if the car is insured and the name of the company. The number of the cars MOT certificate and if the MOT is still valid, and finally if the driver has a full licence or a provisional, or no Licence. It will also give the name and adress of the registered owner and their date of birth.

Answer 7

I believe you're in the UK, so the US answers are irrelevant (and wrong).

You have to produce a valid certificate when you tax your car, so that's one check. You have to produce one when requested, as you say, that's another. The police can contact the central database where it's recorded, at any time they wish, that's a third. ANPR technology is automatically linked to the database too, so it will sound alarms if it spots your number plate as showing to have no insurance, that's a fourth.
And they can contact the insurance company directly, too.

Answer 8

In UK there is a central place at DVLA where the police insurance companies can check to see if you have paid road tax are insured and have a valid MOT

Answer 9

All insurance details are 'checkable' from main database. Believe me..I know. (policy due for renewal in two weeks when I got a new car. Decided to change details on renewal, but got randomly stopped and asked to produce docs.)

Answer 10

It depends on the state. If the state operates on certificates, then obviously a fake one will work fine. Some states do that. Other states know what you're doing for real, and they know who's got insurance and on what car. THey don't need a certificate to find out.