Taxing your car at the Post Orifice

[Doggy]

Just wondered if anyone knows the current score on this?

I need to tax my new car so I can drive it on Tuesday, (old insurance runs out midnight on Monday, so I've insured the new one from 00:01 Tuesday).

As it's probably not yet registered in my name, I can't do it online.

I have the bit off the V5 you're supposed to be able to tax it with, but AFAIK, you need a paper insurance certificate / cover note for this purpose.

Is that correct, or can the P.O. now check the online insurance database?

[Welly]

I think you need the paper (original) cover note but I haven't been in a Post Office to tax a car for years......

[Welly]

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/counter-ser ... ehicle-tax

[Bailes1992]

Get your insurance to email you your new certificate.

[Welly]

They might not accept that home-printed stuff.

What the AA said:

AA Insurance is finding that electronic insurance certificates, which have been legal since 30 April 2010, are not being accepted by motor dealers and sometimes even by Post Office staff.

Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, says the insurance certificate is today little more than confirmation that a vehicle is registered on the national Motor Insurance Database (MID), and the occasions when it needs to be shown are becoming rare.

"In most cases a certificate never needs to be produced. Tax discs can be applied for online, and the system automatically interrogates databases to check that your insurance and MOT are up-to-date," states Douglas.

"But we do recognise that not everyone has access to a computer, and others prefer not to undertake financial transactions online. And while they may want to receive their certificate electronically, they would still prefer to get their tax disc from a Post Office."

He advises printing the certificate on good quality paper, and setting the printer to its best standard too. "We have had one or two reports that a home-printed certificate has not been accepted at a Post Office counter. This is rare, but the answer is to make sure you don't compromise on quality when you print it and you can avoid the risk of that happening."

More worrying, according to Simon, is that many customers are reporting that garage staff have refused to accept a home-printed certificate, insisting on an original being supplied from the insurer. However, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which had not issued specific guidance to motor retailers, is now doing so following the AA Insurance experience.

"Being prevented from driving away in your brand new car, just because the salesman won't accept a legal document, is extremely frustrating," Douglas points out. "The SMMT's intervention to make the motor trade aware that electronic certificates are legal is very welcome."

Simon added that customers are welcome to request a printed certificate by post.

AA electronic car insurance certificates
AA customers are now being invited to accept all their insurance documents online – although they can continue to receive them by post if they prefer. To print a certificate, a customer must open a secure password-protected website from where they can access the same high-definition PDF of their insurance certificate that is used by the AA to print a postal certificate.

The AA advises customers to set their printer to the highest quality possible and to use a good-quality white paper. This should avoid any concerns that car sales staff or others might have about the validity of the document.

[lozz]

Most insurers -nowadays do a paperless service,
thus Reducing admin costs, (so they say)

ive never had aproblem with using the cover notes sent via email, (pdf based) to tax cars,
if they do then obviously theyre still in the Dark ages,

[robb]

My post office accepted my printed insurance document they had to really as my insurance company dont do paper

[Doggy]

Thanks, guys - I've managed to get an 'electronic copy', transferred to sod-the-environment paper on the sod-the-environment laser printer down the corridor.

(I pity the Post Office Counters staff if they want to tell Mrs Doggy it's not good enough).

[Bailes1992]

I didn't have an issue with my printed off one.

[Busman]

As mine passed its MOT on Tuesday, I am now the posesser of the cheapest, nastiest looking MOT ''certificate'' ever printed by human kind. Basically it seems to be pointless having it at all.

[Welly]

They recommend to assume the MOT 'certificate' is fake when looking at a second-hander and to go on-line to check there (great when viewing a car and all you've got is your poxy smart phone)

[Doggy]

Nowadays, I just take along two large gentlemen in dinner jackets...............