askMID query

[Triumph Man]

Hello all,

Just a quick question regarding askMID. How long does it take to update? My sister is buying her first car (a 2000 Skoda Fabia 1.4 16v if anyone is interested) later on today, and has insured it with Diamond, with cover commencing from midday today.

Out of interest, I went on to askMID and entered the registration, only to find that it is showing as uninsured. How long should it take to update? Does the insurance company or the DVLA update it? Will it get pinged by an ANPR camera for having no insurance? (I know that last question sounds stupid, but she is worrying bless her, and I'm not too sure on where the ANPR database gets its info from.)

Many thanks in advance.

[E30M3SE]

Insurance company is responsible for updating the records IIRC.

Will she get ping'd, yes. Easy way out is to keep a copy of her insuracnce cert. in the g/box.

[Accelebrate]

Varies, I've had it update almost instantly, or show up as uninsured from midnight until about 11am.

[jagracer]

The insurance company will update it and it can take up to a couple of weeks to show on the database. I had the same worries with my daughter's new car last month. I gave her a copy of the online cover confirmation to keep with her just in case.

[Triumph Man]

Right, thanks guys, lets hope her and dad don't get pinged on the way home tonight. Unfortunately, her certificate of motor insurance hasn't come through, and I dont think she had the where with all to print a copy of the online confirmation of cover... hope the insurance company is open late...

[jagracer]

Triumph Man said:

Right, thanks guys, lets hope her and dad don't get pinged on the way home tonight. Unfortunately, her certificate of motor insurance hasn't come through, and I dont think she had the where with all to print a copy of the online confirmation of cover... hope the insurance company is open late...

She'll have email confirmation, that should do. In the unfortunate event of her getting tugged they should either phone the ins. company of give her a producer.

[aka_kerrly]

jagracer said:

The insurance company will update it and it can take up to a couple of weeks to show on the database. I had the same worries with my daughter's new car last month. I gave her a copy of the online cover confirmation to keep with her just in case.

It's a risky game having a certificate that has been printed online as it doesn't always count for much, nor does having a certificate these days as far too many people have tried the con whereby they take insurance out and cancel the policy whilst retaining the certificate.

My understanding is insurance companies have 5 working days to do the update, much in the same way the DVLA don't always update their records in a timely manner either.

dave

[jagracer]

aka_kerrly said:

jagracer said:

The insurance company will update it and it can take up to a couple of weeks to show on the database. I had the same worries with my daughter's new car last month. I gave her a copy of the online cover confirmation to keep with her just in case.

It's a risky game having a certificate that has been printed online as it doesn't always count for much, nor does having a certificate these days as far too many people have tried the con whereby they take insurance out and cancel the policy whilst retaining the certificate.

My understanding is insurance companies have 5 working days to do the update, much in the same way the DVLA don't always update their records in a timely manner either.

dave

Agreed but it's better than nowt, they took 10 days to update it where my daughter was concerned yet a different company only took two days when I put her old car on a policy for me.

[Riknos]

Isn't askmid a third party front end query type database that will have to be updated from the insurance database, and isn't a direct link into the insurance database? As I'm pretty sure the insurance database that the police and insurers use etc will be updated a lot quicker than a web portal that allows queries to be run..

[aka_kerrly]

Riknos said:

Isn't askmid a third party front end query type database that will have to be updated from the insurance database, and isn't a direct link into the insurance database? As I'm pretty sure the insurance database that the police and insurers use etc will be updated a lot quicker than a web portal that allows queries to be run..

To quote the ASKMID site "The Motor Insurance Database (MID) is the only central record of all insured vehicles in the UK and is updated over 10,000 times an hour."

This suggests the onus is still on the insurance companies to provide the information but it is a comprehensive database of every car insured or not.

dave

[skeggysteve]

Tell her not to worry, plod are not stupid.
Last year my wife got a pull because our (new to us) car wasn't on the MID, first question he asked was if she'd just brought the car.
Wasn't even that interested in looking at the internet print out I'd put in the glove box.

[aka_kerrly]

skeggysteve said:

Tell her not to worry, plod are not stupid.
Last year my wife got a pull because our (new to us) car wasn't on the MID, first question he asked was if she'd just brought the car.
Wasn't even that interested in looking at the internet print out I'd put in the glove box.

You must have a wife who looks trustworthy and or attractive.

I can assure you that not all of us get the same treatment. In fact my brother was threatened with having his car impounded for no insurance as it didn't show up on their police database when he had renewed 2 weeks previously and he had his new certificate.

The ONLY reason his car was not impounded is because he was stopped during office hours and he could call his insurance company who spoke to the plod and verified his insurance, had it been out of hours I guarantee the car would have gone and my brother left out of pocket as a result of storage fees and other rubbish.

Dave