Car Insurance for wrong Reg plate

nava

Hi

Here is the situation

A fried's has car insurance that was contracted a few years ago over the phone, they got the renewal letter today and noticed that the registration number is not correct the reg on the cert/forms from insurance is xxD22576 but correct number is xxD25576 so only 1 digit is incorrect all other info on the letter is correct, name, address, make, model, etc, looks like when they got the insurance a few years ago someone (insurer or customer) made a mistake, but they never noticed when they got previous letters, question is if amend the insurance for correct registration number will they loose the no claim discount? or is it associated to the insured name? If they want to change insurance will the new insurance company accept the letter with wrong reg plate?

We know if there was an accident there will probably get into trouble because of the reg plate, but my question is mainly about fixing the error with existing insurer and/or moving insurance with wring details.

Thanks

challengemaster

Technically they aren't insured (and weren't for the last number of years), that should be the main concern.

NCB letters don't have any registration linked with them afaik. Get it changed before they're charged for driving without insurance

chasm

Are you sure it was wrong on the previous policies though? I've been with my insurance company for about 4 or so years. This year they issued my certificate but it's didnt include "driving of other vehicles" cover so when i contacted them to get it sorted, they sent a new certificate that had the wrong model of vehicle on it, so had to contact them again and a third policy had to be sent out! This was the first time it happened and all my old policies had the correct details.

coylemj

Axa and probably all the other insurers are now taking the make and model details from the national vehicle file (or whatever the Shannon database is called), this can lead to discrepencies and the OP's problem could now be more to do with the fact that he's probably insured to drive a different make and model, rather than that the registration number is wrong.

In the past the mistake probably wouldn't have been a fatal flaw in that the insured had declared the correct make, model and year and somehow the wrong reg. no. was recorded on the policy but the incorrect registration number wouldn't have materially affected the risk so might have been overlooked as a clerical error by the insurance company in the event of a claim.

Yes, I know they would be within their rights to revoke the policy so please no high horse jockeys, I said 'might' above.

However the situation today is different, if the registration number on the cert. is for a car which is, e.g. a Nissan Micra and the OP's car is a BMW 330i then there would be a serious material difference and not one that the insurance company would be prepared to overlook so I'd get it sorted ASAP.

oldyouth

^^^^^^^^^
Exactly. 1 digit wrong with all other material facts correct would not have had any effect on a claim, other than they additional time it might take to verify the situation

coylemj

oldyouth wrote: »

^^^^^^^^^
Exactly. 1 digit wrong with all other material facts correct would not have had any effect on a claim, other than they additional time it might take to verify the situation

Thank you but I should have said that in my case (Axa), they amended my policy without telling me, based on the Shannon database which was actualy in error so potentially I could have landed in trouble.

This is what happened me and it's relevant to the OP's situation.......

In 2007 I bought a VW Golf GT 170 bhp and insured it with Axa. When I was changing the policy to swap from my old to the new car, the lady on the phone entered 'VW Golf GT petrol' into her system and then asked me if it was the 140 or 170 bhp engine so I knew she had the right model and I told her it was the 170 bhp engine.

A couple of years later I was doing a renewal over the phone, the call agent I was dealing with read over my details just to make sure that everything on the system was correct. She told me that my car was a 140 bhp Golf GT, I said it wasn't and that I had had it entered on their system as the 170 bhp model when it was added on the policy, I asked her how it could have changed.

She said that in the intervening period they had imported data from the Shannon database and the make and model on all of their policies had been overwritten with the data from the Shannon database. In the case of my car, the 140 and 170 bhp models were both 1,400 c.c. so the tax rate was the same (pre-08 car) and in turn the fok in Shannon didn't care which engine was in my car so they seem to have allowed all Golf GT petrol models default to 140 bhp.

Now in my case if I hadn't copped this they could (in the event of a claim) have told me to PFO because the car I was driving was more powerful than the car on the policy. In the OP's case the car with the registration number on his cert. is probably now the make and model on his policy on the insurance company's computer and if that car is significantly less powerful than the car he's driving, the insurance company may not take a benign view of the mistake.

I repeat that he should get it fixed ASAP.