Be careful when buying your car insurance over the phone

A friend of mine was recently pulled over by the police and told that she was driving without insurance. That was impossible, her car was fully insured, she’d bought the policy herself and she had the documents to prove it. However when she looked at her documents more closely it transpired that the car number plate was wrong. Instead of an N there was an M. An easy mistake to make when giving your details over the phone. As it was deemed to be her error, she now has to pay quite a large sum to have the details changed, and is still waiting to hear back from the police to see if the issue is going to be pursued, but she’s looking on the bright side; she could have been driving uninsured and had a major accident. The car could have been written off and she wouldn’t have been able to claim a penny, so the police had done her a favour really.

It’s made me check my insurance documents to make sure my details are correct for my vehicle and you should do the same too. When you give your registration number over the phone, get them to read it back to you and use the phonetic alphabet, especially for easily confused letters such as N and M and S and F. Make sure you specify N for November, M for Mike, S for Sierra or F for Foxtrot! When your paperwork arrives, check it again, just to be sure.

Photo credit: Police_Mad_Liam / Foter.com / CC BY