Sorting Tax and Insurance in the Street after buying

[Flatbadger]

I'm probably picking up a bike on Saturday (private seller). I've been looking into all the hoop-jumping paperwork involved and just want to know if I can do all this on the phone, after the HPI/V5 stuff.

Can I check it's insurance first, then get tax when insurance kicks in right? I hope this is instant, or is there a delay while databases are updated?

And can I get all this done on the phone? It's Saturday morning so no problem there, but I don't want to be caught without a key piece of info and have to go home to get it. I'll have debit card, current insurance info, new keeper's V5 slip, licence. Anything I've missed?
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If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
You're in ISIS

[owl]

I did it all on the phone, the phones interwebz
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Observation is the greatest source of wisdom.

[Dabura]

When i bought the bandit i did this. Did insurance comparison sights and had the emails in my inbox so wrote down the referance number rang the broker and haggled more*.

Tax took all of 5 minutes online with my phone.

*make sure you are covered instantly not the next day and get them to email you the documents.
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Past: Peugeot Speed Fight 50 - couldn't handle winter.Gilera Sc125 - Crashed and burned(literally).Aprilia Rs125 - Fell apart and Sold. Mk1Bandit Stolen

Present: Kawasaki Z500-B

[Flatbadger]

[Hawkeye1250FA]

[Commuter_Tim]

[Azoth]

You can use your reference number to bring up your quote with the insurance broker, i.e. find the best quote online before you head out, then write down the ref number. Then, when you arrive, pull out the laptop/smartphone and buy the insurance and tax online. If you're in hours, you ought to be able to buy both tax and insurance when you get there, using the telephone number for the insurer (plus the quote number you got online) and DVLA. However, beware that the DVLA tax buying telephone line is a computer that doesn't work. When I tried it, it couldn't make out the bike's reg number. You won't get through to a human at the DVLA to buy tax. So, better buy tax online, no matter what.
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Safety in numbers

[Polarbear]

I wouldn't even worry about tax as long as it's insured. The tax is back dated to the first of the month anyway so no real rush.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[Flatbadger]

Thanks, I didn't fancy the idea of getting quotes on the titchy screen on my phone..

Seems I can't dish out any more ' helpfuls' - maybe I've used today's ration

Polarbear, that would be sweet but suppose I was stopped or involved in a bang on the way home or during my first blast around, is there a grace period in the eyes of the police? And the insurance?

I'm off to bed now but will be back tomorrow for more sage advice
____________________
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
You're in ISIS

[Polarbear]

I have it from a met police bike copper that they will only bother with tax if there is another more serious offence involved, so if you have say no insurance they will do you for everything going including tax.

Also, I rode around for months when the Fazer tax ran out without realising it because it was in the wifes name. She didn't give me the reminder and didn't tax it. Never got pulled.

Lucky or policy, who knows.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[ZX-7R]

Fuck tax and insurance.

Bikelife innit.
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Current Bike - 2000 ZX-7R

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

I had a ref # and all that shit all up and ready to go once the cash was in the seller's hand. I'd caught the train down with lid and clobber, given the bike the once over, the twice over and indeed the thrice over. Even ridden it up and down the streets around his house. I was happy as I was going to be.

So I phoned my chosen insurers - and they still made me go through every fucking point of detail. I only have a cheap shit 10 quid Tesco burner, and I was realistically worried it would lose its meagre charge before I'd got to the end of their bullshit quizzing.

Of course, it didn't - but why they couldn't just call up details is well beyond me. I think if, with sites like Confused or whoever, you enter your life story at a generic level - this throws up a list of possible insurers. So you choose one - call them up, give a ref # - and the fact of the matter is, they STILL have to take all the details for themselves. There must be some requirement that says they have to actually obtain the relevant information first hand.

So - make sure your prospective insurers have already done this to their satisfaction. Part of me thinks that SOME companies have an in-house obligation to go through EVERYTHING immediately prior to taking a payment. Doesn't matter how many times they've done it previously - if you haven't paid for the insurance, they want to do it ONE MORE FUCKING TIME.

Why? Well in part because it gives the company a chance to pass you on to one more fresh headset jockey/jockeyette who then has the chance to "build" up a "relationship" with you all over again so that by the end of the whole fucking rigmarole you are so brow beaten, destroyed mentally and spiritually, and prepared to give anything to be free of this shit, that when they suggest insuring your leathers for a special bargain basement offer price, or maybe some extra legal cover, ETC. ETC. you just cave in completely and say yes yes please god anything to be away from this labyrinthine series of Kafkaesque menu systems and hold queues.

https://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/72885430.jpg
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"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[Flatbadger]

Yep, I'll do the 'yes, yes, no, yes' phone bit with insurance before I go out tomorrow and ring them back to confirm once the bike is mine - good thinking.

I used to work for an energy company in one of those call centres, and we had to go through a list of set questions for every new customer. I imagine it's the same for the insurance call centre people. I now feel sorry for them!

Shame it's cold out though, but that bike would have sold by now if it wasn't
____________________
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
You're in ISIS

[tom_e]

The current tax won't end until the DVLA get the V5 paperwork from the seller so there's no massive rush on that front. (That's assuming it's currently taxed and not SORN.)

[secretagentmo...]

1) Went and had a look at it in advance to make sure advert matched reality.
2) Left the man a nice amount of money as a deposit and got a receipt.
3) Arranged a time to collect the bike.
4) Arranged insurance to start at that time.
5) Arranged an MOT (well the bike had not had an MOT for 5 years).
6) Fainted when bike passed without even an advisory (was making some smoke on the run to the test centre, but think it was condensation or water in the exhaust, something like that as it stopped about 40 miles later).
7) Paid Road Fund Licence on the phone internet.
8) Rode home!

[Rogerborg]

[Pjay]

I did the smartphone route, with an insurance comparison site that holds all your details, so you just put in the reg, what date to start etc and it compared the quotes and all done in a few mins.
The Tax was more than easy, just a matter of typing in the code from the green slip and your bank details and off you goes into the sunset.

Oh and I even bank transferred the moneys at the time of purchase.

Phones are wonderful these days, I remember the shitty times where you had to buy a car in working hours to call an insurance broker or drive home uninsured.

Mind you, back then it was hard to get caught, no ANPR cameras and if you knew a man that can, a cover note was only £15.

Sometimes I miss them good old days, then realise the roads were full of uninsured pikey types that would hit your car, give you a wrongun as the car wasn't registered to them and drive off leaving you high and dry.

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[Polarbear]

[tom_e]

[Ste]

If you've got breakdown cover that covers you on any vehicle then should you manage to lose the keys to your bike then you and your new bike will get a free ride home.

[DrDonnyBrago]

I do this.

Get the quotes beforehand, then just call up to accept or buy online if you have decent reception.