Date Passed Test ?

[ferret69]

I have had a letter from 1ST Central car insurance who have had a look at my application that I took out and bought from them 5 months ago and said a check with the DVLA states I had my licence in 1973 ( which is on my photo licence ) and not 1966 as I had told them, so now they are demanding another £95 extra, (£45 + £50 admin.) however it was 1966 that I first got my full licence, I'm 71 now and have been driving since I was 18, how can I find the date I passed my test ?

[ummmm]

Have you tried the DVLA?

[bhg481]

I've had a licence since 1964, passed my test in 1965 to get a full licence but the date on my photo licence is Feb 1975 - it's just the wa the DVLA did things. Tell your insurance company they are being very silly - I suspect it's a new clerk working for them that doesn't know how things work. Ask them to check the licence of anybody that works with them who has had a licence since before 1973 and look at the date DVLA have put on it.

[ferret69]

Yes, I tried the DVLA who said no records where kept in those days, the < in front of the date on your licence means it was before that date, looks like I've chosen a very bad car Insurance company with 1st Central, you live and learn !!

[New Judge]

You might like to ask them (before you go to the insurance ombudsman) how having held a licence for only 44 years makes you a greater risk than if you'd held one for 51 years.

[Islay]

I haven't had to give the date of my driving test for many a year - I just have to click over 20 years.
Are you sure this is kosher?

[bhg481]

It's got to be worth ringing the insurance company again and pointing out the BEFORE symbol and insisting they check the licence of a colleague who has had a klicence since before 1973.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah mine is the date I passed Oct 1975
but I asked and looked a few 70 y olds - "you passed way before 1974?" and he couldnt remember.
I cd - it was in the sixties

The insurance point is important and you have to make them see sense because at present there is a record that you didnt truth

very important to get this corrected - they queried a point and you were right

insurance contracts are 'uberrima fidei' utmost faith or truth and they can call it all off ( even post facto ) if a relevant fact is not true.
I am not sure if the date of passing a test forty y ago is in that category

keep us informed

[New Judge]

"I am not sure if the date of passing a test forty y ago is in that category"

Neither am I Peter, hence my earlier post.

It's quite true that insurers rely on their customers telling them the truth and I could understand their concern if you'd said you passed your test 10 years ago when it was only eighteen months. But the difference you mention cannot possibly influence your risk or the premium.

[ferret69]

Thanks everyone, I've sent 1st Central a email with all the relative points you raised and will post again when I get a reply.

[ABerrant]

By way of background, DVLA (DVLC as it was then) only began issuing driving licences in 1973. Previously, book style driving licences were issued by Local Taxation Offices and were valid for a maximum period of 3 years. As drivers renewed their book licences between 1973 and 1975 the details were converted to a computerised record and it is the renewal date which remains on the database as the date of first issue (with the aforementioned < symbol to signify 'before').

[Davemano]

Details of your Certificate of Competence to Drive (known as the 'pink slip') will be recorded at the DVLA.

[Peter Pedant]

o that is nice to know Dave
so the information they say they dont have.....
they do have
that is central govt for you !

[ABerrant]

"Details of your Certificate of Competence to Drive (known as the 'pink slip') will be recorded at the DVLA."

Only if such information had been transferred to the newly set up DVLC from the Local Taxation Offices administered within 183 local authorities, the very LTOs whose failing maintenance of records [5 million files a year were already being shuttled between local authorities as far back as 1965] prompted the centralisation of driver and vehicle records.

[Jonahuk]

DVLA have no records before 1974 I passed in 1966 but my license says 1974 that’s when they started to keep records