How To Check Your Vehicle Insurance Status?

People can sometimes be very forgetful and lose important information. For example, if you sign a contract with an insurance company, you are expected to save your policy documents. These documents contain all of the important details that you would need in the future if anything happens.

However, there can be certain situations where you lose the documents or simply misplace them. Thanks to this digital era, no data is ever lost so easily.

If you are wondering how you could retrieve all your insurance-related details, you have come to the right place. We are going to discuss the possible solutions to this situation in this article.

If you would like to learn more about insurance or wish to purchase one, visit Surex for the best quotes.

Where Can I Find My Information?

Insurance validation means that the insurance companies have the ability to access all of your insurance data. If you get into an accident, they need to confirm if you have the proper insurance to cover your loss. Moreover, this data is also useful when the police need to check whether a car has been insured or not.

As with everything else nowadays, this can easily be checked online!

The Insurance Validation Program (IVP) is a database that stores your registration number (VIN) and the insurance coverage you have. You can have access to this database through the Insurance Bureau of Canada. This database is maintained by Canada’s Ministry of Transportation.

All you need for this database search is the VIN of your vehicle. VIN is a 17-digit combination of numbers and letters, unique to each owner and vehicle.

• The first digit of the VIN denotes the place the car was manufactured.
• The next eight digits contain information regarding the brand or style of the car.
• The tenth digit denotes the year of manufacture.
• The eleventh digit shows when the car was made in Canada.
• The last six digits are the car’s serial number.

Enter this into the search bar, and you will get the information you are looking for.

After entering your Vehicle Identification Number, all you have to do is to read and agree to the Terms and Conditions of use. You have to confirm that you are not a robot, and you can submit your search request! And you would have all the information regarding the vehicle in question.

What Are Some Other Benefits of VIN?

Apart from being able to check your insurance policy, you can also find out more about a used car that you are looking to buy. The database has information about previous accidents and malfunctions that the vehicle might have had.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada also has a database with all of the vehicles deemed as non-repairable. Legally, these vehicles cannot be driven on Canadian roads. Thus, it is a good idea to look up this database, especially when you are buying a second-hand car, to avoid being scammed.

Limitations of the IVP

Information regarding certain vehicles might not be available on the database.

• The database contains vehicles manufactured in 1983 and onwards. Thus, to obtain insurance details of a vehicle manufactured prior to this, you would have to contact your insurer.
• If you want to search for the vehicle, keep in mind that it needs to be privately owned or leased. You cannot look up vehicles owned by corporations.
• You cannot find details regarding motorcycles or motorhomes on this database.

How Else Can I Check?

Apart from the possibility to do a simple VIN search to find out whether you still have insurance or not, you can easily contact your insurance company. Insurance companies must keep all of their customers’ data and contracts in case of accidents.

You can simply give them your Vehicle Registration Number, and they will provide you with the necessary information.

It does not matter whether you want to check your insurance expiration or if you have the coverage for a particular accident. Your insurance company can provide you with all of these details. Make sure to check it on time!

Why Should I Check My Insurance?

Here are a few reasons why you should always be aware of the status of your vehicle insurance.

• You do not want to get yourself into an uncomfortable situation where you do not know whether you have insurance or not. Driving without insurance is illegal, and you can face serious legal consequences.
• By not having active mandatory Third-Party Liability coverage, you are putting others on the road in danger of potential financial risk.
• Your vehicle might get damaged in an accident or even stolen. This is when you need to report the damage you have suffered, and you need to give some basic details.
• There are different types of insurance coverage you can get, and you need to know which one will cover your current loss. Needless to say, you need to check your policy to be certain that your insurance will cover the damage.

If you do not already know when your insurance expires, do not procrastinate and avoid this. It only takes a few minutes, and it can save you from being penalized.

Endnote

Just because you have misplaced certain documents, your car coverage hasn’t ended. You would not want to incur unnecessary expenses on dual insurance when you already have one. Thus, one must always be aware of the status of his car’s insurance policies.

However, if you lose important documents, you can always turn to the IVP database for information, or simply contact your insurer and explain the situation. They would be more than happy to help.