mot lookup - why so difficult?

The Running Man

The Running Man

The Running Man

Caporegime
Joined
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The online checker says I have to enter my car reg and current not number...heck if I had my mot document I wouldn't need to look it up.

Or v 5 reference...not always carried around.

Why can't they look it up from a reg plate? Sure you could say the reg could be moved to another car etc and not be accurate. But then police can look up to see if I have tax, insurance, mot just from my reg plate haven't they?
 
Data like that (a complete history of mot) is no business of the general public, it is the business of the owner, a potential buyer and the authorities.

All of whom can access it now.
 
[TW]Fox;23103325 said:
Data like that (a complete history of mot) is no business of the general public, it is the business of the owner, a potential buyer and the authorities.

All of whom can access it now.
Click to expand...

While I understand it's a case of "why do you need to know?", could you give an example of why it's a bad thing for this information to be available? (genuine question)
 
The garage doesn't "have" to charge you, it doesn't cost them anything to print a duplicate, just time to do it (like 2 mins)
 
yeah, there's all sorts of fradusters who find loopholes in the system. They use various data points to mine your data.

Information like address and CC details are easy to get by stealing mail. But date of birth is hard to get so thieves need that info, they can get that from facebook if anyone is daft enough to publish their date of birth. But even then, a thief can look back account history and look for happy birthday messages like "hey XXXX, happy 50th! have a good one" which is basically a DOB giveaway.

It might not seem obvious but there are small bits of info on MOT that can be used to mine bits of data to do a fraud.

I don't know the specifics, but I'm sure there is some potential room for exploits if anyone can look anyone elses MOT willy nilly.

So that is why they require current mot
 
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I'm with the OP on this - I wish it were as simple to check as AskMID. Even if it gave limited data with only a registration search.
 
Haggisman said:
While I understand it's a case of "why do you need to know?", could you give an example of why it's a bad thing for this information to be available? (genuine question)
Click to expand...

Why is it a bad thing for a list of which supermarket you visited and when to be available? It probably isn't, but would you want that? The MOT history lists everything about your cars MOT status - mileage, date and time, physical location, etc etc. Information a legitimate buyer is perfectly entitled to see - and can, with the right reference number, but which a member of the public would struggle to find a valid reason to see.
 
All i need is a test date, pass or fail and a retest date. they can hide the rest of the info.

Sure garages could interrogate the system and start sending out get your MOT done letters about 30 days before your MOT is due but only if they combine that databse with one they already have i.e one that looks up reg plate and addresses or soemthing.
 
Yes but most people dont carry their v5s mines at my parents house not mine so its a bit inconvenient.

And the police have anpr right that must give them mot status.
 
V5 at parents house instead of yours? Is the car registered at the correct address? Just a heads up in case you do; this can cause problems with any insurance claim if the company gets picky.
 
[TW]Fox;23106635 said:
Why is it a bad thing for a list of which supermarket you visited and when to be available?
Click to expand...

Because there's no reason anyone (except advertisers) would a) need that or b) find it useful in any way :p

[TW]Fox;23106635 said:
It probably isn't, but would you want that? The MOT history lists everything about your cars MOT status - mileage, date and time, physical location, etc etc. Information a legitimate buyer is perfectly entitled to see - and can, with the right reference number, but which a member of the public would struggle to find a valid reason to see.
Click to expand...

Looking at cars on ebay/autotrader - want to shortlist a few. Instead of just being able to put reg no.s into a site/database you would have to contact each seller, and ask for the details, which firstly is going to be a real timesink, and secondly, most wont bother unless you show a genuine interest in actually buying the car.

I'm not saying necessarily all the info, but simply something like dates of MOTs, mileage (so you can check it's genuine) and advisories - i.e. the relevant info when you are thinking of buying a car.
 
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