If you can’t pay or cancel your car insurance direct debit nothing is going to happen, as long as you still continue paying your car insurance one way or another.
You have to talk to your insurance agent and ask what form of other payment would they accept.
When you take out insurance on your car through the internet you are dealing with one of the myriad of insurance agents and not the insurer directly. These insurance companies are huge corporations and don’t deal directly with the customers.
You make your payment to the agent and they submit it to the insurer when the time comes. If you fail, the agent will notify you and not the insurance company. The agents are selling for commission for the insurance company. Meaning, they get a percentage of the total cost of your insurance.
In the UK if you don’t have car insurance and the cop stops you, they will tow your car and you also get 6 points on your licence, plus money fines. Additionally the towing charge is £150 pounds and daily storage fee of £25 pounds until you either get your car out by getting insurance on it, or let them keep it and destroy it.
If you have monthly payment set up and don’t have money on your account for direct debit, they’ll call you or send you an email or even a snail mail to let you know the money transfer failed and give you a date when they will try to collect it again. Example, if your payment was due on the 10th and you had no money on your account, they tell you they’ll try again on the 18th, (or whatever date they’ll choose).
If you don’t have money then either, they’ll cancel your car insurance. When the police stops you for that, they already know you don’t have one, because the camera in their car reads your licence plate number as you pass them and by the time you get from one end of their car to the other the computer warns them you have no car insurance.
The best thing is just to tell them you don’t have one and get over with. No need to make up stories. They know exactly what they are dealing with and the end result will be the same. They’ll tow your vehicle.
If you have a brand new insurance it might not show up in their computer for up to 48 hours and in that case you can give them the name of the insurance company and they’ll call them on the phone to verify it and let you go.
If they take you car and you want to get it out, you have to go to the car pound yard where they’ve taken it and show them a valid insurance certificate, the Tax must be up to date and have to have MOT on it (in the UK an annual vehicle tax have to paid or else you can be fined up to £2,500 pounds every time your vehicle is on a public road whether it is only parked there or driven. An annual vehicle inspection MOT is also mandatory and commands a £60 pounds fine if you don’t have one, every time they stop you on public road).
Remember. Car insurers in Britain are free to scam people. No rules no mercy. So, you screw them wherever you can, but make sure you have your cr insurance if you are driving your car or else the cops are gonna take it.