Short Term Car Insurance

When you buy motor insurance the policy normally runs for a full year. But what if you don't need cover for 12 months? You might, for example, want to borrow a friend's car for the weekend or maybe share the driving with a companion on a long trip. Perhaps a relative is coming to stay with you and intends to borrow your car.

Of course, you could simply add a named driver to your existing policy. But it might be expensive - and it could jeopardise your no-claims discount if they were involved in an accident and made a claim.

Short-term car insurance is a possible solution because the cover is only temporary, usually between 1 and 28 days. So you don't pay for more insurance than you need. You can also rest assured that any claim made by other people on the separate short-term car insurance policy will not affect your own no-claims discount.

Where can I get short term car insurance from?

It's usually quick and easy to arrange short-term car insurance. You can often apply online and cover is almost instant. It can therefore be a convenient way to insure a new car so that you can drive it away immediately. You might also want insurance for just one day if you have borrowed a van to move house or if your own car is in the garage and someone has lent you a spare vehicle.

Who is temporary car insurance available to?

Most insurers will cover drivers between the ages of 18 and 75. But the minimum age for some temporary car insurance policies is normally 21. You might also struggle to find cover if you have a poor claims history, several points on your licence, or previous motoring convictions as you present a bigger risk to the insurer. You usually have to be in possession of a full UK driving licence, though many firms these days will cover motorists with European licences as well as provisional licence holders.

When are temporary car insurance policies useful?

Short-term car insurance policies can therefore be useful if you are helping to teach a friend or relative to drive. After all, you would not want to put your no-claims discount at risk by adding a learner driver to your own policy.

Some customers also take out short term car insurance to cover a son or daughter who is back home from University for the holidays and wants to borrow the family car.

Take care if you plan to drive abroad with short-term car insurance. You might get European cover as standard, but it will typically be the bare legal minimum, which usually equates to third party cover only. Your insurer will probably agree to arrange comprehensive cover for driving on the Continent, but you will almost certainly have to pay a higher premium.

MoneySupermarket.com has teamed up with our partners tempcover.com and dayinsure.com in order to help our customers find competitive short-term car insurance quotes as part of our mission to help our customers find the best policy to suit their particular requirements.