Short Term Car Insurance

There could be various reasons as to why you don’t need insurance for a full year; perhaps you are borrowing a friend’s car or you’re a university student who comes home for the holidays.

Whilst you have the option of being added as a named driver on someone else’s policy, this could work out expensive and the main driver could lose their no claims discount if a claim is made.

In contrast, short term car insurance runs between 1-28 days and any claim made will not affect the main driver’s no-claims discount.

Where can I buy short term car insurance?

Quite simply, you can apply online and cover is instant. So if you are perhaps buying a new car, you can simply buy the cover and drive the vehicle off the forecourt. In some cases, you may just need car insurance for one day, i.e. when borrowing a van for moving the contents of your house.

Is it available to everyone?

Insurance is available for people between the ages of 18 and 75. But for temporary cover there is usually a minimum age of 21. Cover can also be difficult to obtain, if you have points on your license, motoring convictions or a bad claims history as the insurer will see you as a high risk. Moreover, you will need a full UK license but in many cases insurers also cover European licenses and provisional licenses.

When is short term car insurance useful?

On top of the reason stated above there could be many other reasons. For example, if you are teaching a new driver how to drive than you may not want to risk your no claims discount by adding them as a named driver.

In other instances, you may be driving abroad with a few friends. But in this case, you may be getting European cover as a standard option but remember, this is likely to be the minimum legal requirement in these countries, effectively third party only cover. You may choose to increase your level of cover but it will cost you more.

Kevin Patterson