Car insurance

Temporary Car Insurance

What is temporary car insurance and when do you need it?

When might you need to think about getting temporary car insurance?

Most people purchase car insurance for a whole year at a time, but occasionally a situation arises when you might need temporary car insurance. People often need to insure another driver on their car when they have a visitor staying with them for a short period of time. If you have a visiting relative or maybe even a friend that needs access to a car, then temporary car insurance is ideal. It allows the visitor to legally drive your car in the UK and vice versa if you wish to be added onto someone else’s policy.

Also, if you haven’t had time to arrange insurance when purchasing a new vehicle, temporary car insurance allows you to legally drive you new car home from the garage, dealership or residence from where you bought it. This kind of insurance is a good option if you want to be safe in the knowledge that any accident will be taken care of by your insurer; plus, it’s illegal to let someone other than a named driver uses your car without insurance.

What exactly does temporary car insurance cover?

As aforementioned, this particular insurance allows you to add another driver to your policy for a short period of time. Additionally, unlike adding a named driver to insurance policy, your no claims bonus is completely protected with temporary car insurance. Because the extra driver won’t permanently be added to your policy, any discount you may have acquired for not making any claims is left intact. This is also true if you are added to somebody else’s policy.

However, if you want to add someone onto your insurance for a day or two, there may be some restrictions. Obviously the applicant has to be in possession of a full driving license, but whether this license was issued in the UK or somewhere else is up to the discretion of the insurance provider. Make sure you know whether your chosen insurer will allow drivers from outside the UK to be added to your policy on a short term basis if you think you may need temporary auto insurance at some point.

Furthermore, many insurance companies place age restrictions on short term insurance policies. This may mean that if you’re under a certain age, or if you’ve only been driving for a short period of time, you won’t be allowed to drive another person’s car on their insurance.

Is car insurance available an individual day basis?

Yes, temporary car insurance can be purchased for one day at a time. You can also select the exact number of days you’d like to take the additional policy out for, or add extra days if you think you’ll need it. However, again there are limitations. You cannot take out temporary car insurance for an indefinite or extended period of time, and most insurers allow a maximum insurance period of about a month. So, make sure you know how long your guest will need use of your car.

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