When it comes to temporary car insurance, there is a whole range of uses and reasons you may want to take out a policy. Although annual insurance is great for year-round protection, there are times when you don’t need 365 days of cover and you can save money and time with a shorter policy.
In this guide, discover a range of uses for temporary car insurance.
Do I need temporary car insurance?
If you are planning on driving a vehicle that doesn’t belong to you and you do not have insurance cover on, you’ll need car insurance in some form. Although you are able to take out an annual policy for that vehicle or get added to the current owner’s policy, this can be a pricey and time-consuming process that isn’t worth it if you don’t need a year of cover. That’s where temporary insurance comes in.
What’s more, if your insurance does give you third-party cover for other vehicles not on your policy, temp cover can boost that to comprehensive cover, giving you full peace of mind that you have the best protection possible.
LEARN MORE: What are the benefits of temporary car insurance?
Uses of temporary car insurance
There is an infinite number of reasons why you might want insurance for a period of time on a car, but here we list some of the main, day-to-day reasons why a temporary car insurance policy can be useful.
Using your personal car for business use
If your work vehicle is in the garage or you are using your personal car for work purposes, your annual insurance may not cover you. Depending on the policy you’ve taken out, you may only be covered in the event of using your car for personal and domestic use and might not be insured for commuting, external site visits or other work-related travel.
All of our full Dayinsure policies can be used to top-up your annual policy, to help when you are using your vehicle for work purposes. If you are attending a conference for work for a few days or just need to use your personal car whilst a work car is in the garage, the cover is quick and easy to set up.
Getting cover for driving holidays
When you are going away on holiday, you might find that your usual car isn’t right for the journey. Whether you want to borrow a vehicle from a friend or family member, or just insure your travel buddy on your car so you can share the driving, temporary car insurance can really come in handy. Maybe you want to take a trailer and need a car with a tow bar, or your day-to-day vehicle just doesn’t have enough room for the trip – whatever reason you have for borrowing a car, we can insure you.
And it’s not just cars that you can borrow. Planning to borrow a motorhome from someone? Instead of paying for annual insurance, which can be costly, just insure yourself for the time you need with our temporary motorhome insurance.
It’s not just holidays in the UK that are covered either, provided your trip will start and finish in the UK, you can add on European cover too. Find out the answers to your European temporary insurance questions here.
Driving a new vehicle purchase home
Buying a new car is an exciting event, but, before driving the vehicle away you’ll need to make sure you have insurance. If you’re yet to make a decision on an annual policy, getting a temporary insurance policy to cover the gap can give you more time to find the best deal for you.
This can also help if you’ve bought a new car and insured yourself, but a friend or family member is going to pick it up for you. Alternatively, with private buying over the internet, now it’s more common for people to buy cars from sellers nationwide. With temporary insurance, you can split the long journey home with someone else meaning you don’t have to tackle it alone.
Equally, if you are buying or selling a car privately, you’ll need insurance for any test drives. A lot of people may overlook this, but when you are test-driving a car for the first time, you’ll be more likely to not understand the controls or the power of the vehicle so it’s more important than ever to make sure you are properly covered.
LEARN MORE: Test drive insurance
Students coming home for the holidays
When your children are students and studying away from home, it often doesn’t make sense for them to have their own car, but when they are back over the holidays and between semesters, they might want to borrow yours to get around. Although you could add them on to your annual insurance policy, if they are only using the car for a few days out of the year, you could save money by just covering them for the days they actually use.
Don’t fear if they are still a new driver, your No Claims Bonus is never at risk with our temporary policies and you always get comprehensive cover as standard! It also means that should you have more than one car in your household, it’ll be easy for the student to switch between the two during their visit home.
LEARN MORE: Temporary Student Car Insurance
Borrowing a larger car or van to move house
Whether you are moving house or have just bought a bulky item of furniture you need to get home, there can be situations where a larger vehicle, or one with a roof rack, can make transporting your belongings a lot easier. Temporary car insurance can step in during these situations, meaning that you can get short-term cover on a vehicle more suitable for your needs.
If a car just won’t cut it, you can use our temporary van insurance to borrow a van from someone you know. Insurance starts at as little as an hour and lasts up to 30 days, so from getting a newly bought sofa home to making a long-distance house move, you can make sure you have all the cover you need in as little as 15 minutes.
Learning to drive
Learning to drive a car is a massive experience for many and can be quite a challenge. It can be useful to try and get as many practice hours in as possible, and, as well as learning with an instructor, learners are also able to drive (whilst being supervised) in an average car. This can not only help them get some more hours behind the wheel but can help them get used to the car they intend to drive after they pass their test whilst learning.
Dayinsure’s cheap learner driver insurance can help anyone between the ages of 17 and 35. This is great for those who want to learn independently, as it means the car owner’s annual policy, including their No Claims Discount, won’t be affected if an accident should occur. It also means you are able to take out exactly the amount of coverage you need, rather than taking out a longer policy that you don’t use all of.
In the event of emergencies
Dealing with emergencies is, unfortunately, a part of life and one that hits when we least expect it. They can have all manner of repercussions, but the last thing we want in an emergency is more complication added to a situation. Whether someone you are with falls ill and you need to borrow their car to get them medical assistance, a friend or family member’s car gets stolen and they borrow yours to get by or your car won’t start when you need to be somewhere, temporary insurance can be a great solution.
Simple to set up, you can get cover in minutes. And, with our car insurance app, it’s quicker than ever to set up and you can make sure you have all of your insurance documentation to hand should you need it.
LEARN MORE: Emergency Car Insurance
These are just some of the uses of temporary car insurance, but there are myriad reasons why you may need short-term insurance on a vehicle. For more information on temporary car insurance, take a look at our Help & Support page, or, for advice on a specific insurance question, feel free to contact us.
