Short term car insurance

Short Term Car Insurance

Short term car insurance covers a motorist for a limited period of time ? between 1 and 28 days for temporary cover and 1 to 8 months for 'pay as you go' policies. 1-28 days cover is used by motorists who need to be covered on another vehicle for short periods of time, for example when borrowing a friend's car to move or when going on a short holiday; or perhaps when buying a car and needing cover to drive it home.

'Pay as you go' is for those motorists who need cover on another vehicle for longer than the 28 days allowed by temporary policies, particularly when they are not sure how long they will need the insurance for. For example, students returning home for their summer holiday might use this to drive their parents' vehicles until they return to university or drivers who are selling their car, and don't know how long it will take to sell, find this useful. Motorists can purchase these policies online, to take effect immediately. These 1-8 months (pay as you go) policies are very similar to conventional annual policies with the major difference that instead of the contract lasting a year, it runs from month to month and can be cancelled at the end of each month without penalty provided that the required notice (minimum 2 weeks) is given.

Short term car insurance could save your driving licence!

It is generally accepted that 5% of the drivers on British roads are uninsured. What is not as well known is that about a third of these genuinely believe that they are in fact covered, even though they are not!

In most cases, the reason is this: there was always a tradition that anyone taking out a fully comprehensive car insurance policy (and sometimes a third party, fire and theft policy to) was automatically given insurance to cover driving any vehicle that the policyholder did not own, was not buying under a hire purchase agreement. Unfortunately two things have happened; firstly the government has decided that this is not a good thing, and has made representations to the insurance industry to drop the whole idea; and secondly, partly in response to the difficulties that the industry is going through, a lot of insurers have introduced a number of conditions. For example some of them do not extend this cover to people under 25, some to cars over a certain cubic capacity, some to cars owned by spouses or other relatives. This can very easily mean that someone who borrows a car for a short while may well assume that he or she is insured, when this simply is not the case.

There is another very important point that must be borne in mind. If someone lends a car to a person who turns out to be uninsured, the lender will probably be prosecuted for allowing a vehicle to be on the road without insurance. This is a very serious offence with a maximum penalty of ?5000 fine +8 penalty points on the driving licence for a first offence. Not only that; the car could be confiscated and crushed, under the Road Traffic Act (see here for the car insurance implications). The only defence against a charge like this is the claim that no permission was ever given, and would not have been given if asked; something that could lead to the borrower facing very serious charges indeed.

The moral is to check the insurance situation scrupulously, whether you are lending a car to someone, or borrowing one yourself; and if in the slightest doubt take out some short term car insurance to cover the period of the loan.