What is temporary car insurance?
Temporary car insurance offers cover for a set duration, from a single hour up to 28 days, which makes it perfect for a range of everyday situations.
It’s ideal for when you need to borrow a car, pick up a new vehicle or just share a long drive. Whenever you need to use a car that you’re not already insured to drive, temporary cover is the flexible and affordable option.
How does temporary car insurance work?
A short term insurance policy from Tempcover offers comprehensive cover for a range of vehicles including cars, vans and motorbikes as well as cover for learners and student drivers.
While temporary and annual cover are different car insurance products, with short term insurance you get the same level of comprehensive insurance but for a duration that works for you. You can select how long you want to insure your car from an hour up to 28 days.
It works in the same way your usual insurance does except there are no long term contracts. Once the policy duration you choose is over, it won’t automatically renew, the policy simply expires and that’s it.
You will receive a reminder when the policy is due to expire so you can quickly and easily purchase more temporary insurance cover.
So, if you just want a one hour policy, select 1 hour as the duration while getting a quote and your cover will start the minute you want it to. We’ll insure you for 60 minutes and you don’t have to worry about a thing.
When would short term insurance be useful?
One day car insurance
One of the most attractive features of a temporary policy is being able to cover your car for the duration you actually need.
Without short term insurance, if you wanted cover for just one day you’d either have to be added to the vehicle owner’s policy or you’d have to buy a whole years’ worth of cover.
Both these options can be extremely expensive and can take a lot of time and effort to sort out. Besides the cost and time, there can huge consequences for everyone involved if you were to have an accident while driving someone else’s car.
With a one or two day policy, you can relax because not only is it the most affordable option, but because you’re not tied to anything there’s no impact on the vehicle owner.
Not only can a flexible daily policy save you money but it’s incredibly quick to buy. Most people can get cover in less than 5 minutes online, ideal if you need cover at short notice or in an emergency.
To keep costs down and get covered in minutes, short term car insurance is the best option.
When borrowing a car
There are many reasons why temporary car insurance is the perfect option if you want to borrow a car from a friend, colleague or family member.
- You may not be covered by your annual policy
Remember you must be properly insured to use another vehicle and you may be not covered automatically.
Unfortunately, many drivers believe that they are already insured to use another car if they have comprehensive annual insurance because most policies used to include a ‘driving other cars’ section.
While this is true for some drivers, most annual insurers no longer offer this clause and it’s likely you’re not actually properly insured and could face between 6 and 8 penalty points, driving bans and an unlimited fine.
A quick and easy short term car insurance policy will ensure that you are legally covered to use another vehicle for the duration you need.
- It protects No Claims Discount
Driving a friend’s vehicle can be daunting and the risk of having an accident or damaging their car can often put people off doing so.
With temporary insurance, you get complete peace of mind because if you have an accident in their vehicle, it will have no impact on their No Claims Discount.
This is because it’s a separate policy which sits alongside their existing annual insurance (which the vehicle owner must have).
This is a huge relief for anyone using somewhere else’s car because a large No Claims Discount is something that takes a long time to build and can save the owner a lot of money on their annual cover.
A No Claims Discount of 5 or more years can reduce the cost of annual insurance by up to 65%*, a huge expense for any driver and even more of a blow if they were to lose it without even driving.
Were you to have an accident without temporary insurance, the vehicle owner would have to make a claim on their annual insurance, no matter who was driving.
This means you’d not only have the cost of any repairs but there would also be the inevitable price increase that comes with having made a claim.
Short term cover keeps the cost of insurance down while giving you and the owner of the car the reassurance that should the worst happen, it won’t impact their annual insurance.
Drive away insurance
If you’re one of the millions of drivers looking to buy a new car each year, the last thing you want to worry about is making sure it’s properly insured to drive home.
Unfortunately, it’s an important part of buying a car so when looking for drive away insurance, you’ll want cover that’s fast, flexible and most importantly, cost-effective and with Tempcover you get all three.
Fast – Getting your own car insurance quote from Tempcover is super quick. You can get quotes from a range of insurance providers in under 2 minutes and once you’ve tailored the policy to suit your needs, you can get covered instantly or at a time that suits you.
This means you can arrange to pick up your new set of wheels and drive it straight home knowing that you’re completely covered.
Flexible – Temporary policies can be designed to suit your own personal situation. If you only want cover to pick up the vehicle, you can get hourly policies but if you want more time to find annual insurance, temporary cover can be used as a stopgap while this is arranged.
Cost effective – If you want to insure your car so you can drive it away when you buy it, cheap temporary car insurance is often the best option.
If you compare an expensive annual policy or even buying yearly cover before you’ve taken the time to compare prices with short term insurance, you’ll find it’s the cheapest option when trying to get your car home quickly.
Like all insurance policies, the price you pay for your insurance depends on a number of factors but as a one-off payment, temporary car insurance cover could save you hundreds of pounds when picking up your new car.
Young drivers
Whether you’re a learner driver, a student or just a young driver looking to use a friend or family member’s car, new driver car insurance can be an expensive and daunting prospect.
It’s widely known that young, inexperienced drivers pay more for their cover than any other age groups with 17-22 year-olds paying on average over £1,400‡ for their annual insurance, but when it comes to temporary insurance, things get even worse.
It’s not just that policies are too expensive, many insurance providers won’t even offer cover to drivers under the age of 21.
This means that anyone younger than 21 looking for short term insurance will find it hard to get a quote, as many see them as too much of a risk.
Here at Tempcover, we think differently. We aim to offer new driver car insurance to as many drivers as possible. We accept drivers aged 18 and above for our standard car and university student schemes while we can cover learner drivers from 17 years of age.
Not only can young drivers get access to temporary cover but with No Claims Discount protection and comprehensive cover on all our policies, we remove the worry of letting an inexperienced driver get behind the wheel.
With the vehicle owner’s mind put at ease, young drivers are able to get temporary cover when they need it.
Who can get temporary insurance?
We are confident that most drivers will be able to get a short term car insurance policy but there are a few restrictions. You can expect to be insured if you:
- Are aged between 18 and 78 years old
- The holder of a UK or EU driving licence
- Have held your licence for at least 6 months (12 months for EU licences)
- A driver with penalty points – time limits and certain restrictions do apply.
- Looking to insure your car which is valued between £800 and £65,000
This is specifically for our temporary car cover scheme; the acceptance criteria for other schemes may vary.
While a cheap short term insurance policy is suitable for a large number of situations, we can’t offer car insurance for any car. There are unfortunately some occasions when we won’t be able to offer you cover.
We can’t offer you temporary car insurance or cover your car in the following circumstances:
- No car modifications allowed (except for those designed to aid disabled drivers)
- Left-hand drive cars (we can insure left-hand drive motorhomes and caravanettes)
- You want to recover an impounded vehicle (Try our specific impounded car insurance)
- Cars with more than 8 seats in total
- Cars that have been hired and/or used for taxi, courier or home delivery
- Vehicles not registered in Great Britain, Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man
Benefits of temporary insurance cover with Tempcover
Accurate price comparison
We all know that comparing prices is the best way to save money and to make sure you’re getting exactly what you’re looking for at the cheapest possible price.
It’s always worth having a look around to see what else is availble when buying anything, or at least who else is selling the same thing.
You should never fully commit to buying any type of product or service without seeing what else is available, or at least who else is selling the same thing. If you don’t compare prices before buying then you could end up paying more for what is basically the same thing.
There are countless comparison sites for annual cover but when it comes to short term insurance, Tempcover.com is the only site that actually compares prices from different insurers. We compare prices and policies from a panel of leading insurance providers to give you multiple quotes to choose from – that way you can pick the one that works best for you.
Comparing insurance providers will always give you more information about its pros and cons. You’ll learn more about the details of the policy and even about insurance in general and while we try to make the process as simple as possible with our helpful guides and insurance glossary, there is no better way to learn about something than to research and discover the small details yourself.
Not only will a cheap short term car insurance policy save you money, but different providers may offer different variations of the same product. By comparing the different details of the policy, you can find the cover that not only offers you the best price but the best value as well.
We offer access to a range of quotes so that we can offer short term insurance to as many drivers as possible. As we work with a large panel of insurers, we are confident we can provide cover to a wide range of driving histories, professions, locations, ages and for most vehicles.
Quick and easy quotes
It couldn’t be simpler to get a short term insurance policy and whether you prefer to buy online or on the phone, we’ve made the whole process quick and easy for you.
You can buy a policy online anytime you need it and with our speedy quote process, you can get a range of quotes to compare in just a couple of minutes.
We only ask for the minimum amount of information required by the insurance companies we work with. This means there are no difficult or intrusive questions to answer; we just need some basic info on you and the vehicle you want to drive, then you can get car insurance for short term needs from Tempcover in minutes.
Once you’ve chosen the quote you want, whether it’s one day or one week, you’re just a few clicks away from being covered.
You can pay for your temporary policy in several ways. Using our secure payment system, you can use the following payment methods:
- Visa (credit/debit cards)
- MasterCard (credit/debit cards)
- Maestro (debit card)
- PayPal
- Amazon Payments
After you’ve bought your policy, your documents will be emailed to you instantly so there’s no waiting around.
Increased customer satisfaction
Since its inception in 2006, Tempcover has been dedicated to providing the best temporary car insurance possible to hundreds of thousands of drivers.
We currently have a 5 star, 9.1/10 rating on the consumer review website TrustPilot and here’s what just some of the drivers who’ve used Tempcover before thought of our service: