Alternatives

If you need to drive a car other than your own, do you really need to take out short term car insurance? Sometimes there are cheaper alternatives that you may wish to consider.

Firstly: if you already own a car which is insured you may already be covered under your existing policy for any other vehicle that you drive which does not belong to you and which is not hired to you under a hire purchase agreement, provided that you have the consent of the owner. If you suspect that this is the case you need to check your insurance policy very carefully, because sometimes there are restrictions listed which may include maximum engine size, duration of cover, etc and sometimes cars belonging to close relatives are specifically excluded. In addition, younger drivers very often find that they are not given this type of cover at all. In addition, regardless of whether or not existing policy is fully comprehensive cover for other vehicles, when it exists at all, is almost inevitably reduced to third-party only risks. This means that if you borrowed a car and it became damaged in an accident which was your fault the insurance company would pay for third-party claims but not for repairs to, or replacement of, the vehicle you were driving. If this vehicle was of a fairly low value you may feel justified in taking the risk, but for a more expensive car, particularly one belonging to someone else, you may feel safer if you have fully comprehensive cover via a short term policy.

If you are buying a car and need insurance to test drive it, and you are buying from an established motor dealership, they may already have a motor trade policy which includes demonstration cover. Make sure that you ask them about this before taking out a short term policy, in order to avoid the possibility of wasting your money! This type of policy is normally only available to bona fide, well established traders and since the penalties for driving without insurance cover are draconian, and ignorance is no defence, please insist on inspecting the policy yourself before accepting the dealer's word that insurance is in place. A reputable dealer will understand the potential consequences and should have no problems in producing the policy.

Finally, you may be able to persuade your own insurers to add another vehicle to your policy. They may not be prepared to do this, and may well charge you a substantial fee for altering the policy as well as an extra premium, so this is something that you may only consider if you will be driving the additional vehicle on a fairly regular basis. In this event, you may well find yourself better off taking out a full annual policy on this vehicle with your existing insurer; some of them are prepared to offer quite substantial discounts on a second car.