Temporary car insurance

You might be refused a quote for temporary car insurance for a number of reasons. These might include your age, your driving history, how long you’ve had your licence or the type of vehicle you want to insure.

Yes, you can get temporary van insurance if you need to borrow a van for various reasons, including:

• Dropping off items at the recycling centre

• Moving furniture

• Taking a test drive in a van you’re thinking of buying.

If you run a business, you can also get temporary insurance for an employee to use a van for short periods.

Temporary van insurance won’t cover you if you hire a van.

Yes, short-term car insurance for your own vehicle could be a cost-effective option if:

• You only drive your car very occasionally

• You have a convertible you rarely use

• You have a motorhome you only use for the odd trip.

If you don’t intend to insure your car to cover the long periods when you’re not using it, you’ll have to keep it off the road and get a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN).

Short-term policies typically provide comprehensive insurance, which means you should be fully covered if you have an accident.

And if you have an accident while driving someone else’s car (with their permission), claims are usually made against the temporary policy. The car owner’s no-claims discounts shouldn't be affected.

If you need to make a claim on a temporary car insurance policy, you’ll have to declare it when renewing your annual car insurance. Bear in mind that this could cause your annual premiums to increase.

Yes, if you’re borrowing a car or sharing the drive with a friend, you can use temporary cover to drive in Europe. But check the temporary car insurance policy covers the countries you’re travelling to.

Temporary car insurance typically only provides third-party cover to drive in the EU.

If you want comprehensive cover to drive in Europe, check your standard car insurance policy as it may be included. If it’s not, speak to your insurance provider. They can usually increase your cover for an additional cost.

No, driving a vehicle without insurance is against the law. If you’ve just bought a new car, ‘drive away’ insurance can give you short-term cover. You can then shop around to find insurance that suits your needs.

Yes, you can tax your vehicle with a temporary policy. You can do this:

• Online via the DVLA website

• At a local post office with the temporary insurance documents you’ve been sent.

When you tax your car, the national database Navigate is checked to make sure the car is insured.

If you’ve recently bought a temporary car insurance policy, it can take up to a week for the details to be uploaded to Navigate. So it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to tax your vehicle online immediately.

Luckily, most post offices will allow you to tax your vehicle using your temporary insurance certificate. This is normally emailed to you as soon as you take out short-term cover.

Yes, new drivers can take out temporary car insurance, although there may be certain restrictions in place – for example, you may need to wait a few months after getting your licence to get short-term cover.

Yes, you’ll also want to think about the following:

• Temporary car insurance isn’t a replacement for annual cover. If you’re looking for longer-term cover, an annual insurance policy is likely to be more cost-effective

• Temporary insurance won’t count towards your no-claims bonus

• You’ll have to pay for your policy in full before you drive off.

Yes, you can get temporary car insurance on a friend or family member’s car. It means they won’t have to pay to add you as a named driver to their policy. Their no-claims bonus won’t be affected either.

It can take up to 48 hours for cover to appear on the Motor Insurance Database.

The good news is your cover should still be valid from the start date and time shown on your policy documents.