Temporary Car Insurance and its Benefits
Temporary car insurance is not as popular as the regular car insurance which usually runs for the period of twelve months. I won’t even be surprised if some car owners don’t know anything about temporary car insurance let alone how it works. That is why I will start this article from the basics by letting you know what it is all about.
What is Temporary Car Insurance?
If you know about car insurance, then it will not be difficult for you to understand the term “temporary car insurance”. The only difference between the two is that while the standard car insurance normally covers twelve month period, temporary car insurance only cover a period between one and twenty eight days. That is why it is also called short term car insurance. Just like standard car insurance, before you can qualify for temporary car insurance, you must be above 18 and under 75. Some insurance companies will not consider anyone below 21 year of age. You may be wondering, why the need for short term car insurance? People do buy temporary car insurance for different reasons. Some of these reasons are discussed below.
If you have just bought a new car which you need to take home, there is likelihood that such car is not yet under any car insurance cover. No matter how short the distance you may need to cover in order to take the vehicle home, anything can happen on the way. Of course, anybody driving a new car will want to be careful in order to ensure nothing damage or even scratch the car. However, you are not the only road user. There are many other road users and you may not have control over how they drive. Some may drive carelessly. Even something may go wrong with any car on the road thereby making it to malfunction. This may lead to accident. Since you don’t want to be a victim of such incidence, it may be wise to take temporary car insurance in this case. This will give you peace of mind. If anything should happen to the car, you will know that it is under an insurance coverage. When you just bought a car, you must have drained your savings. You may even need to take car loan to finance the purchase. Therefore, you may find it difficult to repair a new car if anything should happen to it. That is why short term car insurance is useful in such a situation.
Read Also: The Risks of Driving with No Car Insurance Policy
Another reason you may like to go for short term car insurance is that you want to add someone to your insured car. The person may be your guest, university students, friends or relatives from other country. Supposing you have a guest who may be your friend or relative who came to attend a function say wedding ceremony, you may like to offer such person your car. This will save the person the cost of hiring a car especially if the person is familiar with the road network. If you cannot drive the person to the place by the reason of your own engagement, then there may be need for temporary car insurance to cover the person. Also during holidays, college or university students are always around. If you have a grown up university student who can drive, you may like to quickly arrange for short term car insurance for him so that he can be able to drive your car if he is not included in the original car insurance coverage.
On the other hand, if you want to drive someone’s car, you will need temporary car insurance the same way your guest will need it when he wants to drive your car. It does not matter if you are covered under your own car insurance. That car insurance may not provide you coverage if you drive another person’s car.
Furthermore, you may want to protect your no claim bonus and that of the new person being added if he has no claim bonus. The beauty of temporary car insurance is that, even if the insured car is involved in accident under the short term car insurance coverage, it will not affect the no claim bonus of the owner of the car or the person being added. Temporary car insurance may seem like additional cost in the short run, it will save you some cost on your standard car insurance in the long run. It usually takes some time to wipe off accident claims in your record.
If you want to bridge the gap between policies in order to ensure that there is no time your car is not under insurance cover, there may be need for temporary car insurance. Gap usually exist if your existing policy has expired and you are about to buy a new one. Except you are on auto renewal, your car insurance policy will not start automatically after the existing one has expired. It is even possible that you plan to change your existing car insurer and you want to shop around in order to compare quotes. If you don’t start the process on time, you may soon realise that your car insurance policy expires while you are yet to decide on any particular insurance company. In order to bridge the gap which may exist between the two policies, that is the old and the new ones, temporary car insurance may be the solution.
Another situation where temporary car insurance may be relevant is when you are taking a rental car to a different state where you are not familiar with the road. Apart from the fact that the law governing car insurance may be quite different in that other state, unfamiliarity with the roads may pose additional challenge. For this reason, you may decide to take short term car insurance that will cover the period that you will be away in other state,
Finally, if you plan to dispose your car shortly after the existing car insurance expires, there may not be any need to buy car insurance policy that will cover the whole twelve months. In order to save cost, you can quickly arrange for short term car insurance to cover the period you are yet to find a buyer. If after the expiration of the temporary insurance you are yet to find a buyer, you may need to take another policy.
Requirements for Temporary Car Insurance
You may find it difficult finding temporary car insurance to buy if you don’t meet its requirements. Below are the reasons why you may be denied short term car insurance:
- You are less than 21 years old. I mentioned that some insurance companies will not offer temporary car insurance to people below 21 year. You may need to shop round to find which insurers will accept your age bracket.
- You don’t have valid drivers’ license. At least, you are expected to possess drivers’ license that is valid for the next one year.
- If you have more than six penalty points in the past three years, you may be denied temporary car insurance
- You have two or more claims in the past three years. Insurance companies are more attracted to people who don’t have history of claims.
- If you have been disqualified or suffered licence revocation for one reason or the other, you may find it difficult to buy temporary car insurance
- Temporary car insurance may not cover impounded car. If your car is impounded, insurance companies may not provide any cover for it under temporary car insurance.
Read Also: How to Get Really Cheap Car Insurance Quotes
Benefits of Temporary Car Insurance
- It is cost saving: It may look very expensive if you focus on the amount you need to pay to cover just a month. But when you compare it to what you would have paid for twelve month, you will still discover that it is far cheaper
- It helps you protect your no claim bonus.
- You don’t need to add extra person to your regular car insurance. Adding a new person may increase your car insurance premium significantly especially if the person is young.
- Short term car insurance is instant if you meet the requirements. The cover starts almost immediately.
Wow, it’s interesting when you explained that temporary car insurance offers the cover a period between one and twenty-eight days. I like how you discussed it’s benefits and framework in your article. I think your article is useful to people who are planning to get their car insured.