A guide to short term car insurance

Whether you’re heading off on a road trip and want to share the driving, or a family member’s returning from university and needs to use your car for a short while, short term comprehensive car insurance could be just the ticket.

What is short term car insurance?

Short term, or temporary, car insurance allows you to add an additional driver or car to your current car insurance policy on a temporary basis.

Most insurers insist on a minimum and maximum age limit[1] with this kind of insurance. Your first port of call should be your own insurer, but you can shop around to try and find a better quote elsewhere – just make sure the cover you choose is adequate for your needs.

Temporary Additional Driver insurance

It’s wise to get short term cover, even if the person who’s going to be borrowing your car has cover for other cars on a car insurance policy of their own. Their insurer will probably only give them third party cover. This means that, if there was an incident, you’d have to pay for any damage to your own vehicle, which could cost you thousands.

Most insurers offer cover lasting from as little as one hour to up to 28 days[2]. If you’re letting someone borrow your car, it’s important that they’re not paying you for the privilege, as this will invalidate your insurance.

Most TAD insurance only allows the additional driver to drive your car in the UK as standard, so make sure you check the small print of your policy beforehand – you may well be able to add European cover, if needed.

If you want to add someone to your policy permanently, you’ll need to add them as a named driver instead.

Temporary Additional Vehicle insurance

When you temporarily add another car to your own insurance policy, you’ll usually be offered a similar timescale to TAD insurance. You may want to do this if you're selling a car or test-driving a new one for a few days.

It’s worth bearing in mind that most insurers will only allow you to add up to two cars per year to your policy.

To get a quote for a Rias annual car insurance policy, please click here >

If you are an existing customer and want to make a short term change to your policy, please give us a call on 0345 650 0345.