Short term motor insurance explained

To help you decide if short term insurance is right for you, we've compiled a short guide that explains what it is and how it works.

What is short term insurance?

Short term insurance, as the name suggests, is an insurance policy designed to provide cover on a temporary basis only. It is available for vehicles and unoccupied property.

What vehicles can I cover?

Depending on the insurer, short term insurance is usually available for cars and vans but policies may also be available for motorhomes and motorbikes.

When is short term insurance useful?

Short term insurance is useful for those occasions where insurance is needed but only for a short time, such as when:

• Hiring or borrowing a vehicle from a third party.
• Collecting or delivering a vehicle.
• Test driving a car.
• Driving a dealer’s courtesy car while yours is being serviced or repaired
• Sharing a long drive with a friend.

How does it work?

Cover is normally comprehensive and policies can range from a minimum of one day up to a maximum of 28 days. To prevent short term insurance being used as a replacement for an annual policy, insurance companies place limits on the number of times a policy can be taken out in any rolling 12 month period; depending on the individual insurer this may be expressed as a maximum number of occasions or a maximum number of days.

To take out short term insurance you will normally need to be aged 21 or over, although some insurers require policyholders to be aged 23 or over

What are the other advantages of short term insurance?

Short term insurance offers a number of other advantages including:

• Cost and convenience – it can sometimes be cheaper or more convenient to take out a short term insurance policy than make a temporary change to an existing annual policy.
• No risk to your no claims bonus – as short term cover does not affect any annual no claims bonus levels.
• The availability of extra cover – such as for travelling in Europe.

What are 'exclusions'?

Exclusions are circumstances or events that prevent or invalidate a claim.

Examples of standard exclusions on short term vehicle insurance policies include:

• Damage to or theft of the vehicle as a result of the ignition keys being left in it.
• The vehicle being driven by any person not listed on the certificate of insurance as entitled to drive.
• The vehicle being used for a purpose for which cover is not included.

Remember!  Short term insurance cannot be used to tax a vehicle as while the insurance certificate provides evidence of insurance as required by Road Traffic Act legislation, the DVLA and Post Office will not accept these certificates for road fund licence purposes.