Short-term learner insurance
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FIND SHORT-TERM CAR INSURANCE WITH THESE COMPANIES[1]
Veygo by Admiral offers flexible monthly, daily or hourly car insurance for drivers aged between 17 and 75. Need to borrow a friend or family member's car? Just bought a car and need to drive it home? Temporary cover from 1 hour to 60 days. Get on the road in minutes!
Cuvva offers short-term insurance for drivers aged between 19 and 65 from as little as one hour up to 28 days. Sign up in a few minutes using their app to get comprehensive cover.
Dayinsure, which is backed by Aviva, offers comprehensive short-term car insurance cover for drivers aged 18-75. You can quickly get covered for UK driving, with the option to add cover to drive in Europe too.
Tempcover compares comprehensive short-term policies from several well-known UK insurers to find you their best price. Drivers aged 17-78 can get cover from 1 to 28 days quickly and easily. It takes just 90 seconds to get a quote and you won't even need to enter your licence details. Your documents are emailed straight away so you're covered and on the road in no time.
Short-term car insurance is temporary cover that can last from one hour to several months.
You set the duration of your policy when you take out your cover. Once that time expires, you won’t be able to drive the car on public roads. If you need longer, ask the insurer if it can extend your cover for an additional premium.
Short-term car insurance policies are usually for fully comprehensive cover, although some providers might be able to offer quotes for third party only, or third party, fire and theft.
You can sometimes add optional extras like driving abroad or breakdown cover for an extra charge.
Your temporary insurance policy is entirely separate to your annual car insurance policy, so it won’t affect your no-claims bonus if you need to make a claim on the short-term cover. If you’ve borrowed someone else’s vehicle, their no-claims won’t be reduced either.
If you need to insure a car multiple times in a year, it’ll probably be cheaper to compare quotes for annual car insurance instead. You’ll also build up a no claims bonus this way – something you’ll miss out on with short-term car insurance.
Short-term car insurance can be useful for lots of situations, whether you own a car or not.
It’s handy if you need car insurance to borrow someone else’s car, drive one home after buying it, or for occasional use of a vehicle you keep off the road:
You’ll choose how long to be covered for when you get quotes.
Your temporary car insurance could last for as little as one hour, or for as long as 24 weeks, depending on the provider.
There are a few things that short-term car insurance won’t cover.
It varies from one provider to another, so make sure you check your policy documents to find out exactly what’s excluded from your policy.
Some general exclusions are:
No. Driving without insurance is illegal at any time.
If you need insurance to cover you while you drive the car home, you could take out a short-term car insurance policy. That would allow you to get the car home and arrange an annual policy when you have more time.
Learn more about the risks of driving without insurance.
There are short term insurance policies available that include business use, but not all policies can cover this.
You’ll be asked how you’ll be using the car when you get a quote, so make sure you declare that you’ll be using it for business.
Adding business use to your standard car insurance can make it more expensive because insurers will assume you’re spending more time on the roads during busy periods of the day.
If you only need a few days’ business use, it might work out cheaper to take out a temporary policy covering business use instead.
Instead of taking out your own short-term car insurance, you could ask a friend or family member to add you to their car insurance as a named driver.
Their insurer might change the price of their premiums, or ask them to pay an administration fee.
If you need to drive another car just in rare and exceptional circumstances, check your own annual car insurance policy first. Some will have a clause saying that you’re covered to drive other cars, although this cover is usually only third party.
You could also get short term insurance for other vehicles:
Whether you're borrowing a friend's van to move to a new house or using it for work, you can get temporary van insurance.
More about temporary van cover >
You can get temporary cover for motorbikes too. For just a day, a week or up to a few months.
To help find you quotes for temporary cover for your car, you’ll need to answer a few questions about:
Your name, address, date of birth and driving history
Information about the car you want to cover. Its make and model, for example
Choose how long you need cover for, from as little as one hour to 24 weeks
Pick the policy that works for you, with the right cover and at the right price
If you’re going to take a trip to Europe, your normal annual car insurance should cover you, but sometimes it’s at the minimum level of third-party only, even if you have a comprehensive policy in the UK.
That means you’d have to pay for your damages and the costs of transporting the car back home for repairs if you were involved in an accident abroad.
If your insurer can’t extend comprehensive cover to driving in Europe, you could take out a temporary European car insurance policy instead to give you comprehensive cover just for the time you’re abroad.
You might be able to add on cover for additional drivers and breakdown cover too, for a fee.
To get quotes and buy a policy, have the car’s registration number to hand, plus your driving licence and passport details.
If you claim on your short-term European policy, it’ll have no impact on any other separate policy you have at home.
No – insurance will be included by the hire firm when you hire a car, but there’s usually a high excess, which you’ll have to pay if you’re in an accident.
Short-term car insurance could give you the option of borrowing a car instead of hiring one and paying for temporary insurance instead of the hire fee.
For expats returning to the UK for short visits, temporary car insurance is a quick and easy way to get cover.
You might have to meet some criteria – some providers ask that you’ve previously lived in the UK for 36 months and have a permanent address abroad, while others will cap the age of the driver they’re willing to insure.
You’ll need to have the details of your driving licence and usually it must be a full UK, EU, NI or EEC licence to get cover.
Some insurers will have a minimum age restriction – for example, over 19 and having held a full UK or EU driving licence for at least a year.
Age restrictions differ between insurers and some have an upper age restriction too – 75 is typical.
It can be cheaper to take out temporary car insurance than to pay admin fees to make changes to your existing policy.
It’s likely an annual insurance policy would cost less per day, so if you need to get insured for weeks or months, make sure you compare costs.
Yes – and you need to have car insurance to tax it. Your insurance will be checked when you buy your car tax online.
If you’re buying a new car it’s possible to take out temporary car insurance (even just for a day), tax it so you can drive it home, then sort out an annual car insurance policy when you have more time to compare.
Yes, but some insurers will have minimum limits for age or how long you’ve held your full driving licence.
Temporary car insurance is most suitable for covering just a few days or weeks of driving. Any longer than that and an annual policy might be cheaper and more practical.
You need to tell the insurer as soon as you can.
The claims process will be the same for any other car insurance policy and you’ll need to pay your excess to get started.
Short-term car insurance is a useful option to get covered to drive someone else’s car.
You’ll need their permission and you can only drive the vehicle named in your policy.
Temporary car insurance policies usually only cover one driver.
Several additional drivers can be added to standard car insurance, so that might be a better option for multiple drivers.
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Page last reviewed: 06 February 2023
Page reviewed by Ryan Fulthorpe
[1]We do not offer a full comparison service on short-term car insurance at Gocompare.com but instead have provided links to some companies that offer short-term car insurance. These companies are not listed in an order that indicates that one is better than another but are instead ordered in line with our commercial arrangement with each one. Please remember, as different companies offer different policies, it is up to you to choose the one that best suits your needs. Gocompare.com introduces you to Veygo by Admiral which is a subsidiary of Admiral Group plc, Cuvva, Dayinsure.com Ltd and Tempcover to provide short-term car insurance quotes. All providers are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Gocompare.com’s relationship with Veygo by Admiral, Dayinsure.com Ltd, Cuvva and Tempcover is limited to that of a business partnership, no common ownership or control rights exist between us.