Temporary car insurance allows you to get cover to drive a vehicle for a short period of time. A policy can be taken out for as little as one day or up to a total of 28 days that will insure you to drive any car or van.
It is a legal requirement in the UK to have a valid insurance policy to drive a vehicle on any roads or highways. Driving without insurance can lead to a fine, disqualification or even a custodial sentence. Of course getting points on your license will mean your insurance premiums will go up so you will be paying for your mistake for a long time to come. The problem comes when you need to drive another vehicle that may belong to someone else, you have just purchased it, you are hiring or renting it or you may be test driving it for the day.
Most people do not realise that their standard car insurance policy will most likely not cover them to drive another vehicle. Some policies used to include a clause that allowed you to drive another persons car on a third party basis if you had taken out a comprehensive policy with your insurer. This more often than not is no longer the case and most people will find that they are not insured to drive another car.
This is where temporary car insurance comes into it's own as you can insure yourself to drive a car temporarily or indeed insure someone else to drive your car. Often people may not want to leave their car at an airport car park and so ask a friend to drive their own car back home, you could easily insure that person to drive your car.
Whilst this type of insurance is useful it can be problematic to get temp cover under 25, younger people find that they are often excluded. You can however get a pay as you go no deposit car insurance policy if you are under 25 that provides insurance on a monthly basis for people as young as 17.