Short Term Car Insurance Instead Of Renting A Car
I’ve spoken to a fair few people over the last couple of weeks who have been to visit friends or family on holiday and rented a car while they were there. Usually this is done for two reasons; convenience and the fact that it’s often perceived to be the cheapest option.
However, many insurance providers now offer temporary car insurance to drivers, and in most cases you should be able to extend these offers to international destinations. This would allow you to borrow your relatives/friends’ car, and get insurance just for those times you will be driving it (you can generally get anything from one day insurance to a months insurance). This could work out drastically cheaper than the price of a hire care, plus petrol and insurance costs.
You might well be thinking that your friend or relative won’t want you getting into an accident and ruining their own insurance premium. This however isn’t the case; the vast majority of short term car insurance policies they run with the vehicle owners’ main policy. This means if you do get into an accident, whilst your insurance will cover the repairs, your relatives own no claims bonus will remain unaffected.
Many insurers will offer temporary insurance for a foreign country (particularly if it’s in Europe), you just need to spend some time having a look online. Even if you don’t have a friend or relative with a vehicle in the country you’re visiting, you could still hire a car and take out your own short term policy on it. The policies offered by the hire company are almost always expensive and can be reduced simply by looking elsewhere.
It’s worth noting that there are a few conditions to being given short term insurance; the most prominent for a lot of travellers is that you’ll (usually) have to be at least 25 years of age in order to qualify for a short term policy. You will also need a full, valid picture ID drivers’ license, which would have had to have been held for at least 12 months. You’ll also need to make sure you’re not disqualified, and some insurers won’t like you having penalty points on your license.
