Why Would You Need Daily Car Insurance?

Getting the right car insurance policy is usually just a matter of finding the cheapest quote. A quick look through one or two of the online insurance comparison sites usually results in a satisfactory quote. But what about other situations that require a more specialised type of cover, such as a daily insurance policy.

For most of us this will be our annual foray into the world of car insurance. There are however circumstances where something a little bit more specialised is required. Let's say that you are insured to drive your car (at least I hope you are), you only have one car so you only need one policy. This may be fully comprehensive, third party with fire and theft coverage or just third party.

Let's say your friend asks you to drive their car back from the airport as they do not want to leave it at the airport car park. They are going away for a long holiday and want to leave the car parked outside their home to make it look like they are still at home.

You volunteer your services and offer to drive them to the airport even though it means getting up at 2am and driving on icy Winter roads. You may not even think about checking your policy and just assume you are covered to drive another car. Do you know if you would be insured to drive your friend's car?

It used to be the case that if you had fully comprehensive insurance you were able to drive other cars on third party coverage. With increasing competition in the market and the massive increase in claims many insurers have dropped this benefit. You probably got a letter and it mentioned it in the small print. Don't worry nobody else read it either.

The fact is that you are probably not insured. This of course raises all sorts of problems. What if you are stopped by the police in the early hours of the morning driving back from the airport? How are you going to explain that you are doing you friend a favour and when they check up it comes back that you are not insured to drive the car.

Situations like this can be avoided as insurers have created a new type of policy known as daily car insurance. It allows you to get an additional policy to insure yourself to drive a car for a short period of time. Coverage can be for as little as a single day.

This type of temporary car insurance is becoming increasingly popular especially among young drivers who may not own their own car. It allows them to borrow a friend or families vehicle, it could be a car or a van, and get insured to drive it for a day, the weekend or anywhere up to 28 consecutive days.

So the next time that you are in a situation where you will be driving someone else's car or even someone driving your car then check your insurance covers you. If you need additional temporary coverage then consider a daily car insurance policy. You can apply online and get covered there and then. You can print off your cover note and drive straight away without having to wait for the policy to arrive in the post.