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Yes, you can tax your car with temporary car insurance and it’s a popular reason for taking out short-term cover. For example, if you’ve bought a car directly from a private owner, you’ll need to insure and tax the car before you can drive it home. Luckily, organising temporary cover takes little time and can be done in just a few minutes. 

You can, and if you do it can actually save you money depending on the situation. For example, if you’re moving home, borrowing a friend’s car or van and insuring yourself to drive it can save you money compared to hiring a rental or using a removals firm. Similarly, if you’re staying with friends and they loan you their car for the duration, temp car cover can work out cheaper than a hire car.

Short term policies usually provide a comprehensive level of cover but insurers determine their own specific conditions so you should double check any restrictions in place. Typical restrictions and exclusions include:

• Purpose – generally, you can only have short-term cover if you’re driving for social, domestic or pleasure purposes, or for commuting to a single place of work. If you’re driving for commercial business reasons, short-term car cover isn’t a suitable policy.
• Negligence – insurers are unlikely to pay out if damage or theft was due to negligence, for example if you left the keys in the ignition and the car was stolen. 
• Unnamed drivers – only drivers named in the policy are able to drive the car.

It’s worth bearing in mind that these exclusions aren’t unique to short-term car insurance policies and are fairly standard in annual policies too.

If you’re between 18 and 75 and have a full UK driving licence, you should be able to buy short-term car insurance. If you’ve got a provisional licence and are under 18 you may still be able to buy temporary cover, but you might need to drive accompanied by someone 21 or over. Your insurer should make this clear when you take out the policy. 

Temporary car insurance has a number of benefits, for instance:

• It’s quick and easy to organise – policies can be arranged in less than 20 minutes.
• It won’t affect your no claims discount – it won’t affect the no claims of the person whose car you’re borrowing either.
• It won’t affect your existing insurance – so long as you’re driving according to the conditions set out in the temporary policy. 
• It’s flexible – policies are tailored to suit you whether you need cover for an hour or for a few weeks.

You can search for the cheapest temporary car insurance right here at mustard.co.uk. It’s simple, just fill in our online form and we’ll search quotes from multiple providers so that you can quickly and easily find short-term cover that fits your needs. 

You won’t necessarily need any specific documents, but you will need certain details to hand in order to buy temporary car insurance, including information like:

• When you want cover to begin and end
• Your details including age, postcode, whether you hold a full licence and for how long
• The reason why you need cover
• The number plate of the car you want to drive.

You’ll also need to agree the excess – this is the amount you need to pay in order for a claim to go ahead so it should be a figure you can afford. 

Short-term car insurance up to 6 months can be ideal if you need a flexible policy, for example,

• You’ve just bought a car and haven’t chosen an annual policy yet
• You need to borrow a car for a short time
• Want to practise in the run up to your driving test
• You only drive a car for part of the year, for instance if you have a classic car

If you decide to take out a 6-month car insurance policy, bear in mind that the daily cost can work out more expensive compared to an annual policy. Of course, depending on what your needs are, this can be a small price to pay for the flexibility you get. 

But if you don’t need an annual policy, you can ask for a policy that lasts 6 months instead. Flexible short-term and temporary car insurance is available from most insurers, so you should be able to find a policy to fit your needs. 

Yes, one day car insurance is available from a number of providers, 24-hour policies offer a flexible solution if you only need to drive for a limited length of time. 

One day car insurance also works as a standalone policy, so it won’t affect your no claims bonus if you also have an annual policy in place. 

How much is it to insure a car for a day?

Premiums very much depend on your own circumstances and what the risk of a claim being made is. To work this out, insurers will consider a number of factors, for example:

• The type of car you’ll be driving – expensive or powerful cars usually cost more to insure.
• Your age – younger drivers typically pay more for insurance as under 25s are statistically more likely to be involved in an accident.
• What you’re using the car for – if you’re covering lots of miles, it’s likely to cost more compared to if you’re borrowing the car to just run a few errands. 
• Whether you choose to add extras – adding on optional extras will push up your premium. 

If you need to borrow someone’s car for a very short period or perhaps you are test driving a car from a private seller, then you may be looking for car insurance cover for an hour.

Most mainstream providers offer short-term car insurance with policies typically lasting from 24 hours up to six months. If you only need one-hour car insurance or car insurance for a few hours you’ll need a specialist provider.