There will be times when your own vehicle is not available to drive. Suddenly you're in the position of having to drive another car until you get it back. That doesn't mean you want to drive without all the protection you have in your original vehicle. In this case you need temporary car or 'short-term'' auto insurance coverage. In this type of policy-temporary or short term- insurance covers the same types of unforeseen accidents or claims that your regular policy does, only for a certain period of time, days or weeks, that you will be driving the temporary vehicle.
A similar arrangement can be made when one has to engage the services of a temporary driver on his own car for a few days. To avoid the inconvenience of permanently including the temporary driver?s details in your car insurance policy which may affect your car insurance premium rates, one may simply take up a short term car insurance policy.
A short-term car insurance policy is likely to have the same kinds of coverage as the ones in your auto insurance coverage, namely comprehensive coverage or third party liability coverage. Comprehensive coverage does not necessarily cover all contingencies; it however indemnifies the insured for more coverage items than the third party liability coverage. In addition to accidental injury and property damage to a third party, it also covers the holder or a temporary driver who is named insured on the insured vehicle, and other perils as collision, theft, vandalism, extreme weather, and fire among others.
By contrast, liability will only tend to the expenses caused by the driver or vehicle to an outside entity's person or property. The latter is usually cheaper, but also, obviously, riskier, so carefully consider your finances and the level of risk involved with the vehicle.
Thanks to the glories of technology, obtaining quotes for short term policies is very easy. You can get quotes from a wide variety of sites online, and then compare them to see which ones offer the coverage you need at the best price. There are even sites designed to help you directly compare the different quotes so you have to do even less work! This can save you a lot of time and money, and you may not even believe how fast and simple it is until you've tried it for yourself. Don't be afraid to look at policies from many different reputable companies, the tools are out there to make it a non-stressful process.
And finally, this is so important that it's worth repeating: do NOT think that you can get away with no insurance just because you're only going to be driving a vehicle for a short amount of time! You can't know when an accident will or will not happen. You can't predict the wiles of a thief or vandal. If you get caught unprepared in just assuming that the best will happen, you could end up paying a lot more than any temporary insurance policy would have cost you in the first place. Push yourself the extra bit necessary to stay insured all the time, and you'll feel safer as well as be safer.
Susan Reynolds is the content coordinator for a leading South African Insurance Provider who specialises in Car Insurance Policies.
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