Temporary Car Insurance – What You Need To Know
Temporary car insurance is considered a relatively new insurance product that can be obtained for a period from one day to a couple of months. Temporary car insurance policies are applied for a specific period of time depending on your needs. Considering that car insurance is mandatory in all 50 states, temporary or short term coverage can become mandatory in certain cases.
Today, there are more companies offering temporary car insurance policies than they were a couple of years ago. And the Internet made everything easier for those seeking short term coverage.
Sometimes you may need temporary car insurance; you may need to cover another person – a friend, colleague or a family member – who will drive your car for a couple of days for whatever reason; or perhaps you need temporary insurance yourself for another car. Temporary car insurance is a solution for cases where you need short term insurance for a driver or car for a specific and short period of time such as a day, a week or a month.
One of the aspects you would normally expect from a short term policy is low price. After all, you’ll most likely need it for a couple of days, and price is an important factor. Finding cheap temporary car insurance is best done online, rather than from local brokers. This is because you deal directly with companies, rather than going through a middle man who will only raise the price with no added value. You can get quotes from numerous companies at one time and and compare policies to find the best price without the hassle of going through a savvy salesman, if you know what we mean. Spending ten minutes online will often result in many quotes from various companies from which you can easily select the most suitable option.
After all, a large number of insurance companies looking for a bigger market share are doing their best to attract new customers, even if it’s only about temporary car insurance. And this all works in your favor. However, some car insurance companies almost always recommend Full Coverage. You have to remember that the decision is yours, and that the solution should be tailored to your needs, not to the company’s income targets.
One of the problematic aspects of temporary car insurance is the rates given to drivers under 21 years. Temporary policies are normally more expensive than annual coverage, and price go even higher when young drivers are concerned. Adding a new and young driver to an existing policy will often increase the rates dramatically. Here again, the internet is the consumer’s friend. Five to ten minutes of research would allow us to find the best rates without going through each local middleman’s sales pitch.
Through a short research on the web, you can get quotes from a lot of different companies who will send you emails or call you to give quotes.
Some points to remember about temporary car insurance:
- Many companies who offer temporary car insurance will not accept installments.
- If you have less than a year of driving experience, your chance of acceptance will be significantly lower.
- Insurance companies can give those under 21 years old a hard time as they normally make an insignificant amount of profit by providing temporary insurance.
- If you want more acceptable conditions and easier coverage, always drive safe. Companies look for past records and will not offer coverage if they determine you are a “bad” driver so to speak.
- If you know that you will going to need temporary insurance within one month, remember that there are companies who allow you to set-up temporary car insurance one month before the actual coverage date.