Borrowing a car? Assume your own policy will not cover you
Driving other cars cover has thinned out on most policies, and the penalty for guessing wrong can cost a new driver their licence. Temporary cover is now easier to compare and buy by the hour.
If you borrow a friend’s car, I think you should treat yourself as uninsured until a document says otherwise. The cover most drivers quietly rely on has been shrinking for years, and few were told.
An hour of temporary cover costs less than finding out the hard way what a driving other cars clause says.
The cost of guessing wrong is set out plainly on GOV.UK’s vehicle insurance page: police can issue a £300 fixed penalty and 6 penalty points for driving a vehicle you are not insured to drive. For a new driver, that is the end of the licence. GOV.UK’s rules for new drivers say 6 or more points within 2 years of passing means it is revoked, and both tests have to be taken again.
Plenty of people assume a comprehensive policy lets them drive anything. Which? warns that drivers under 25 usually are not covered, that some jobs are excluded, and that where the cover does apply it drops to third party only. Crash the borrowed car and its repairs are on you.
This is enforcement week. Operation Drive Insured, run by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau with police forces, is on from 9 to 15 November, according to Insurance Edge. The author there runs a temporary insurance site, so he has an interest, but on the disappearing cover I think he is right.
Buying the alternative has got simpler. Insurance Times reports that Compare the Market now compares temporary policies lasting from one hour to 28 days. Which? adds that for anything up to a day, a separate policy is likely to be cheaper than being added as a named driver, and it keeps the owner’s no claims discount out of harm’s way.
One practical tip: before you take the keys, look at your own certificate of insurance, and if it does not say in plain words that you can drive other cars, insure the car itself.