Don’t get caught out: One in five have driven uninsured unknowingly due to policy changes

More than half of drivers aren't aware that most comprehensive insurance no longer covers them to drive another person's vehicle.

Transcript

00:00In terms of why it might be happening, what we found is that in annual insurance, there's

00:05a feature called driving other cars. And that's something that used to be there in the majority

00:11of cases, but actually has slowly been coming off of annual insurance policies. So from

00:15the early 2000s, ever so slowly, it's come off. And now we find ourselves in a position

00:20where actually it's for the majority of cases, it's actually not on those policies. So you

00:24aren't actually insured to drive someone else's car. And people don't know.

00:28And when it comes to knowledge of the consequences of driving without insurance, this differs

00:32between age groups. TempCover found half of younger drivers don't believe they would face

00:37penalty points on their license if they were caught driving without insurance, compared

00:41with only a quarter of over 55s. Mark clears up the confusion.

00:45In those kinds of situations, I think what's happening is that the younger drivers aren't

00:49actually aware of the potential implications of driving uninsured. It's obviously illegal

00:53to do so. And you can face up to £300 or six penalty points on your license if you're

00:58caught doing so as well. So possibly a bit of awareness of the repercussions of doing

01:02something that actually is illegal and they're not realizing. If you are a young driver,

01:06you haven't had your license very long, six points is actually the point where you could

01:09face losing your license. And 12 points if you've had your license for longer as well.

01:13So six points is a considerable number of points. And obviously, we don't want to get

01:16points the effects that will have on your on your driving license, we certainly don't

01:19want to get a fine.

01:20Of course, even with the changes to insurance situations can arise where you need to drive

01:25someone else's car at the last minute or unexpectedly, and there are legal ways to go about it. Temporary

01:30insurance can be a solution.

01:32So the good news with with the situation where you need to drive someone else's car and you're

01:36not insured, is that there are temporary insurance solutions available. They start from as little

01:40as one hour in duration and typically go up to 28 days. They're nice and flexible. They're

01:45also really quick to buy. You can normally buy temporary insurance in a couple of minutes.

01:49So if you can get yourself insured in a couple of minutes, it doesn't cost too much. There

01:52really is no point taking the risk of driving uninsured. Instead, you should certainly look

01:58for a temporary insurance provider.