Car insurance query

[Whoisit101]

I need a some car insurance advice.

My car died last week, coincidentally my car insurance was due to finish this week. So I cancelled the incoming years insurance before it started.

A family member is lending me a car on a short term loan around a month.

Whats best regarding insurance?
Short term insurance on loaned car until I find a new car then start afresh?
Insure loaned car and then swap over to second hand, new to me car?

I costed on a comparison site the loaned car ( age 2012) price vs a car similar to look and age ( 2021) of what im looking at and there wasn't alot of difference in the price of the insurance.

I know there will be an admin fee to swap over but I just dont want to get financially hammered if I swap over mid insurance to another car, but also insuring short term could be pricy too.

What's the best way financially to navigate this?

Thanks in advance.

We had a similar scenario. My DILs car died and I lent her my car to tide her over until she got sorted.
In this case I added her to my insurance as an additional driver.
I used Direct Line because they don't charge admin fees and we've done this before for DC.

In your case I would just insure the loaned car and switch when you get a new car. Look at insurers who don't charge an admin fee. Also if you want to save a bit it's often worth going through a cashback site like Quidco or top cashback.

You can't unsure a car that you don't own. The owner would have to insure, and add you as a driver.

That is incorrect, you just need to inform the insurer who the owner/registered keeper is.

If you are borrowing the car for more than about a month, I would be inclined to take out a policy as normal to continue from your last one then pay the admin fee to change vehicles, and possibly the difference in premium from the loaned to the new car.

If you are likely to only have the loan car for less than that I would probably get a temp insurance policy. But that's just my preference.

Either get short-term insurance, there are companies which can insure you for a day/week/month at a time, e.g. Temporary Car Insurance | Temp Car, Van & Learner Insurance | Dayinsure, or ask your friend to add you as named driver to their insurance - it might not cost as much.

It's not the norm, and most insurers won't do it. I work in insurance.

Thank you everyone for the replies.
A friend has just informed me that 'breaking' my insurance time line might affect my no claims bonus too...is this a thing?

It will depend on how many years no claims bonus you have. If you have many years then it won't matter. However if you have say two years and this renewal would have been your third year of no claims if you had renewed then yes your friend is correct and you will only have two years.

It depends on the circumstances and I think your comment "most insurers won't do it" is a bit misleading - this may be the case with underwriters with whom you are familiar. I have borrowed my mother's car and simply notified my insurer who has changed over the vehicle details for the period of the loan. Similarly on borrowing a loan car from the garage whilst my own vehicle has been repaired and covering it under my own policy has been no issue nor has a long term hire car being covered under my own policy not been a problem.

Technically for reasons lost in the mist if time, I own DHs car. It's always been insured in his name with a declaration that he is not the registered keeper.

Yes you can

I did. My car went bang. My brother had a spare car so I drove that. I swapped my insurance over from bang car to his car as had it for a few months while tried to find a new car I liked that was ulez