How to Get Temporary Car Insurance

Perhaps you’re renting a car, or maybe you’re driving a friend in their car. Either way, you’re only planning to drive for a short time. Is it worth dipping into savings accounts to get car insurance if you’ll only need insurance for 30 days or less?

What Is Temporary Car Insurance?

Temporary car insurance, also known as short-term car insurance, is an insurance policy that has a duration shorter than six months or a year; most are 30 days long.

There are various reasons why someone would need car insurance for a short period, but rather than buying a 30-day policy, we recommend other options, such as getting non-owner insurance or pay-per-mile insurance, or driving under permissive use. Alternatively, you can start and then cancel a standard policy, although that has its drawbacks. We’ll break down all the options below.

How to Get Temporary Car Insurance

While some providers offer 30-day policies, much shorter than the standard six-month and one-year policies, they typically aren’t reliable. Many companies that offer temporary car insurance will have insufficient coverage that’ll leave you responsible for the costs of car accidents.¹ That’s why we recommend going with a trustworthy provider rather than unreputable car insurance companies.

If you don’t want to pay a ton of money to have auto insurance for just a short time, you have a few low-cost options:

1. Get non-owner insurance.
   • What it is: Non-owner insurance is secondary coverage to pay for damages on a car that you don’t own. It covers basic liability insurance, which includes property damage and bodily injury liability.² If you’re driving a car you don’t own, non-owner insurance is a good choice for you.
   • Providers: The best non-owner car insurance providers are Allstate and GEICO. Learn more about Allstate’s pricing and GEICO’s pricing. Be sure to get an insurance quote from multiple providers so you can compare rates.
2. Get pay-per mile insurance.
   • What it is: Pay-per mile insurance means that you’ll only pay for the miles you drive in that short time period.
   • Providers: The best pay-per mile auto insurance companies are Allstate’s Milewise and Nationwide’s SmartMiles. Learn more about Nationwide’s pricing and read our Nationwide review.
3. Drive under permissive use.
   • What it is: If you’re using someone else’s car with their permission and they have auto insurance, then you can drive it under “permissive use.” That means you won’t have to pay for another policy at all — by far the most convenient and affordable option.
4. Cancel your standard policy.
   • What it is: Another option is to get a standard six-month or one-year policy and cancel it when you want to. But note that while you can cancel your auto insurance at any time, you may run into fees or not get a refund. Make sure you sign up with a provider that lets you cancel car insurance without financial penalty.

How Does Temporary Car Insurance Work?

Temporary car insurance only includes liability coverage, meaning coverage for the other party’s bodily injuries and property damages in an at-fault accident. If you get into an accident and it’s your fault, you’ll file a claim with your insurance provider, and if the claim is covered, your provider will pay the other party for their injuries and/or damages up to the limit you’ve selected. You will be responsible for any costs above that limit.

Temporary car insurance doesn’t cover your property damage and medical costs, however, as it lacks collision and comprehensive insurance. Without full coverage, you’ll have to pay out of pocket for these costs, which would be particularly thorny if you were borrowing a car from someone who lacks insurance.

Temporary car insurance lasts for an average of 30 days. Beyond that, you can choose to cancel or not renew your policy.

Pros and Cons of Temporary Car Insurance

While we don’t recommend 30-day car insurance policies in general, we acknowledge that they have their advantages. Ultimately, though, alternatives like non-owner and pay-per-mile insurance are better options.

Why Would Someone Need Temporary Car Insurance?

All that being said, there are legitimate reasons why someone would need temporary car insurance. Here are some examples:

• A student is away from home. (Check out the best auto insurance for college students.)
• A car will be in storage soon.
• Uninsured drivers are temporarily renting or borrowing a car because they’re on a road trip or their car is broken down.

Of course, getting temporary car insurance is much better than driving without insurance, which is illegal in every state except New Hampshire and Virginia.

Cost of Temporary Auto Insurance

As we said before, temporary car insurance costs more than standard car insurance within the same time period. While the average expenditure for liability insurance in 2019 (the most recent year for which federal data is available) was only $54.20 a month⁴, temporary car insurance costs up to $200 a month.⁵

Of course, if you only use it for 30 days, temporary car insurance will cost less than an annual policy, which was ​​$1,070.47 on average in 2019. Still, comparing the policies month to month, temporary insurance can be up to four times more expensive than standard policies.

Cheapest States for Temporary Car Insurance

Temporary car insurance is cheapest in states that can’t legally take your credit score into account when determining prices, assuming you have poor credit:

• California
• Hawaii
• Massachusetts
• Michigan

Of course, it’s also cheapest in states where car insurance is cheap in general. These were the cheapest states for car insurance in 2019:

• Iowa
• Maine
• North Dakota
• South Dakota
• Wyoming

Recap

Rather than buying an overpriced 30-day policy, look into permissive use, non-owner insurance, or pay-per mile insurance. And if you can get a refund and avoid paying cancellation fees, why not just cancel your current policy? Whatever you do, don’t buy a 30-day policy from a company you’ve never heard of or don’t know if you can trust.