Temporary Car Insurance: Can You Get Short-Term Coverage?
Key takeaways
- Temporary car insurance policies (for less than six months) aren’t available from major U.S. insurers.
- That’s OK, because you have many alternative ways to get short-term car insurance, such as by canceling your policy early.
- Ads offering temporary auto insurance for just a few weeks or days could be a scam.
How to get temporary auto insurance
| If you… | Then you could… |
|---|---|
| Drive someone else’s car occasionally | Check if you’re already covered under the owner’s policy |
| Drive someone else’s car a lot | Ask the owner to add you to their policy |
| Plan to drive your own car for less than six months | Get a six-month policy and cancel it early OR Get pay-per-mile insurance |
| Drive other people’s cars for less than six months at a time | Get non-owners insurance |
| Drive other people’s cars and have an SR-22 | Get non-owners insurance |
| Rent a car and don’t own a car yourself | Get rental car insurance |
Getting covered under someone else’s policy
- Best choice if you drive someone else’s car from time to time.
Many car insurance policies allow “permissive use.” This means the policy holder can lend their car to someone and have that person covered.
Permissive use comes with some limits, though. If you drive somebody else’s car too often, or if you live at their address, you may need to be formally added to the policy to be covered.
So if you’re borrowing a friend or relative’s car for the short term, see if their policy allows permissive use and if there are any limitations.
Getting added to someone else’s policy
- Best choice if you drive someone else’s car on a regular basis
If you plan to drive another person’s car a lot, or if you live with them, the insurance company may insist that the owner add you to their policy.
This will almost always cause the owner’s insurance premium to go up. But if you have a good driving record, the increase in cost should be less than if each of you had a separate policy from the same company.
To be safe, check with the insurer whether you need to be listed as a driver.
Canceling your car insurance early
- Best choice if you want to insure your own car for less than six months.
Maybe you need temporary auto insurance for your own car, or maybe someone lending you a car is uninsured or under-insured.
In these cases, you could get your own longer-term policy and then cancel when you’re no longer using the car. You can often get a refund for the remaining period, so it’s almost like having bought temporary car insurance for less than six months.
Some insurers, however, will charge you a fee for early cancellation. This is usually either a flat charge of less than $100, or a so-called “short rate” charge of about 10% to 15% of the remaining premium.
If you go this route, shop around and compare car insurance quotes from several companies to get your best deal. Below is a list of some of the best major auto insurers to consider, as well as a short form if you want personalized recommendations.
| Company | Average rate* | LendingTree score | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | State Farm | $1,487 |  |
 | American Family | $1,920 |  |
 | USAA** | $1,203 | |
 | Westfield | $1,481 |  |
 | Allstate | $2,609 |  |
*Average rate is for one year with a full coverage policy.
**USAA is only available for current or former military members and their immediate family.
Pay-per-mile car insurance
- Best choice if you want to insure your own car but don’t plan to drive it a lot.
If you’re not sure how long you’ll need insurance and don’t plan to drive much, you might want to get pay-per-mile car insurance. As you can guess from the name, these policies charge you based on how much you use your car.
You can find pay-per-mile insurance programs at some major insurers, like Allstate and Nationwide, but be aware that you can’t buy pay-per-mile in every state.
Make sure to check how much you’ll be charged for the mileage —typically, you’ll pay between 4 cents to 8 cents per mile driven.
Watch out for scams
If you find an offer for U.S. insurance lasting less than six months, you should be very careful about taking it. It could be a scam, with no intention of paying any claims, or it could have very limited coverage.Since you can always get a six-month policy and cancel it early, there’s little reason to risk taking out short-term auto insurance with an unknown company.
Non-owner car insurance
- Best choice if you drive various cars you don’t own (whether short term or long term).
- Best choice if you have an SR-22 and need insurance to drive someone else’s car.
If you often borrow or rent cars for short periods, you might want to get your own non-owner car insurance. This is a good idea if you’ll be driving other cars with little or no insurance coverage from the owners.
You might need non-owner insurance if you have an SR-22 because of past traffic violations and you don’t own a car. An SR-22 requires you to have insurance to drive, whether or not you have a vehicle. The same goes for an FR-44, a similar document sometimes required in Florida and Virginia.
But be aware: Non-owner insurance doesn’t cover damage to the vehicle you drive. Instead, it covers any remaining liability to others after the owner’s insurance has paid out.
Rental car insurance
- Best choice if you rent a car and don’t have strong coverage from your own insurance
If you rent cars a lot and worry about insurance coverage, consider non-owner car insurance. If it’s only once in a while, you could get rental car insurance.
Usually the rental car agency will offer you insurance with various add-ons to increase the coverage. You can also find insurers like Allianz Travel that will give you a standalone policy covering the one-time use of the rental car.
Also be aware that some credit cards — especially rental-car rewards credit cards — will give you additional short-term car coverage when you rent.
If you do own and insure a car, though, check with your insurer first. Your current policy may already give you at least some coverage for short-term rentals.
Frequently asked questions
Temporary car insurance doesn’t exist in the U.S., where all states have curbed the practice. (Michigan used to have seven-day car insurance, but that’s no longer so.)
If you find an offer for car insurance lasting less than six months, be careful. It may be a scam and not really cover you.
Outside of the U.S., it’s a very different story. You can get temporary auto insurance in some Canadian provinces, all of Mexico, and in many other countries around the world. For example, British insurer Veygo will sell you car insurance by the day, or even by the hour.
Major car insurance companies don’t offer coverage in the U.S. for less than six months. You might still see offers for shorter terms, but these could be misleading or even scams. You’re probably safer using one of the alternatives detailed on this page.
Maybe. Check with the car owner’s insurer to see if you’re covered under their policy through “permissive use.”
If you’re borrowing someone’s car on a regular basis, or if you live with the car owner, you may need to be added to their policy (increasing the premium) or buy your own insurance.
Ride-share insurance is different from both rental-car and short-term insurance. It protects you when you use your own car for a ride-share business, such as driving for Uber or Lyft.
Typical insurance policies won’t cover you fully while you’re working for one of these services, so ride-share insurance fills that gap.
If you’re not going to drive at all — and you own a car —you should consider parked-car insurance, whether for short or long term.
Legally, you don’t need any insurance if you’re not driving and you store the car on private property. But you may still want parked-car insurance (also called comprehensive-only insurance) to protect the vehicle from theft, vandalism or other damage.
Most major insurers offer this coverage, with premiums much lower than what you would pay if you were driving the car.
And be aware that if you park your car on a public road, you’ll probably also be required to have minimum-liability insurance.