Sometimes we need one day coverage or insurance cover for few days. Temporary car insurance or short term car insurance is something that one can consider then. Short term car insurance is also useful if you need the coverage whilst borrowing your friend’s car.
Temporary or one day car insurance is not available in Singapore as of now. The insurance market is highly regulated and short terms are not offered yet. There are other options one could opt for in Singapore.
One-day to few weeks of car insurance is something which is common overseas, but not in Singapore yet. However, there are cases where one might need temporary car insurance in Singapore.
Since they are not common here, we could look at available options based on our requirements.
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What would one need temporary car insurance for.
There are lot of scenarios where one might look for temporary short term or one day car insurances. To name a few below are some instances.
- While driving a friend’s car.
- When you are driving your parent’s , sibling’s or some family member’s car
- While driving a loaned car and you want to buy your own extensive insurance for more coverage than that’s offered by the loaning company.
- You want to use the car only for a very short period of time than offered by the standard policy.
- You want to cut down on insurance costs by paying for only when you need it.
- It is cheaper to buy a short term insurance policy than to amend an existing one.
Given the above few scenarios of you wanting a short term vehicle insurance, below are your options and workarounds in Singapore- until the companies introduce one.
What are my options for Temporary car insurance.
While using a friend’s vehicle
Sometimes, you might need to use your friend’s vehicle for a few days. Since you might not be able to buy your own short term or one day insurance, the work around is for your friend or the policy holder to buy any driver plan on his or her insurance policy.
Various insurance companies in Singapore offer Any driver plans.
Some of prominent options are:
- Directasia.com’s Flexible plan,
- FWD Insurance’s Car plans,
- Aviva’s Prestige plan
- NTUC Income’s Extension Rider plans.
Some offer as a pre included cover in the standard plan, while some offer it as an extra optional benefit. Any driver plan- as the name suggests allows any driver (with certain terms and conditions) to drive/ ride your vehicle and yet be covered by the insurance policy.
Please check on the terms and conditions or the definition of any driver under policy wordings. Some insurers define any drivers or riders as some one who are not new to driving and has substantial amount of driving experience.
While driving your parent’s or family member’s car
While any driver plan, as mentioned an option while using friend’s car is also possible when you want to drive your parent’s or family member’s car, however sometimes these plans can get expensive.
The option we recommend for those on the budget would be to opt for named driver car insurance plans. Named driver plans require you to provide all the details of the possible drivers before hand when you purchase your policy. Since it is your family members, the policy holder can declare their details and save costs as opposed to any driver plan.
You may be a candidate for named driver plan, if you have a driver that does not meet the requirements of any rider plan due to age or driving experience,.
Temporary insurance while driving a loaned or leased car
Most car leasing companies make you sign up for a compulsory insurance with their preferred partner.
However, you could opt for an extra insurance provided the insurance company allows you to insure leased cars. These covers would be long term policies. For shorter term it would make more sense to stick with the included insurance.
If you need a temporary cover that’s not included in your original policy
For this use case, we are afraid this might not be easily possible. The loop holes or work arounds on the common policies sold are not feasible. You could however consider the lowest possible duration offered in Singapore.
You are considering temp car insurance for your second hand or used car
Temporary car insurance may not be a solution for second hand or used cars in Singapore. Car insurance is mandatory in Singapore and you may need to have one while the car ownership changes hand. Read about our second hand or used car insurance in Singapore guide here.
Minimum coverage duration offered by insurance companies
If you are looking for insurance which is less than a year but more than few months then we can consider few available options in Singapore.
These definitely are not short term or temporary insurance. However they fit the bill due to the minimum duration required for the policy to be incepted.
The shortest term of insurance we have seen in Singapore is offered by DirectAsia. You can reduce your policy length to a minimum of seven months. You can purchase this policy both online as well as by calling them directly.
If you looking to buy a full term car or motorcycle insurance policy, you might want to consider our article about tips and ways to save on your insurance cost. Happy insurance shopping my friends : )
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