1 Week Car Insurance: The Short Term Fix for Motorists

Flexibility was once a word that you would not commonly have associated with the insurance industry.

There were many reasons for this, the excuse normally revolved around the (self perceived) complications in underwriting risk or the (claimed) complications involved in providing a more bespoke service.

In reality, inflexibility was little more than arrogance. If you are forced by law to purchase a product then why on earth should the provider of that product bother to refine or improve it let alone compete for your business?

So little more than a decade ago, you may well remember wishing to borrow a friend’s car or van and telephoning your insurance agent for a quote for 1 week car insurance.
If you do remember, you will recall that after the recipient had reacted as though you had just asked him to supply you with a controlled drug, one of two things happened. You were either informed that your insurer didn’t do 1 week car insurance, or you were supplied a quote that saw to it that you really didn’t want 1 week car insurance.

The enquiry rarely proceeded and you were forced to rent a vehicle when you had access to a perfectly serviceable alternative.

It is beyond doubt that the consumer’s saviour has been technology and the advent of online car insurance comparison sites. If you introduce any market to transparency, then you introduce competition and inevitably find more people willing to identify areas that hitherto went unaddressed.

1 week car insurance should always have been as valid and specialist a product as any other, yet some companies were reluctant to concern themselves with it until they effectively had to.

There are now countless insurance companies happy to provide quotes for non-standard insurance cover and for pretty much any timescale you care to mention. This is a great step forward for the consumer and very possibly has done much to prevent the temptation for the uninsured driver to take chances for the sake of expediency.

It is however, probably worth a word of defence on behalf of the insurance industry at this point. If you expect to receive a quote for 1 week car insurance that represents a 1/52 portion of an annual premium, then you are being a little unrealistic and probably a little unfair.

Do remember that issuing a 1 week car insurance policy still does carry one or two negative implications for an insurer. Aside from the fact that a seven day policy involves as much administration work as a 365 day policy, keep in mind that such policies have been statistically shown to attract more fraudulent claims and that you are potentially at more risk in a vehicle you do not normally drive, so do not begrudge the company a fair and equitable profit margin and don’t count on a massive discount.

Console yourself instead in the comfort of knowing that you will have adequate cover, the convenience of flexibility and choice and thank online insurance comparison for making that possible.