Car Insurance Tips: Your Insurance Not Cover Driving Other People’s Cars

Posted by autospider

December 2, 2007

Many people assume that if they have comprehensive car insurance then they are automatically covered to drive other people’s cars.

This is not always the case. Some insurers no longer offer this cover and those that do don’t offer it to everyone. The only way to know is to check your insurance certificate, which will state clearly if you have it.

One more thing to beware of is that the ‘driving other cars’ extension gives you just the basic insurance cover allowed by law. This is called Road Traffic Act cover, which is even less than third-party only insurance.

The nub of this is, if you have an expensive accident whilst driving someone else’s car, you may end up being liable for part of the other party’s claim!

Also, when you park a car driven on this extension and walk away, it is no longer insured at all, which means you cannot claim for damage, fire or theft.

At least, not until a named driver on the policy takes control of the vehicle again. Therefore you should use this extension as a last resort.