Using temporary car or van insurance to move home

Temporary car and van insurance

Temporary car insurance is just that: car insurance that only lasts a short period of time.

Sometimes called ‘short-term car insurance’, it typically lasts from just a single hour of car insurance to a period of weeks.

Temporary insurance is perfect for borrowing or lending your car - and this makes it perfect for moving home! 🏡

And if you've got a heavy load, Cuvva's temporary van insurance offers an easy solution. If you're new to vans, we've also got some beginner tips on driving a van to help out.

Rather than shuttling back and forth in an Uber, or hiring an expensive man-with-a-van, you can take a lend of a friend’s van and get your stuff from A to B with fully comprehensive insurance.

How to use short-term cover to move home

First off, you’ll need to find a lovely friend or family member who can lend you their car or van. For moving home, we’d recommend a van, but some cars have pretty sizeable boots and it all depends on how much stuff you have.

After you’ve located this kindly soul, you can get ready to hit the road. Just find an insurer that offers temporary car insurance (cough, cough 👀). Normally all you need to do is enter the vehicle’s reg number and your own details to get a quote and take out a policy.

It can differ by insurer, but often your temporary insurance begins instantly. This means there’s no wasted time when you’re all packed and ready to get your life in your new house started.

So get those boxes and bags full of clothes loaded up, punch your new home’s postcode into the sat-nav, and hit the road.

(PS - we’ve written a pretty cool guide about how your postcode impacts your car insurance price if you want some bonus reading!)

Contents insurance for moving home

It can be a little scary putting all of your worldly possessions into one vehicle. It’s worth making sure you’re covered in case the worst happens.

Different insurers have different policies here, but short-term car insurance doesn’t usually include cover for your possessions (there may be a pretty modest sum set aside for some personal items left in a car that gets burgled or damaged, for example, but certainly not enough to cover everything you own).

So if you’re driving to your new home with your laptop, flat-screen TV and everything else in the back, you’re most likely not covered by your car insurance.

However, here’s the good news: if you have home insurance, you probably will be covered.

Contents insured by a driver’s home insurance policy are (normally) covered automatically when moving home, for a period of up to 72 hours.

This can include temporary storage if you need to leave your stuff somewhere for a day or two between houses.

Just make sure the contents you will be transporting are covered on your home insurance policy. If you buy a new coffee machine just before the move, for example, and it’s not on your current home insurance policy, it might not be covered if it’s damaged en route to your new home.

Get insurance

Whether you need a van to carry the load, or you can make do with borrowing a mate's car, you need to be insured before you hit the road - and Cuvva's policies from 1 hour to 28 days might be able to help, with cover starting from just £11.90.

• Temporary car insurance for borrowing or lending a car in minutes.
• Learner driver cover for driving lessons, getting practice in with a supervisor, or taking the driving test.
• Drive away insurance for getting your new car home from the dealership.
• Temporary van insurance for moving home, dropping things to the recycling centre, or carrying a heavy load.

And it only takes a few minutes to get a quote.