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So you know that feeling when you’re super psyched about getting your first car but don’t know the first thing about insuring it? After all, you’ve been driving your mum’s Fiat 500 this entire time and she just took care of the whole insurance business so you didn’t have to.

Excitement and anxiety might be settling in, but before you freak out, don’t! Day car insurance is here to make all your driving dreams come true.

So, can you get day insurance for a car? Spoiler alert: the answer might surprise you! (Psst… most likely yes, but you’ll need to meet your insurer’s criteria.)

Person in orange with blue car and trees and sun in the background.

What is day car insurance?

First thing’s first, day car insurance is basically the same thing as temporary car insurance which is the same thing as short-term car insurance. A rose by any other name…

But what exactly is it? Can you actually insure your car for just a day? Turns out, yup. You can.

We’ll even do you one better. Here at Zixty, you could insure your car for just an hour if you wanted to. So whether you need car insurance for an hour, a day, or a few weeks, day car insurance is here to save the… day.

Why would you use day car insurance?

There are soooooo many reasons to get day car insurance. Like, if you’re buying a car and haven’t had a chance to shop around for example. A day car insurance policy is a brilliant way to bridge the gap between buying the thing and insuring it with an annual policy that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg hopefully.

But there are other reasons too. Let’s say you’re on a road trip with your friend and you’re taking their car. You’re probably not covered to drive their car, but it’s not fair to make them drive all the way from London to the Scottish Highlands. No, not even if you’ve got the perfect Outlander playlist and you’ve decided to DJ for the next few hours (btw, when it comes to bagpipes – less is always more).

So what do you do? That’s right. You get temporary car insurance and share the driving. Like a decent human being.

And that’s just two reasons to get day car insurance. There’s plenty more – in fact we carried out a poll and found some of the most common reasons why people use temporary car insurance. The results are here, if you’re interested.

Man with blue hatchback car with trees and the sun in the background

Can you get day insurance on a car?

So can you get day insurance on a car? Ah, isn’t that the million-dollar question? Okay. No, not really.

But yes, you can, usually. Depending on your provider, there’ll be some criteria you and your new car will need to meet.

For instance, here at Zixty, you’ll need to have had your license for at least 6 months, and you’ll need to be at least 21 years old too. Also, your car can’t be worth more than £50,000 (lol, as if).

There are other requirements to look over too, but they’re fairly generic. And all insurers have their own criteria, so make sure you’re eligible before you buy a policy.

As long as you tick all the boxes, you could be whizzing off to your friend’s house in the Lake District faster than you can put together a new road trip playlist on Spotify.

Day insurance on a car: Is it a thing?

Getting day insurance on a car is definitely possible. And it works really well in certain circumstances when an annual insurance policy just wouldn’t make sense.

Whether you’re buying a new ride or borrowing your friend’s car for a weekend trip, day car insurance could help you get on the road safely and legally.