In the UK it is illegal to drive on the roads if you do not have a driving licence, a valid MOT certificate and of course car insurance. There are thought to be as many as 1 in 10 drivers on the roads who do not have a valid insurance certificate to cover them to drive their car. If you are caught you it is considered a serious offence and you may end up losing your car, your licence or even serving a custodial sentence.

When you think of insuring your car you automatically think of getting an annual car insurance policy. This is a policy to cover you to drive your own car for a year and the money is usually paid up front. Some insurers off a system whereby you can pay off the annual premium monthly. You should however be wary as you will usually have to pay a deposit first which generally amount to more than a months worth of policy payments. You will often also have to pay a monthly admin fee for the service and you will be charged interest as you are essentially getting credit from the insurer. This can work out a lot more expensive than paying it all up front.

So what are the other options open to you? A relatively new way to get insurance in the UK is with a pay as you go car insurance policy. This is essentially a way for you to pay on a month by month basis for your insurance. The benefits of this is that you only pay for the months that you need and you can cancel at any point. You use your credit card to pay the monthly premiums so you can also benefit from the consumer protection offered by your credit card company.

This sort of policy is ideal if you only want insurance for a short amount of time. It is also a good way to be able to afford your premium payments if you are budgeting and paying all the money up front is too expensive. This means that if you only need cover for a month or two then you only pay for that period of time and you just cancel the policy when you are ready.

Another relatively new method of car insurance is the daily car insurance policy or temp car cover as it is known. Rather than paying monthly like you would on a pay as you go policy you can buy cover for a specified amount of time. Cover is usually provided from anywhere from a single day up to 28 days, which is about a month.

A temporary car policy is useful to people who want to drive other cars. Say you and a friend was driving a long distance and you wanted to take it in turns with the driving. If it was your friends car you would not be legally allowed to take a turn in driving. Their policy would not cover you and your own annual policy will only cover you to drive your own car.

You could of course get your friend to add you to their policy but this is generally too expensive and a lot of hassle. Instead you can get a temporary policy for a couple of days so that you can drive their car.