How To Get Car Insurance Without a Permanent Address

How To Get Car Insurance Without a Permanent Address
There are ways to insure a car without permanent residency in the UK, although a number of UK insurance companies won’t provide insurance unless you have a permanent address in the UK.

Section 1: The Car Insurance Quandary
We’ve all encountered the dilemma of driving off a car insurance company’s doorstep only to find that they don’t give you insurance for your car, and in fact, that they will send you a letter about this fact. Why do they do this? Well, first, it makes it very difficult for customers who don’t have permanent addresses to get car insurance. The worst thing is that they often do this when a customer is trying to claim on an accident, or claim the excess on a claim that they may not even be able to prove. To add to this, some car insurers won’t insure you when you leave the UK for up to a month. This doesn’t make sense.

If you’re looking to drive a car abroad, be careful how you use your credit/debit cards.

Why Some UK Insurers Won’t Cover You
Many companies require the physical address of the policy holder for them to consider you as a “permanent resident”.

This means you have to live in the UK for at least a year.

Therefore, in order to insure your vehicle you must have a permanent address, which includes somewhere in England or Wales, or Scotland, depending on the vehicle.

Other insurance companies require a physical address as well, but you will not need to be a “permanent resident” in order to be a customer.

How to Get Car Insurance Without a Permanent Address

If you are an international driver, you can always buy personal insurance which will cover you overseas.

Some companies offer a one-off service to enable you to purchase a policy for the UK based on your overseas driving record and not your UK address.

What Can You Do?
Some insurance companies offer coverage in other countries, and there are some local car hire companies that will provide insurance for cars that are hired from their services.

If you want to insure your car in another country, make sure to check the terms and conditions to ensure that you will be covered for a whole year. It will cost a bit more, but it is definitely worth it.

Get Full Coverage Without Permanent Residence in the UK

Some UK insurance companies and local hire companies don’t offer full cover in the EU, so if you are planning on going abroad you should get an International Driving Permit (IDP).

This requires a tax disc which allows you to drive in the EU, the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

How to Get Car Insurance if You Have a Temporary Address
Legally you are considered a “temporary resident” if you spend less than 30 days in the UK. To obtain this you need to get a letter from your employer or your employer’s human resources department explaining this.

With a temporary address you are not able to apply for insurance on your own. For that you need an agent.

I recommend using Get Insurance Agents. The service has been recommended to me by several people and I haven’t had any problems with it.

Using this method you also need to find a company that will offer you coverage. This isn’t a problem because there are quite a few companies offering this, so don’t worry.

Conclusion
Whether you are looking for a cheap car insurance or you want to keep an eye on the insurance rates, we recommend that you get your car insurance through the best company for car insurance.

If you are thinking about changing the car insurance provider, use our comparison tools to help you choose.

Image source: aspimport / Shutterstock

This article was originally published on Global Roaming.