How Temporary Car Insurance Helped Us Finish Our Remodel

Car insurance has never been one of our most important concerns. We prefer to pay for it on a month to month basis because that helps our budgeting, and we book it through a company called monthlypremiums.co.uk. However sometimes we have to think about other options!

My husband Thomas and I are do-it-yourselfers who were remodeling our kitchen and eating mostly microwave meals because it was just the two of us. We were done with the countertops, cabinetry, and flooring. All there was left was to do was to have the new appliances installed. We had already donated our old stove and refrigerator to a local charity for to sell in the thrift store in order to benefit people in need. The appliance store’s delivery schedule was backed up for weeks so we decided we were going to rent a flatbed truck from a hardware store to haul our appliances ourselves.

Our friend William offered to help with the lifting and moving while my husband drove the rental truck. When researching rental options, we opted to go with a company that only issues short-term vehicle insurance policies. One of the reasons we decided to go with one of these companies is because of the lower rates they had to offer compared to our traditional insurance company. We only needed cover for one day, and we received full cover for the flatbed truck.

On the day of the move, William and Thomas left for the appliance store to pick up our new items and I stayed behind to do some minor housework and became concerned when an hour and a half had passed. The appliance store was only 15 minutes away and thought that maybe the store was busy and it was taking them a while to have our order processed through the loading bay. Then the phone rang and the news was quite unexpected.

They got the appliances loaded without a problem and started driving home when driving behind a truck hauling pipes. One of the pipes tore loose from the truck and bounced off the road and into the radiator and engine of the rental truck. The driver of the truck carrying the pipes was unaware of the incident and drove on without stopping. William was able to get the license plate number of the truck and entered it into his cell phone as a text message to Thomas.

Thomas called the insurance company and they determined which repair shop the truck needed to be taken to and arranged for towing services. Thomas called the hardware store and they were courteous enough to understand the predicament and send out a service representative with a replacement flatbed before the tow truck could arrive to take the truck away to the shop.

When Thomas and William got home, they unloaded and installed our appliances then returned our rental truck. All of the repairs that needed to be done on the truck, the replacement rental costs and towing costs were all covered under the short-term vehicle insurance policy we took out minus a small deductible. Our savings would take a dive if it had not been for the cover for the radiator and engine replacement on such a huge vehicle. Now we always use short-term car insurance for our temporary cover needs.