Insuring a car which I don't own short term

[51mon]

I'm in the process of selling my current car, and haven't got a new one sorted yet (need the money from mine to buy the new one).

A mate has a spare car which he's kindly said I can borrow until I'm sorted, so my plan was to simply swap the remainder of the insurance from my car to his when mine sells. When I spoke to my insurance company they said you can't do this as the borrowed car wouldn't be in my name. I'm sure I've done this in the past, but could be wrong, rules are rules I guess...!

I've had a look at 'temporary' insurance, but this seems to be more geared up for 1 - 2 day periods and seems to be damn expensive (I got quoted > £50 a day), so not much use if I'd need it for a couple of weeks.....

Are there other options out there which I've missed? Getting a cheap hire car for a couple of weeks looks like the best option at the moment!

[Contigo]

Is his car insured (the loaner) if it is then ask him to call his insurers and add you as a named driver and you pay him the difference. Ring up cancel and job done.

I used to do this when I wanted to add my flatmates to the Lotus a few years back.

[StevenB]

I was told by my insurance the reason for this, if the car is written off you would get the payment, not the owner ....

[51mon]

Ah, sorry, should have mentioned this! No, his car isn't insured, he got a new company car last week and cancelled it straight away! If I'd rung him a couple of days earlier we could have just added me on as you said... Doh!

Sounds sensible now you put it that way, with the payout going to the insured driver not the owner.