How we write
Editorial standards
How the guidance here is researched and reviewed, the claims we will not make, and the one rule that outranks all the others: nothing on this site may leave someone driving uninsured.
The rules in short
- Nothing we publish may leave a reader driving without valid cover.
- Every factual claim comes from a primary source and links to it.
- No invented figures, ratings, customer counts or awards.
- Every page carries the date it was last reviewed.
- No advice and no recommendation, because we do not give either.
- When we get something wrong we correct it and say that we have.
The Rule That Comes First
Nothing on this site may leave someone driving uninsured. Where a sentence could be read two ways, it is rewritten until it cannot.
Why it outranks everything else
A mistake in most guidance costs a reader time or money. A mistake about motor insurance can put someone on a public road without cover, with the penalties that follow and with nobody to pay for the damage. So every page is checked for the sentence that a hurried reader could take as permission to drive: a promise of instant cover, a vague line about another policy covering them, or a criterion stated more loosely than the insurer applies it.
What it looks like on the page
- Cover is described as existing only once a policy is issued and the certificate is in hand.
- No page promises acceptance. Whether cover is offered depends on the answers given and the insurer.
- Readers are pointed to the certificate and the policy wording as the final word, not to us.
- Where the law and a product differ, both are stated and the difference is explained.
Guidance, Not Advice
Everything here is general information. None of it is a personal recommendation or a view on what is right for you.
Why this is a rule and not a disclaimer
Tempinsuranceuk.com introduces visitors to a broker. It does not advise and is not set up to. So the line between explaining and advising is the boundary of what we do, and every page is written on the correct side of it. We will explain what a compulsory excess is and where to find it in a quote. We will not say which excess to choose.
How a Page Is Researched
From the primary source outwards, with the source linked next to the claim it supports.
| Where we look | What for | Typically |
|---|---|---|
| The legislation itself | What the law requires of a driver and a vehicle, read rather than summarised. | legislation.gov.uk, for example the Road Traffic Act 1988, with the section number. |
| Official guidance | How a rule works in practice: insurance, licences, tax, SORN, MOT and learner driving. | GOV.UK, including the DVLA’s and the DVSA’s own guidance. |
| The insurance database | How insured vehicles are recorded and how to check one. | The Motor Insurers’ Bureau and its askMID service. |
| Regulators | Firm registrations and how complaints are handled. | The Financial Conduct Authority and the Financial Ombudsman Service. |
| The insurers’ eligibility criteria and the broker’s published prices | Product facts only: eligibility by insurer, lengths of cover, cover level and from-prices with the quote period they are based on. | The eligibility documents the broker publishes for each insurer on its panel, and its published from-prices, attributed to the broker by name or role. |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
The law and the product are different sources
What the law requires comes from legislation.gov.uk, GOV.UK, the DVLA, the DVSA and the Motor Insurers’ Bureau. What a policy offers comes from the broker’s published product pages, and nowhere else. We keep the two apart on the page, because a reader needs to know whether a limit is the law or one firm’s criterion.
Sources we do not use
Another insurance site as authority for a legal point, a forum, or an article that cites an article. Where we cannot find a citable source for a claim, the claim comes out of the page rather than going in softened with “generally” or “usually”.
Three Rules We Apply to Product Facts
Real rules from the brief every cover page is written to, each of which removes something other sites print.
Where insurers differ, we say so
Each insurer on the broker’s panel sets its own limits, and they differ. Where they do, we print the range and say that it varies by insurer, rather than one figure, because a reader who relies on a single figure may start a quote that ends in a decline, or assume they do not qualify when another insurer would quote them.
No excess amount, because it varies
The excess on a temporary policy depends on the driver, the vehicle and the insurer, and some insurers state minimum excesses in their criteria, so no single figure applies. No page here states one. The excess is shown in the quote, and that is where to read it.
Saying plainly who cannot be covered
The minimum age for temporary car cover varies by insurer, from 17 upwards. A page about young drivers that let a reader assume they qualify would be the worst kind of mistake, so it says, in plain words, that a driver below an insurer’s minimum age will not be quoted by that insurer, and that the quote shows which.
Figures, Prices and Statistics
If we cannot source a number, we do not print it.
The numbers we do publish
Figures set by law, such as penalty points or the age limits for supervising a learner, linked to the source. And the broker’s published facts: lengths of cover, eligibility criteria and published starting prices. Every price is attributed to the broker, carries the period it is based on, and is never presented as typical or as our own.
The numbers we do not
Average premiums, customer counts, savings claims, satisfaction scores of our own, or any statistic we cannot link to its source. A figure that exists only to be quoted is not information.
Claims We Will Not Make
This is a build gate, not a promise. Each phrase below fails the check that runs before the site deploys.
And three more specific to this site
Language that implies we compare a panel of providers, because we introduce to one broker. Any unqualified promise of instant cover, because acceptance depends on the answers given and the insurer’s criteria. And the em-dash, which is a house style rule rather than a compliance one, enforced by the same check.
What each of those would be hiding
- Price superlatives. We see one broker’s prices, so we cannot know how they sit against the whole market, and we do not pretend to.
- Recommendations. We do not advise, so “we recommend” would be untrue as well as a regulatory problem.
- Manufactured trust. There are no ratings, review counts or awards of our own on this site. Where the broker’s published rating is shown, it is named as the broker’s, dated and linked to its source.
Keeping the Commercial Side Out
We may be paid when an introduction leads to a policy. These rules stop that shaping the guidance.
The broker is described, not promoted
Guidance pages refer to “the broker” rather than repeating its name, and describe its products by their published facts, including the exclusions. Where a product does not cover something, such as goods in transit on a courier policy or driving a hire car, the page says so as clearly as it says what is covered.
The guidance is not a funnel
A guide that explains a rule exists to explain the rule. It is not written to arrive at a reason to buy. Where the honest answer is that temporary cover is not the right product for a situation, the page says that too.
We disclose it rather than bury it
How the site is paid for is stated on the about page, in the footer of every page and under the quote form itself.
Review Dates
Every page carries the date it was last reviewed, and that date is part of the information.
What a review involves
Re-opening the sources, not re-reading our own page. Product facts are re-read from the insurers’ eligibility criteria and the broker’s published prices, because both change. A review that consists of glancing at the text and changing the date is worse than none, because it certifies something nobody checked.
Legal review is separate
Our research standard and a lawyer’s or compliance sign-off are different things, and we do not present one as the other.
Corrections
When we get something wrong we fix it, and where it mattered we say on the page that we have.
How to report one
Send the page and what you think is wrong through the contact page. A link to a source helps, but it is not a condition. A report that something could leave a driver uninsured is treated as the most urgent kind.
What happens next
We check the claim against the primary source, not against our page. If the page is wrong we correct it and update the review date. If the correction changes what a reader would have done, we note it on the page rather than quietly editing. If we conclude the page was right, we will explain why, with the source.
What we will not do
Soften an accurate description of an exclusion because it makes a product look worse, or remove a correct page because it is commercially inconvenient. The commercial relationship does not extend to the guidance.
Who Writes It
The tempinsuranceuk.com team, against the sources cited on each page.
We do not describe the team as brokers, lawyers or advisers, because they are not, and a byline implying a qualification would be the same kind of manufactured trust signal as an invented rating. What the guidance rests on is the sourcing, which you can check yourself.