What’s turning me from a humble pedestrian into a driver again? A few things, really, mainly the fact that my workplace has moved and buses are about as reliable as a solar-powered torch and also that in the new year I’m planning to move out of my flat to somewhere probably a little further out of town so I can get a larger place for less – clearly I’m going to need a set of wheels, and a stylish MINI seems to be the way forward for me.

I’m not really a fan of driving; I find it an unpleasant, stressful experience for the most part, and I can really do without the added expense of owning, insuring, maintaining and running a vehicle, but after just a few days of taking the bus, I’ve already had enough. It’s always late and I don’t really have the patience to keep waiting for it and then having to be in such proximity with other people for the duration of the journey. If I could do the walk, I would, but a nice little new MINI in black seems like the best option right now. Looking at the purchase and running costs, it’ll probably work out a bit less than the bus does anyway.

When you hire a car, you’ve got to have insurance for it, but if I don’t have a car for 350 days of the year, why should I pay for a year’s worth of insurance? This is why short term car insurance is so useful. I can insure a car from anything from a day to a couple of weeks so I can drive myself to visit my parents, or to go to a meeting or even – if I ever take one – on holiday. It’s the ideal choice.

It’s little things like that that make me glad I spend so much time on the internet – if I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t know it existed and consequently would have to take public transport whenever I went anywhere or – worse – would have to pay for a year’s car insurance at a time. I wouldn’t be happy about that.

A couple of weeks ago my brother, who has been out working in Canada for the past year, came back to visit. To keep him mobile I rustled up some temporary car insurance so he would be covered for the duration of his stay.

Being something of a frugal monkey I kept it to the basics and used only the minimum required by the law. Big mistake.

Sod’s law kicked seamless into effect. Sure enough the young lad had an accident. While stopped at a red light he was hit by an uninsured driver. He was fine, but the car was looking distinctly poorly.

Never mind, I thought, a bit of paper work and Bob would indeed be my uncle. How wrong can one man be? After months of delay they finally came back with this disappointing reply: because I kept costs to the minimum I was not covered in this particular instance.

I’m still fighting my corner, but a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach makes me think they’ve covered themselves somewhere down the line. It looks like I’m going to be in for a hefty repairs bill soon enough.

The moral of the story? Well, that’s obvious. Sometimes the cheapest temporary car insurance isn’t the best.