Business car insurance

A standard car policy will cover you for domestic use and commuting back and forth to work.

However, if you use your car for travelling to several different offices, or to travel across the country for business use, you will need to take out a company car insurance policy.

Getting your car covered for business use isn't as straight forward as taking out a standard social and domestic use policy, in actual fact, there are lots of different types and classes available depending on the work you do and what you're using your car for.

Examples include:

• Business use class 1 - Covers everything included in a standard policy, as well driving to, from and between multiple work offices or sites. Your spouse is usually covered for this policy, although it is best to check with your insurer to ensure that’s the case.
• Business use class 2 - Extends a standard business use policy to cover the policyholder and a named driver working at the same business.
• Business use class 3 - A policy that would be suitable for those driving lots of miles on a weekly basis, such as those working in door to door sales.
• Commercial travelling - May be required if driving is a permanent aspect of your job, and you are selling some goods or services. Examples include driving instructors or minicab drivers.

It's important to remember that commercial car insurance does differ from business car insurance. Commercial car insurance is aimed at those who use their car for their job e.g. taxi or delivery drivers.

Because many of these policy types can be complicated and consist of lots of different factors, it's always worth checking the terms and conditions of the policy and confirming directly with the insurer that the policy fully covers you for your business needs.

If you use your car for work including but not limited to:

• Regularly commuting to different locations
  If you are travelling to different offices on a regular basis every week.
• Driving lots of miles a week
  While travelling to your regular office would not necessarily count, if you are driving to a lot of locations within the week this can be a better suited policy.
• Driving colleagues around
  If colleagues accompany you to meetings or other business held in different locations.
• Using your car for tasks related to your work
  If none of the above apply, yet you still require your car to perform tasks related to your job role.

If you are still unsure about which policy is applicable to your circumstances, then you can contact your insurer to talk through your options.

As business car insurance policies offer a different type of cover to standard social and domestic use policies, they can come with increased premiums. This is usually because of the increased mileage and use, unfamiliar roads and increased risk from travelling to and from different locations.

Insurers use lots of different factors to calculate insurance prices, including:

• When and where the car will be used
• Who will be using the car
• How many business miles the car will do
• What the car will be used for

It might seem like a good idea to save yourself some money by not declaring you use your car for work use and just rely on a social/domestic policy, but failing to fully disclose to an insurer if you use your car for work purposes can invalidate your insurance and following an accident, leaving you unable to make a claim.

If you'd like more information on business car insurance, take a look at our guide.

While getting a quote only takes a couple of minutes, you can help speed up the process by having some bits of information to hand:

• About you - Your name, age, the type of licence you hold and how long you've held it for
• The car - The number plate or make and model
• Location - The address the car will be registered to
• Your driving history - Any motoring convictions you've picked up in the last 5 years
• Additional drivers - Details of any additional drivers you'd like added to the policy

If you've used Confused.com before you can log into your account using the email address and password you registered with. Once logged in you can retrieve or amend any previous quotes you've run.

Use the 'Sign in' button in the top right of the page to get started or click on the 'GET A CAR QUOTE' button to begin.

If you're interested in insurance for a particular manufacturer, take a look at our list of manufacturers.