When you jump behind the wheel of a friend's car you could be under the illusion that your motor insurance will cover you – but your insurer might have other ideas.

UNFRIENDLY: Insurers are making it harder for you to drive your friends car Many drivers see being able to use other people's cars as a key benefit of their car insurance and female drivers are more likely to be lent cars than males!.

From borrowing a relative's wheels to get to work when your car is off the road, to chauffeuring a friend home in their car after one too many – the 'Drive Other Cars' benefit in an insurance policy can be very useful to th female driver.
Even cheap female car insurance policies will often include this benefit. The benefit has traditionally meant that drivers with fully comprehensive cover can drive another car, with the owner's permission, and have third party cover.

But insurers are gradually tightening the rules governing when you can drive other people's cars on your insurance.

One parent fell foul of the tighter rules after allowing their 20-year-old son to borrow their car to drive to work while his was being repaired.

The son was not a named driver on the car's insurance but his own policy, provided by CIS, stated that he was able to drive other cars with third party cover.

However, when the son was involved in a collision their claim was rejected. 'CIS refused to accept third-party liability on the basis that the last sentence in the final paragraph of the small print of their policy document says that he is only insured to drive another vehicle if it is being used in an emergency,' our reader said.

The CIS definition of emergency is 'an unexpected urgent situation or sudden state of danger that requires immediate action'. It seems that getting to work does not fall within the definition.

In fact, it would be hard to think of many situations that would be covered – even driving friends home at night if they are over the drink-drive limit would be hard to justify as 'a sudden state of danger that requires immediate action'.