Archive for January, 2009
Renting a car is a great way to see the world when you’re on your holiday. Whether you’re cruising through the States, driving around Europe to soak up a bit of culture or just trying to make it as easy as possible to catch all of the theme parks in Orlando, it can make your holiday so much easier – after all, it’s often much less complicated than alien public transport systems, is faster and less tiring than walking and can save you a fortune compared to taxi fares. However, if you’re going to rent a car, you’re going to need to make sure you’re properly insured against damage or theft, or any little bump or scratch you receive could turn into the beginnings of a surprisingly expensive nightmare.
Car insurance for rental cars works in very much the same way as it does for non-rented vehicles, with the exception that the excess is generally much higher – often in the region of several hundred pounds or more. This means that, should you be involved in an accident of some description, you’re liable for much more of the repair bill than you would be otherwise; if, for example, your excess is £400, you’ll pay the first £400 of any repair bill before the insurance company pays even a penny towards it. While this might be useful if you write the car off completely, it still leaves you open to a great deal of expense for minor repair jobs.
The alternative to this is to buy optional cover, known as a Collision Damage Waiver, or CDW. The aim of a Collision Damage Waiver is to lower your excess, in order to prevent you from having to pay out quite so much in the event of an accident. This is generally quite a costly additional premium, but the more you pay, the lower your excess will generally become; a ‘Super CDW’ or ‘Super Collision Damage Waiver’ policy is likely to completely remove any possible excess, leaving the insurance provider to pay for the whole repair bill (should you not be found to have been driving negligently), but can prove very expensive.
An alternative to paying for your collision damage waiver at the rental counter is to pre-book it before you even get to your destination. There are a great many online companies and services that will allow you to do this, either on a day by day basis (where you take out cover for the specific length of time you plan on hiring the car) or as an annual policy. While the annual policy route may sound more expensive, it’s generally not priced at very much higher than other periods of cover, and so can be well worth it if you’re planning on renting more than one car abroad during the year. Either way, you can expect booking your collision damage waiver online to cost much less than getting it over the counter at the car rental outlet, giving you more money – and time – to spend enjoying yourself once you get to your destination.
Just what is car rental excess insurance? Hiring a car can be a great way to see more of a foreign country. It gives you a freedom that you wouldn’t normal experience if you stayed in your hotel complex, and means that you’re given the ability to explore places that go beyond just the pool, bar, local market and beach just down the road. However, it’s sometimes necessary for business trips too – many companies expect their workers to hire cars on business trips in order to maximise their efficiency while going to see clients, and because it saves them running up huge taxi bills.
Still, that’s not to say that it’s necessarily a cheap option. While car hire itself can often be relatively reasonably priced (unless you’re viewed as a particularly risky driver, such as someone under 25), the additional charges levied on car rental can be extremely high. As a result, many people find that car rental excess insurance is enough to put them off renting for themselves.
An excess is defined as the amount of an insurance claim you pay before the insurance company takes over; if you have a repair bill of £300 and an excess of £250, you’ll pay the first £250 and your provider will take care of the remainder. However, unlike most UK car insurance excesses, the excess insisted on by many foreign can hire insurance providers can be extremely large (perhaps even as high as a thousand pounds in some cases). Understandably, it’s unlikely that you’d want such a large risk hanging over your head.
But what are your options? If you don’t like the idea of being liable for so much money, you can take out car rental excess insurance when you arrange to hire your car. This usually takes the form of what’s known as a collision damage waiver (CDW) or theft protection policy, and is aimed at reducing the amount you pay in the result of a collision or theft while the car is signed over in your name. The cost of these premiums increase as they bring down your excess – the point where a ‘Super CDW’ or ‘Super Theft Protection’ policy will completely remove your excess altogether, meaning that your insurance provider is entirely liable for any accidents you might have – but these can often be expensive.
For a cheaper brand of car rental excess insurance, you might want to consider buying online. There are a whole host of companies that will allow you to pre-book your insurance before you go abroad, either on a daily basis or in annual instalments – useful if you’re planning on renting a car abroad more than once in a twelve-month period. These are often much cheaper, and mean you don’t get sidelined into buying other optional packages that you don’t really need, as well as streamlining the process of sorting out your car rental excess insurance.
Whichever option you choose, remember that even though car insurance is necessary, car rental excess insurance is usually just a way to get peace of mind, allowing you to enjoy your holiday as much as possible.
For whatever reason – be it greater freedom of movement, or just a chance to see more of the world – a great many people choose to rent a car when they go on holiday. However, this is often expensive in its own right, even without considering the additional expenditures that can come about as a result of making this decision, including the astronomical costs that can be associated with purchasing car rental insurance.
Car rental insurance when you’re abroad works in much the same way it does in the UK: if you’re involved in an accident or have the car stolen while it’s under your name (that is, while it’s signed over to you by the rental agreement), you’re covered for the cost of the car if you were proved not to have behaved negligently. It’s a way of making sure that you don’t end up being fully responsible for the cost of repairs, which could be an astronomical cost that is likely to be out of your ability to pay – either way, it’s sure to put a dampener on your holiday. However, one crucial way it differs is in the amount you typically pay in excess.
An excess, in terms of both normal car and rental car insurance, is the amount of money you’re liable to pay before the insurance kicks in – say you have an excess of £200, you pay the first £200 of any repair bill, and the insurance company picks up the rest. For car rental insurance purposes, the excess is typically far higher (often up to and above a thousand pounds), which means that any crash or damage could cost you dearly, as your standard package may not be enough to adequately cover you.
So, what can you do? Well, most foreign car rental firms offer a large number of optional policies designed to help you keep your excess and other liabilities under control. These include things like Collision Damage Waivers and Theft Protection, both of which aim to cut down on the amount you’d pay in excess should your car be damaged or stolen respectively. These also come in so-called ‘Super’ forms, which can even cut your excess down to zero, giving you a great deal of peace of mind. While these are the most common forms of car rental insurance abroad, you’ll find that most companies have a great many more options to keep you covered. However, these can be expensive, sometimes to the point where it become economically unfeasible to hire the car in the first place.
One alternative to this is to pre-book your car hire and insurance before you even set foot on the plane. There are many companies that will allow you to purchase your car rental insurance online before you get to your destination, either on a day-by-day basis, or annually. These can save you a massive amount of money if you’re planning on renting cars abroad with any regularity, and so are useful for people who go on holiday more than once a year or who find themselves having to travel on business. Additionally, it lets you make sure you’re all sorted the minute you land at the airport, and so you can start getting on with the business of enjoying yourself right away.
When you’re on holiday, it often makes sense to hire a car. After all, for what usually works out to be a reasonable fee, you’re free to explore the country you’ve spent your hard-earned pounds on getting to. Unfortunately, the rules about insurance still apply; if you want to go a little way off the beaten track (or you’re visiting somewhere like, say, Florida, where having a set of wheels is expected to allow you to get around), you’re going to need to get yourself some car hire insurance.
Thankfully, if you’re in Europe, car hire insurance is generally included in the cost of your hire car. However, this is only the most basic of basic cover; if something happens to the car, you could find yourself liable for substantial fees. To counter this, car hire insurance providers will likely offer you a raft of extras. These could include a collision damage waiver (CDW) and theft protection – both of these typically available in ‘super’ forms that cost more but are designed to give you even more cover – as well as accident liability cover, and many other additional policies. You don’t need these, strictly speaking, but it can give you a lot of peace of mind. They generally involve paying an additional premium on top of your car hire fee, but will lower the cost should you be involved in an accident. As the excess on hire car insurance is often astronomical (into the thousands of pounds, in cases), many people feel the need to reduce this by paying for collision damage cover. A CDW will reduce your excess drastically (a Super CDW may even cut it down to zero), but you can expect to pay much more for this safety net, and others.
If you’re in the USA or Canada, car hire insurance generally isn’t included in the cost of your hire car. However, you still need to make sure you’ve bought it before you’re allowed to drive, so be sure to budget for an extra fee, even before you get to the above optional policies.
It’s often cheaper to buy your car hire insurance from an independent company, before you even set foot on your outward flight. If you hire often, or you plan on hiring for a long time while you’re away, you should also consider annual insurance; you can often save a substantial amount by planning ahead and checking for good deals.
However, wherever you plan on getting your car, be sure to protect yourself. When the car is signed over to you, do a full inspection before you drive it off the lot. Make sure everything is exactly in tip-top condition, and that the company are already aware of any issues the car might have. When you return the car, make sure you do the same, and get something signed to say that you returned the car in good condition.
If you’re smart, and don’t drive negligently, car hire insurance needn’t work out that expensive. It can be a useful safety net, but over-the-counter services may not be the cheapest ways of getting it; as with anything, it’s important to only buy what you feel you need, and search around to get a good offer.
If you’re on holiday and want to see the sights that go a little far beyond the usually day trips and excursions, you might be considering hiring a car for the duration of your stay. This can often work out cheaper than having to fork out for specialist tours, but costs can mount up – not only do you have to pay for the car itself, but there are often very high excess charges (even in some cases as high as a thousand pounds) fixed on your rental policy should you be involved in some kind of accident. If this does happen, you could find yourself with a hefty fee, which is a worry you don’t need when you’re trying to relax on holiday. A partial solution to this problem can be found in car hire excess insurance.
Car hire excess insurance policies consist of different ways to limit the amount you’d pay should you have an accident. These usually take the form of extra premiums you can pay for at the counter when you purchase your insurance, but are often confusing to understand, especially if you haven’t come across them before. The most common varieties are known as a collision damage waiver (or a CDW), and theft protection. These will help to cut down on the amount you’re forced to pay the hire company should the car be damaged through non-negligent driving or stolen, respectively. Generally speaking, however, this will not reduce your excess to zero – although the more you pay, the lower your excess will become. Often, insurance providers will offer ‘super’ versions of these premiums that allow you to cut out the car hire excess entirely, but you can expect this to cost significantly more than normal protection.
A good way of avoiding this fee is to pre-book your car hire before you even leave home; that way, you’re able to shop around for deals, and not rely on the prices at the car hire place you choose once you get to your destination being decent value. Additionally, this affords you the opportunity to book what’s known as annual car hire insurance. This does exactly what it says on the tin – it will cover you against problems you might have with a hire care (such as damage or theft) for a full year, and is often reasonably priced.
It might not work out cheaper if you’re only hiring a car for a day or two, but if you’re going to be keeping your rental for around two whole weeks – or if you plan on taking a second holiday within a twelve-month period that will involve hiring a car – it can often work out to be a massive saving, which means that you can save your holiday spending money for fun and frolics, rather than on car insurance.
If you are going abroad soon, and are planning to hire a car once you get there, you might want to consider acting now in order to secure yourself good value car hire excess insurance – that way, you don’t have to worry about breaking the bank if you have an accident, and can really afford to relax while you’re away.