A car rented from an established rental company may come with some forms of basic insurance included in the rental price. Even if it does not, the rental company will offer insurance to you and they may also offer some forms of additional or ‘top-up’ insurance. One form of insurance you may see mentioned and that they may offer is car hire excess waiver.
This insurance relates to an aspect of car rental insurance called the ‘excess’. The excess is a financial amount that the car rental company will expect the renter to pay towards the costs of any claims even when insurance is in place.
It works on the basis that the ‘first part’ of any claim following an accident will be charged back to the renter’s credit card by the car rental company, with the amount being as defined the excess clause of their insurance policy and hire agreement. In other words, if the car insurance carries with it a stated excess of 1000 pounds (and the excess is typically set at somewhere between 500 and 1500 pounds) then this is the potential amount the renter may have to pay if they have an accident.
If the accident claim is say 1500 pounds and the policy has excess of 1000 pounds, the renter will pay the first 1000 pounds of the total 1500 pounds claim. If the total damage claim is only 750 pounds, the renter will in those circumstances need to pay the total claim amount of 750 pounds.
The risks of needing to pay excess can make some renters unhappy and uncomfortable driving the rented car. For these reasons, many seek additional insurance that will allow them to reduce or eliminate altogether the excess.
Most car rental companies will offer what they may call car hire excess waiver insurance. What this means is that for an additional cost, the renter will be able to reduce or remove (i.e. waive) the excess on the policy. The costs here can be high and usually are much higher than seeking similar cover elsewhere.
The other option is to research the policies and products of the direct insurance companies. Many such companies sell policies through the Internet that offer additional protection against several of the shortcomings that may be found in the basic car rental insurance. One such type of cover would be their version of car hire excess waiver and it is likely to be significantly cheaper that the rental company’s offering.
These directly purchased policies offer other advantages. As they can be purchased for a daily or annual basis, they cover the policyholder for the duration of the policy and not just a single rental. This means that any vehicle rented by the policyholder will be covered providing it is within the life of the policy and is covered by the terms and conditions (e.g. these policies may not cover specialist vehicle types such as sports cars).
If you are uneasy about the excess on the car rental company’s policy and are looking for car hire excess waiver, this option could offer you increased flexibility and at a much lower price.
Tags: Car Hire Excess Waiver