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.