Hiring a car has never been easier. Most of the major rental companies have Internet sites where you can chose the vehicle you want and arrange your car hire insurance all with just a couple of clicks of the mouse. Some of the hire companies offer all-in-one packages with insurance included and you could be forgiven for thinking that you were automatically getting the best possible deal.
What you may need to think about with deals like this is that the car hire insurance included in the offer is unlikely to provide a level of cover that many people would be happy with, particularly when driving an unfamiliar car in unfamiliar circumstances and possibly on the wrong side of the road.
So what insurance do you need when you hire a car? There are two basic elements to car hire insurance cover.
Levels of protection
The first covers damage or injury you may cause to someone else or to their property, while driving the car. This is known as Third Party cover. The amount of cover that you get ‘included in the price’ may depend on where you intend to drive the car. It may only cover the minimum level of cover required by law in that country.
For example, for rentals in the UK third party cover has by law to be unlimited. This means that in the event of a claim for damages against you there will be no upper limit on what the policy will pay out.
In other countries though, third party cover does not have to be unlimited and in places like the USA it may be practically non-existent. What this means is that in the event of a claim for damages, you would be personally liable for the portion of the damages that your policy did not cover.
The second element covers damage to the hire car itself while it is in your care. This is known as collision damage waiver, which normally comes with a theft component. It will cover the cost of repair or replacement of the vehicle with some major provisions!
Most collision damage waiver policies offered by the rental companies will carry excess. The excess is the portion of any cost for repair etc that you would have to cover personally before the policy would pay out. So if there was a repair bill for damage to the rental car of say 500 pounds and the excess was 400 pounds, then you have to find 400 pounds and the policy would cover the remaining 100.
These figures are for illustration only and you may find that excesses can be anything from 500 pounds to 1500.
Car hire excesses
A general rule of thumb for collision damage waiver policies is the cheaper they are the greater the excess and you may find that your ‘all included insurance’ deal has some hefty excesses attached.
Of course the car hire company will also offer to sell you their own additional car hire insurance products to increase your level of cover. They can offer products to decrease your third party liability or to reduce collision damage waiver excesses.
It’s here though that you may find that your great deal isn’t quite so great after all. There’s no doubt that buying this additional cover from the car hire company is convenient but equally there’s no doubt that it’s several times more expensive than the alternative.
What you may find interesting is that there are a number of independent insurance suppliers who can provide car hire insurance at prices which are much cheaper than those offered by the car rental companies. These specialist suppliers can be found on the Internet and can provide you with online quotes for all of your rental car hire insurance needs including policies aimed at covering the gaps and limitations in the rental companies policies. It you want improved cover and at a lower price, these specialist providers are well worth a look.
Tags: Car Hire Insurance