When you rent a car, you probably want to believe that you are covered against the costs of any accidents arising. You may have paid the car rental company for insurance or been told it is included in the price, and hope that this is an end to the story. Sadly this may not be the case unless you have also purchased something called CDW Excess Insurance.
When you rent a car, it may come with something called Collision Damage Waiver or CDW for short. CDW is that component of the rental car insurance that covers damage to the hire car while it is in your care. Whether CDW was included in the basic rental price or purchased as an optional extra from the rental company, there is a fair chance that the rental company’s basic CDW will have one or two limitations that may be worthy of attention.
Firstly, it may not cover all areas of the rental vehicle. To the surprise of some renters, most basic CDW will exclude from cover, damage to areas of the vehicle such as the roof, wheels, tyres, undercarriage and windows. These can all be expensively and easily damaged even in minor accidents. If they are not covered by your CDW policy then you will need to pay.
Secondly, most basic CDW will also carry something called excess. The excess is a financial contribution that you the renter will need to make following an accident – even if you have CDW in place. The excess is usually between 500 and 1500 pounds and it works simply. If you have an accident and the cost of repair is 1000 pounds, if there is a 750 pounds excess on the policy then you’ll have to pay 750 pounds. If the cost of the damage is 600 pounds, then you’ll have to pay it all.
Many renters feel less than happy about these limitations and risks to their financial wellbeing. Fortunately there is an answer – CDW excess insurance.
The car rental company may well offer to sell you additional insurance sometimes called ‘top-up’. This insurance may mean that you can effectively reduce or perhaps eliminate the excess and perhaps cover some areas of the rented vehicle that are usually excluded.
This type of insurance purchased from a car rental company is usually expensive. A perhaps more economic options is offered by the direct insurance companies that offer CDW excess insurance online. These companies offer policies that work on the basis of reimbursing you for any excess charges you may have to pay the car rental company following an accident. Typically these policies will also cover you for any repair costs you have to pay the rental company for damage to those often excluded areas of the vehicle such as the wheels etc.
One of the other major advantages offered by a direct insurance company selling CDW excess insurance is that they sell their policies to you the policyholder. The policies can be purchased by either the day or on an annual basis. As such they will cover any vehicle rented by you during the life of the policy – with the exception of some specialist vehicle types such as sports cars or motor homes or those that are very high in value (usually over 100,000pounds). This flexibility can save you both time and money. It may be an option worth exploring.
Tags: CDW Excess Insurance