Daily car hire excess insurance is a policy that provides cover for any excess charges. The premiums for this type of cover are calculated as an amount per day for the duration of the rental.
When you hire a car, the daily rate quoted for the rental may already include Collision Damage Waiver cover. CDW is the form of cover that protects against damage to or loss of the hire car. If CDW is not included in the rental price then the car hire company will offer it to you at a daily rate for the duration of the rental.
Most car hire insurance policies may carry significant excesses. The excess is the amount of any damage costs that have to be paid by the renter of the vehicle before any claim can be made on the insurance policy.
Excess charges can be high, typically ranging from 500 -1500 pounds. So if your hire car has suffered damage of say 600 pounds and the excess is 500 then you would have to pay all of the excess and the CDW cover would take care of the final 100. If the damage cost 400 then you would pay 400 and the CDW cover would provide nothing.
With a daily car hire excess insurance policy you can significantly reduce or remove excess charges completely.
Your car hire company may offer to sell you this type of insurance and they will normally quote you a price that would be the daily rate for this insurance. Cover of this nature provided by rental companies does tend to be very expensive.
Even with daily car hire excess insurance bought from the car hire company you will still be liable for damage to those items, windscreen, windows, tyres etc. normally excluded from the main CDW policy.
There is an alternative to the insurance cover offered by the car rental companies that can provide better levels of cover in addition to being much less expensive. There are a number of independent insurance companies who specialise in insurance for the car rental market. Many of these companies can be found on the Internet and their policies can be bought directly online.
They can offer the full range of car rental insurance and can even supply these as annual policies that you could use again and again in the course of the year. Their policies will generally include those easily damaged areas excluded by other insurers. They can also provide cover specifically tailored to the varied insurance requirements in the USA, Europe and the rest of the world.
Even if your rental includes basic CDW cover you can still buy daily car hire excess and other top-up insurance independently and you may be surprised at just how much cheaper it can be.
In the event of any damage, the car rental company would either claim directly to your independent insurers or they would make a charge to your credit card and you would then simply have to claim on your daily car hire excess insurance policy for reimbursement.