When you rent a car, you may buy daily car hire insurance to protect yourself whilst the car is on rental to you.
What you may think is sensible to buy may be determined to a large extent by where you are going to drive the car.
Often when you rent a car for use in the UK or certain parts of Europe, there may be some collision damage waiver cover included in the deal. (Collision damage waiver (CDW) provides cover for damage to the car itself.) For rentals elsewhere there may be little or no collision damage waiver cover included in the deal and you may think it wise to buy this form of cover for yourself.
CDW cover almost always carries an excess. The excess represents an amount of money that you agree to pay towards any claims. Excess amounts vary between £500 and £1500.
In addition to the excess, CDW often excludes certain parts of the car from cover. These are typically the roof, windows, tyres and undercarriage.
So whether CDW was included in the rental or bought separately, your level of cover may still leave you exposed to facing some potentially large bills. You may feel that purchasing some additional daily car hire insurance to cover the excess and the exclusions may be a sensible idea.
You can of course buy this daily car hire insurance from the car hire company. There are, however, alternative sources for this type of cover that you may find to be considerably cheaper.
There are a number of Internet based insurance providers who specialise in daily car hire insurance cover and excess insurance in particular.
For UK and European rentals, their excess policies may be very attractive, especially when you consider that they may include those ‘excluded’ items at no extra cost.
If your rental is for the USA these specialists may be able to provide you with a full CDW and excess package. If you bear in mind that US rentals are unlikely to include much, if any, third party cover at all, you may also want to have a look at the Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI) they have on offer. (You don’t need SLI for UK rentals since third party cover has to be unlimited by law).
While you’re browsing these sites you may also find it interesting to have a look at annual cover for your car hire. Annual policies could be a very economical way of buying car hire insurance particularly if you are a frequent or regular renter.
An annual policy insures you, the policyholder, in the same way as any other type of insurance. You may find that the car hire company may still charge your credit card for any due excess amounts if you have an accident and damage the car. All you would then have to do is claim these amounts back on your annual policy.
As with all insurance policies there will be terms and conditions that apply to cover of this nature. As an example, you may find that there are restrictions on the types of car that you can hire. Very high value vehicles, sports and vintage models are not covered but for the majority of renters this may not be an issue.
So if you’re looking for an alternative for your daily car hire insurance why not take a look at what these specialists can offer?
Tags: Daily Car Hire Insurance