For those of us that fail to qualify as being ‘rich’, searching for the best deals possible is a normal occurrence. If you are hiring a car, you may have searched diligently for the best hire rates for the vehicle itself but you may not realise that searching around on the same basis for daily car hire insurance could also save you a lot of money.
It works this way. If you are hiring a car, in many countries the basic rental price may include some components of insurance. This in turn may include one or more components covering various aspects of risk. There will normally be something called third-party liability that will cover any claims for injury or damage you have caused a third party. In addition, there is a form of cover called CDW (collision damage waiver) that covers the rental vehicle itself against damage.
In some countries such as the USA, the rental car may come with no insurance included in the rental price and the rental company will offer everything by way of the above insurances to you as extras.
In either case, it is usually advisable to check the insurance carefully. That’s because the insurance sold (or included it the price) by car rental companies is often limited in its cover and expensive.
You may find that the daily car hire insurance offered by the car rental company does not, for example, offer sufficient third-party liability cover given the large awards the courts can make following an accident. The CDW insurance may exclude from its cover several commonly and expensively damaged areas of the rented vehicle. It’s also very likely that the insurance will carry excess – the excess is a financial amount that the car rental company will expect you to contribute towards the cost of an accident. The excess is often set between 500 and 1500 pounds or sometimes even higher.
For all these reasons, you may find it a good idea to shop around a little.
The good news is that there are direct insurance providers that offer their policies through the Internet and at considerably lower prices than the car rental companies. Contrary to popular myth, you are not obliged to take the rental company’s insurance and can replace this or supplement it with direct insurance purchased elsewhere. Many of the direct insurance providers offer daily car hire insurance policies that are not only considerably cheaper but also offer better cover. Most will not carry excess and will cover those areas of the vehicle typically excluded by the car hire companies.
Even if the basic car rental price has some insurance included with it, you can use the insurance of the direct providers to provide additional cover. As an example, you can use it to insure you against things such as excess charges. If you have an accident and the car rental company charge you excess, you can claim this back through your direct insurance provider’s policy. Similarly, if you have to pay the rental company for damage to an area of the rented vehicle normally excluded by their ‘in the price’ insurance, your direct policy would reimburse you.
In a nutshell, if you’re looking for daily car hire insurance, it may be advisable to look around. You could find yourself a bargain!
Tags: Daily Car Hire Insurance