Using an independent insurance provider for European car rental insurance may make good financial sense - particularly when you consider some of the additional features that are typically available from many of these suppliers.
When you rent a car for the UK and many European destinations, you may find that there will have been some elements of European car rental insurance included in the price. These are likely to be;
- third party insurance to cover injuries to other people or damage to their property, and;
- collision damage waiver to cover damage to the hire car itself.
Collision damage waiver (CDW) as supplied by the car hire companies (whether as part of an all-in-deal or bought separately) is likely to contain two major exceptions as far as cover is concerned.
The first is that CDW typically excludes certain parts of the car from cover. This means that if these parts were to be damaged, then they would not be insured and you would have to pay for their repair. The parts concerned are the windows including the windscreen, the tyres, the roof, wheels and the undercarriage.
The second point is that collision damage waiver will usually carry an excess. The excess represents the amount of money that you agree to contribute to any repair costs for damage to the vehicle even if they are insured. Excess charges can be as much as £1600 depending on the vehicle type and country which you they are hiring in.
You may feel that the risks of being responsible for this level of potential expenditure are unacceptable. In this situation, it may be prudent to buy some additional European car rental insurance to top-up the cover of the basic CDW and to reduce or remove the excess completely - and this is where using one of the independent specialists could make a difference.
These Internet based specialists have a number of European car rental insurance products to cover a variety of circumstances. Their products may offer special deals for families and the over 75s.
In addition they can also provide many of their policies on an annual basis. What this means for you is that rather than buying insurance each and every time you rent a car you may be able to use an annual policy. This could not only save you time but also possibly some money.
Policies of this type can cover most types of vehicle with certain exceptions, such as:
- high value cars in excess of $100,000;
- sports or vintage models;
- motor homes;
- commercial vehicle;
- motorbikes.
This is unlikely to be a problem for most renters.
So if you decide to buy some car rental insurance from one of these independents, all you have to do is to remember to arrange your cover before you rent the car.
Then if you do have an accident, although the car rental company may still charge any excess and other fees to your credit card, you would then simply claim on your European car rental insurance policy for reimbursement. Having this form of insurance may save you money!