When you hire a car your Collision Damage Waiver or CDW will generally include excess, which you can avoid by buying an additional car hire excess waiver policy.
The excess on the CDW is the maximum amount that you would be liable to pay in the event of damage to the vehicle. If the cost of the damage is less than the excess you pay the actual costs. If it is more than the excess, you pay the excess amount. With excesses typically between 500-1500 pounds, this can amount to a hefty charge if the rental car is damaged.
You can take out additional insurance to remove or at least reduce the amount of excess payable. This is known as car hire excess waiver. You may also see it described as Super CDW. When you buy this type of cover you ‘waive’ your responsibility for paying the excess and the insurer takes on this responsibility.
You’ll probably find when you pick up the hire car keys that the hire company will try to sell you excess insurance. You’ll also probably find that the daily rate they quote you can significantly increase the total cost of your rental.
Given that you may have searched high and low to get the best possible rental deal, you may be interested to know that you can do the same for car hire excess insurance. Even if your rental agreement includes CDW insurance, you do not have to buy any excess or top-up insurance from the car rental company. You can look elsewhere for a better deal.
There are independent insurance companies who are specialist in this field and who can offer car hire excess waiver policies on a daily or an annual basis. You may find that these policies are significantly cheaper than those on offer from the car hire companies.
They may also provide cover for damage to those areas of the car normally excluded by most CDW policies. Areas like the windscreen and tyres are easily damaged and are therefore excluded from most policies including top-ups. The car hire excess waiver provided by independent insurers may include these areas as standard and so provide a wider level of cover than a similar policy bought from the car rental company.
You may also find the idea of an annual policy interesting. As the policy belongs to you, you can use it again and again in the course of the year for any number of rentals provided that the cars you hire are within the agreed conditions of the policy. This may mean that certain types of vehicle are excluded for example vintage or sports cars or those with a very high value.
The independent insurance companies can provide car hire excess waiver policies for your car hire needs in the UK, Europe, the USA as well as other destinations worldwide. The car rental company will charge any excess costs to your credit card and you would then simply have to claim on your waiver to be reimbursed by you insurance company. These are options that may be worth checking out further.
Tags: Car Hire Excess Waiver