Insurance for hire cars is an important subject. If you are not familiar with it and are thinking of hiring a car, it would be advisable to take a few minutes to get to grips with the basic principles. You could save yourself a lot of grief and very probably a lot of money.
When you hire a car in Europe and most other countries of the world, you will probably find that some tyres of insurance are included in the rental price. What is or is not included will vary by country and the hire company concerned, so you’ll need to check carefully to see what you’re getting. It’s also worth noting at the outset that in some countries (notably the USA) there may be little or no insurance for hire cars included in the basic rental price – it all needs to be purchased separately.
Whether insurance is included in the hire price or purchased separately from the rental company, you’ll probably find that it breaks down into two major categories. One of these is called third party liability. This basically means that if a third party is injured, or their property damaged, by you while driving the rented car then you do have some insurance to meet those claims.
The key thing to check here is that the level of liability cover is sufficient to meet the sometimes very high awards made by courts following an accident. Although by law such insurance in the UK must be unlimited, in many other countries the hire company may cap it at an unrealistically low level.
The second category of insurance for hire cars is usually called CDW (collision damage waiver). This basically covers you against any damage arising to the rented car while in your care.
Your CDW cover may need to be checked for two things
• It should include cover for theft of the vehicle
• Are some areas of the vehicle excluded from cover – typically these may include the tyres, wheels, roof, windows and undercarriage and they can all prove expensive to repair if damaged.
It may also be prudent to check if the rental company’s insurance carries excess. The excess this is the amount of ‘contribution’ the car rental company will expect you to make towards the costs of any claims and typically it is set somewhere between 500 and 1500 pounds.
It is possible to purchase ‘top-up’ insurance to improve the cover available and remove some risks such as the excluded areas of the vehicle. This can be purchased from the rental company although you may find that their products are considerably more expensive that similar policies purchased directly online from specialist insurers.
The insurance for hire cars purchased directly from insurance companies will also usually offer more flexibility. They will cover excluded areas of the rental car and will reimburse you for any excess you may have to pay to the car rental company. They also offer products that significantly increase the levels of liability insurance cover. As these policies are sold directly to you as the policyholder on a daily or annual basis, they will also cover all vehicles rented during the period (subject to terms and conditions such as no sports vehicles etc). This could be very beneficial and particularly so for those renting on a regular basis.
Tags: Insurance For Hire Cars