Buying rental car excess insurance from one of the Internet based independent car hire insurance suppliers may not only save you some money, but may also provide you with superior cover.
Rental car excess insurance is needed because typically the collision damage waiver (CDW) cover sold by the car hire companies tends to carry an excess.
This ‘excess’ represents the maximum amount of money that you could be expected to contribute to the repair costs of those parts of the car covered by the CDW. The exact figure will depend on the car and the car hire company but figures between £500 and £1600 are not uncommon.
If you add to this the amount that you may have to pay towards the repair costs of those parts of the car typically excluded from the CDW (the roof, tyres, windows and undercarriage) then you could be facing quite a large charge to your credit card.
As an example, during your rental you swerve into a bush to avoid hitting a dog, damage one of the tyres which needs to be replaced and scrape the bodywork quite badly.
You have an excess of £750. When you return the car you find that the paintwork will cost £500 to redo. Since this amount is less that the maximum excess, you are responsible for it all. You are also responsible for the total cost of the type replacement because your CDW doesn’t cover them at all.
You could reduce the risks of incurring expense of this nature by buying some excess insurance and your car hire company will typically be only too happy to sell you some.
Their rental car excess insurance may prove to be expensive when compared to other options and there is no obligation to buy this type of cover from them - which is where the independent specialist providers of rental car insurance come in.
If you have a look at the Internet sites of these specialists, you will find that they offer a wide range of rental car excess insurance products, which offer several features including cover for families and for seniors.
In addition, you may find that their excess insurance will also cover the excluded items at no extra cost. So in our example above the replacement tyre would be covered as well.
A further feature of excess insurance bought from these specialists is that they can provide annual cover. This means that your policy, valid for a year, can be used for any number of rentals you choose. You may only be able to rent one car at a time (up to a specified number of days at a time) and you may not be able to rent certain types of vehicle. (Motor homes, motorbikes, commercial vehicles, very high value cars, sport or vintage models may not be covered.)
Particularly if you are a regular renter, you may end up saving some money, depending of your circumstances.
It works quite simply. If you do have an accident, the car hire company may still charge any excess or charges relating to damage to ‘excluded’ car parts for which you are responsible, to your credit card. All you would have to do then would be to claim on your rental car excess insurance policy for reimbursement.