Rental car insurance coverage can be expensive. Even if the basic insurance included with many rentals these days seems quite reasonable, by the time you add on all of the extra insurance you may need to give you a level of cover you feel happy with the costs may have rocketed.
These extra insurances typically cover two areas. The excess, which is the amount you would be liable for in the event of a claim and the exclusions, which are areas of the car normally excluded from the car rental company’s basic insurance cover so that if they are damaged it is you who has to pay for repair.
Often when you rent a car you may leave the final insurance details until you pick up the keys. At that stage if the insurance the car rental company offers you seems expensive, you may have little choice other that to take it if you don’t want to drive away underinsured and potentially liable to pay significant costs. This is what the car rental companies rely on and why they can charge the prices that they do.
If though you’ve taken the time and effort to book your rental car in advance why not do the same with the rental car insurance coverage? That way you have the opportunity to shop round to see what else is available and at what price.
Even if you have opted for a car rental deal which includes for example collision damage waiver insurance (the insurance that covers damage to the rented vehicle) you are perfectly at liberty to purchase top-up and excess insurance elsewhere to increase the amount and type of cover available to you.
Some independent insurance providers specialise in rental car insurance coverage and can either provide you with all of your rental car insurance needs or just those elements left uncovered by the rental car company policy.
You may also find that since the excess policies of the independent providers can also cover any damage to the tyres, roof, undercarriage and windscreen of the car, you are significantly reducing your risks of incurring additional costs.
As well as providing cover on a daily rate basis, these independent specialists can also provide annual excess insurance for car rentals. This type of policy allows you to rent a car on several occasions throughout a given 12-month period. The annual policy is not tied to any rental agreement but covers you, the policyholder as a named driver of the rental car. These policies can be very competitively priced and can offer significant savings if you know in advance that you are going to rent a car on more than one occasion in the year.
Obviously, as with any type of insurance, there may be times when the particular circumstances of your rental may not be compatible with this type of policy. For example longer-term rentals of more than a month may not be covered. Nor typically would rentals for sports cars, vintage cars, or high value luxury vehicles of more than 100000 dollars.
With a little forward planning you should be able to save yourself quite a lot of money on the cost of your rental car insurance coverage.