Super CDW is a rather odd sounding term used to describe a form of additional insurance that relates to rented cars.
When you hire a car, you’ll probably see mention of CDW. This stands for Collision Damage Waiver (and is confusingly also sometimes called loss damage waiver). CDW is a form of insurance that covers damage arising to the rented vehicle while in your care. It is sometimes included in the basic rental price by the car rental company or it may not be in which case they will usually endeavour to sell it to you as an advisable optional extra.
It’s worth keeping in mind that if you are driving a rented car and have declined CDW, then any accident damage would need to be paid for by you. The costs could be up to the replacement cost of the vehicle itself so some form of this insurance is always a very good idea.
The position with CDW and Super CDW can become a little confusing. This has its origins in the way basic CDW is sold or included in the price by the car rental companies.
The rental company’s basic CDW policy is very likely to be limited in terms of the protection it provides in two important ways. Firstly it will almost certainly contain excess. The excess is stated as a financial amount, usually between 500 and 1500 pounds that the rental company will expect you as the renter to contribute as the ‘first part’ of the costs of any accidents. In other words, if you have 750 pounds excess and a claim for damage to 1500 pounds cost, the rental company will debit the first 750 pounds of that 1500 pounds to your credit card. If the claim were for 400 pounds, you would have to pay it all.
Secondly, you will probably find that the basic CDW excludes damage to several specified areas of the car such as wheel, tyres, roof, undercarriage and windows. So even with CDW insurance in place, you could still be facing large repair costs following an accident.
As many renters find the risks here to be unacceptable, the car rental companies may offer additional ‘top-up’ insurance to cover these risks. The excess could be eliminated totally and cover extended to normally excluded areas of the vehicle. They may or may not call this Super CDW.
Unfortunately the car rental company’s insurance and their top-up insurance can prove very expensive when compared to that purchasable from the direct insurance providers over the Internet. In fact you are under no obligation to purchase car rental insurance from the rental company and you can purchase Super CDW insurance from the direct providers.
These policies purchased directly can offer you real peace of mind. Even if you have taken the car rental company’s basic insurance, you can use your directly purchased Super CDW to cover you for the risks of excess charges or payments for repairs to areas of the rented car that the rental company have excluded from cover. The rental company may still debit your credit card for these costs but you could claim reimbursement of them from your direct insurance company.
The Super CDW purchased directly like this is usually several times cheaper than that sold by the rental companies. It also is purchasable for a period of days or even a year. That means that during the life of a policy it would cover you for any rental car you drove (subject to terms and conditions). That could save you a lot of money indeed – particularly if you rent regularly. It may be worth finding out more!
Tags: Super CDW