If you know that you are likely to rent a car a number of times in the coming year, then it may be worthwhile considering buying annual car hire excess insurance cover.
Even if you have purchased damage insurance from the car hire company, it may not provide the cover you expect. You may find that you are still liable to pay fairly high levels of costs should the hire car be damaged.
This is because the standard CDW (collision damage waiver – the damage protection insurance available for hire cars) cover offered by car hire companies often comes with excesses that can be substantial. The excess is the part of any costs of damage to the vehicle that have to be paid for by you, the renter, before any claim is made on the policy itself. So for example, if there is damage to the vehicle costing 800 pounds and the excess is 750 then you would have to pay 750 pounds of the repair bill. If the damage were valued at 600 pounds, you would have to pay all 600. Excesses can range from 500 pounds to as much as 1500.
In addition to excess charges, many CDW policies may also exclude damage to certain parts of the car from their cover. This means that any damage to these areas of the car, typically the windscreen, tyres, roof and undercarriage, must be paid for by you.
In these circumstances, it is unsurprising that many people feel that it is a sensible step to try to remove or at least reduce the excess amounts they would be liable for by taking out excess insurance, which can also be known as Super CDW. However even if you buy car hire excess insurance from the car hire company that has significantly reduced any excess payable, you may also find that damage to the windscreen, tyres etc is still excluded from the policy.
An alternative to the daily excess insurance on offer from the car hire company is an annual insurance policy supplied by an independent specialist insurance company.
Annual car hire excess insurance cover differs from that supplied by the car hire company in that, as the name suggests, it is an annual policy which ‘belongs’ to you the policyholder and is not tied in to a specific car rental. It can therefore be used for any number of car rentals within the yearly duration of the policy provided that the car being rented meets the agreed criteria. Very high value cars, vintage cars and sports cars are likely to be excluded from this type of cover and the full details will be contained within the terms and conditions.
Annual excess insurance policies are readily available for your car hire needs in the UK, USA, Europe and elsewhere. The car rental company will charge any costs to your credit card and all you have to do then is to claim on your annual car hire excess insurance policy for reimbursement.
Even if you do not intend to rent a car on more than one occasion during the year, you may find that you could still save a lot of money with an annual car hire excess insurance policy. Knowing that your policy covers all parts of the car can bring much valued peace of mind.