Save Up To 92%
On Your Car Hire Excess Insurance
No Additional Driver Charges
No Additional Driver Charges
Misfueling Cover
Lost Keys Cover
How Does Our Car Hire Excess Insurance Work?
Car Hire Excess Insurance
When renting a car there can be times when an unfortunate event such as an accident or theft can leave you with a hefty repair bill or large excess cost on your car hire vehicle’s rental insurance.
Most hire car policies come with insurance included, this is often called Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) or Loss Damage Waiver (LDW), however like your home or car insurance you will need to pay an excess fee to make a claim. This excess can be as high as £1500, with some car hire companies charging this excess for small scratches or dents.
To remove this excess charge car hire companies will look to sell you their own car hire excess insurance (also known as excess waiver) at the rental desk, which can cost up to £26 per day*. Our car hire excess insurance removes this car hire insurance excess charge in the same way as the car rental company’s policy, but for a fraction of the cost – from just £2 per day
Route 1 Ring Road, Iceland
What Is Covered In Our Car Hire Excess Insurance?
As well as covering you for the car hire excess charge on claims against your car hire insurance, we also cover you for additional damage to the car. Some of the items listed below are not normally covered on car hire companies’ rental insurance agreements which are available at the car rental desk. Our policy even covers you should a flight delay result in you arriving to collect your hire car out of hours.
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Compare Our Car Hire Excess Policies
Our UK and European insurance policy is perfect for family driving holidays or weekends away in the countryside in a hire car. If you are planning on making multiple trips to Europe this year or are planning a hiring a car for more than 17 days then our annual policy will work out cheaper for you.
- No additional driver charges
- Damage, fire, vandalism and theft
- Windows, undercarriage, roof, tyres
- Lost keys
- Mis-fueling
- more…
- (*Prices include IPT)
If you are traveling to Australia, South Africa or somewhere else far flung then you’ll need our Worldwide excess insurance policy. If you are planning on hiring a car for three weeks or more then you should get our annual policy as it will work our cheaper than our 21 day daily policy.
- No additional driver charges
- Damage, fire, vandalism and theft
- Windows, undercarriage, roof, tyres
- Lost keys
- Mis-fueling
- more…
- (*Prices include IPT)
Traveling to USA, Canada, Mexico or South America? Car hire insurance is slightly different in these places as it does not include Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) in the policy, commonly included in the UK and Europe. Our policy has you covered with CDW included in our USA & Canada policies.
- No additional driver charges
- Damage, fire, vandalism and theft
- Windows, undercarriage, roof, tyres
- Lost keys
- Mis-fueling
- CDW Included (required in USA & Canada)
- (*Prices include IPT)
Some Frequently Asked Car Hire Excess Questions
Why do I need hire car excess insurance?
When you rent a car it will come with insurance covering you in the event of an accident or theft of your hire car. In this it will stipulate an excess fee to be payable in the event of any claims against this insurance. This excess is usually between £500-£2000. Say if the windscreen is damaged by a stone hitting it and it costs £1200 to repair, you will need to make a claim against this on the hire car insurance policy. Before the claim is settled by the insurance company you will need to pay the excess fee… See more
In this case, if your excess fee is £1000 you will page this the car hire company’s insurance policy will cover the remaining £200.
There are many factors that will determine how large your excess fee is including type of vehicle, the age of the driver, how many years experience the driver has and whether they have any past insurance claims.
To make sure you don’t get stuck with that £1000 bill, our car hire excess insurance policy pays that excess fee. Our policies start at just £2 per day and can run for as long as you are renting the vehicle.
This small daily payment will ensure that if you do have an accident or are the victim of a crime, and need to make a claim, you will have to pay nothing, giving you peace of mind on your travels.
What's the difference between car hire insurance and car hire excess insurance?
Most car hire agreements include car hire insurance as part of the cost. Check the small print or the inclusions during the booking process to confirm this. Look for Collision Damage Waiver, Theft Protection and Third Party Liability. The problem with each of these insurances is that in order to claim there is usually an excess or payment to be made to use the insurance. Car hire excess insurance is different… See more
Car hire excess insurance removes the excess charge from any claims you need to make in the event of damage, loss or theft of the vehicle or keys. In some cases this can be as much as £2000.
Buying car hire excess insurance you remove your liability for the excess and this is paid by us. This means that if you have an accident, damage the car or lose the keys and need to make a claim, then it will cost you nothing. We reimburse the excess payments to you when you return to the UK.
You can buy these excess waiver policies at the car rental desk, however they are often very expensive and in some cases more than the cost of hiring the car. Buying car excess insurance in advance with us saves you up to 90% when compared with the price at the car hire desk.
Is it cheaper to buy a daily or annual policy?
This depends on a lot of things, but you should consider a few in particular
- How long you are going to be away for
- How many trips you’re planning to make in the next 12 months where you will be hiring a car
- Where you plan on visiting
Each of these things will affect whether you should get an annual or daily policy. In terms of a single trip away then it works out cheaper to buy an annual policy if you are hiring a car for more than the length of time shown below:
- UK & Europe: if you are hiring a car for 18 days or more then it is cheaper to buy our annual policy
- Worldwide (excluding USA & Canada): if you are hiring a car for 21 days or more then it is cheaper to buy our annual policy
- Worldwide (including USA & Canada): if you are hiring a car for 25 days or more then it is cheaper to buy our annual policy
The other thing to consider is whether you are planning trips and hiring a car in a single area or whether you are planning trips to multiple locations, for example:
- 3x 5 day trips driving in Europe and 2 weeks of driving across the USA – in this case our USA & Canada annual policy is your best bet at £65 (saving you £2.80 for exactly the same cover). If you were to buy 3 of our 5 day excess policies for Europe and our 14 day excess policy for USA then this would equal £67.80. Also, you have the freedom of knowing if you want to hire a car for a little longer you’re still covered without any extra cost.
All prices include IPT
- * Source: http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/car-hire/article/car-hire-advice/car-hire-insurance
