Single Trip Car Hire Excess Insurance

Not normally, no. As part of your agreement with your hire car company you will have a form of insurance to cover your rental period. This can be called many names; car hire insurance, collision damage cover, theft protection and third part liability.

These insurances will cover you for damage, loss of keys, theft, fire and other common issues arising from hiring a car. However, in order to claim on the insurance policy there is typically an excess charge due, in the same way as your home insurance works. So for example, if you need to make a claim on the insurance for repairing a dent in the car then you will be charged a flat excess fee of, say, £1000.

If you take out car hire excess insurance from CarHireExcess.insure we will reimburse the cost of the excess, effectively removing your liability for the excess charge. This means you can spend your holiday relaxing rather than fretting about the cost of losing your keys, cracking the windscreen or chipping the paint work.

Most car hire companies offer their own equivalent excess waiver insurance to customers at the rental desk. Once you are at the rental desk you have very few options, you can either buy their excess waiver insurance, which is sometimes more expensive than the cost of the hire car itself, or you can decline, take the risk and pay an excess fee should you need to claim against the car hire insurance.

If you do your research in advance the cost difference between buying your excess waiver through CarHireExcess.insure and the rental desk can be around £20 per day!

Let’s assume that in the terms and conditions of your insurance policy, your insurance provider states there is an excess fee of £500 before any claims are settled. Now let us assume all of the windows of your hired vehicle are broken. You make a claim and the total cost of repairs amounts to 1,200 pounds. Before the claim is settled by the insurance company you will need to pay the excess fee.

You make a claim and the total cost of repairs amounts to 1,200 pounds. Before the claim is settled by the insurance company you will need to pay the excess fee. In theory, you have paid £500 towards the damages (the excess fee) and your insurance company has covered the remaining £700.

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 £500 bill, a car hire excess insurance policy will cover that excess fee in return for a daily payment of around £5 a day 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.