The principal area of saving is likely to be in the cost of car hire excess insurance – the cover which many people buy as protection against the very high excess which generally attaches to the insurance cover on your hire car (excesses in the range of £1,000 to £1,500 are by no means uncommon).

How To Save?

Making that saving could not be easier, in fact, and takes only a minute or two to arrange in advance, before you so much as set eyes on your hire car – before you even leave home for that matter.

Here at Bettersafe, we specialise in the provision of just such excess insurance protection – you may buy it quickly and easily online and the policy documents are emailed to you at the same time.

Just tell us where in the world you intend to be hiring a car and for how many days you require the cover and you may confidently leave the rest to us. Depending just where you are travelling you may even choose the cover that includes a Collision Damage Waiver and Supplemental Liability Insurance (additions which might be especially prudent if you are hiring a car in the Americas or the Caribbean).

As entirely independent providers – without any connection to any car rental company – our standalone car hire excess insurance provides protection in just about any part of the world. In any incident in which you are required to pay an excess, simply claim reimbursement on your excess insurance the moment you arrive home.

So, How Much Am I Saving?

In the first instance, of course, you are making a saving by ensuring that any excess for loss or damage to your hire car is safely protected and is not going to leave you out of pocket – to the tune of £1,500 or more – if an accident does happen.

Even more to the point, perhaps, you are then unlikely to feel under any pressure to buy what is widely regarded as expensive excess insurance directly from the car rental company once you arrive at the vehicle check-out desk. This is the kind of pressure that has resulted in numerous customer complaints to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which also works in conjunction with the European Commission.

A report by the BBC (July 2015) described how a number of the major car rental companies in Europe appear to have taken on board such customer complaints and have promised to be more transparent about the types of insurance that may be needed – including excess insurance – at the time of booking, rather than leaving such information until the last minute when the customer is already standing at the check-out desk.