Probably one of the most confusing of all those vehicle rental options concerns car excess insurance – what is it and how do you go about arranging it?

Specialist Providers

The whole business of insurance – whatever the risks insured – may become confusing and fraught with jargon.

Whenever that happens, one of your likely recourses is to turn to the experts – and that is precisely the role we endeavour to fulfil here at Bettersafe when it comes to car excess insurance.
 
We aim to provide the cover you need, at a competitive price and arranged in a language you may readily understand, with nothing left up in the air.

Why Consult The Experts?

On the face of it, insurance for your hire car may appear really quite similar to the insurance you arrange each year for your own motor car – there is a premium to pay and in the event of a claim you are probably going to have to pay an excess.
 
In the case of car rental companies, however, there can be the often typical practice of offering the cheapest no-frills price first before revealing excess insurance options that might more than double the cost of your hire car.
 
Indeed, as profit margins on the simple rental of vehicles have come under severe pressure within a highly competitive market, hire car companies have increasingly turned to sideline sales of associated insurance products to generate additional income.
 
In the case of hire car excess insurance, this may not have been so very difficult given the relatively large amounts of the excess which customers may be asked to bear – over £1,000 is not unusual and the amount may considerably exceed this sum if you are renting a prestige or high-end motor car.
 
Given such a risk to the customer, car hire companies have been accused of adopting scare tactics to persuade their clients to take out excess insurance cover provided by the rental company – invariably, it seems, with a handsome commission going to the company.
 
This cover is usually offered on the basis of an additional daily premium for the duration of the hire period and offers some protection against the risk of the customer having to pay a sizeable excess – but frequently excludes certain areas of damage to the hired vehicle, such as the roof and underside, the windows, and the wheels and tyres.
 
Excess insurance arranged through an entirely independent specialist provider, on the other hand, typically offers entirely comprehensive excess cover for the payment of a single premium however long the rental period (generally up to a maximum of 60 days).
 
The cost of such cover is widely accepted as being significantly competitively priced when compared to similar products offered directly by the car rental companies. With our own product, the roof, undercarriage, tyres and windscreen etc, are also included in the cover – something that policies from car hire companies generally do not.
 
In short, therefore, you may be missing out if you leave your car hire excess insurance until the last minute and buy it through the car rental company rather than arranging it in advance through an independent specialist provider.