Hire Car Excess Insurance Explained

In the event of a claim on the insurance, however, you are liable for paying the whole of any excess to which you have agreed.

Hire Car Excess

When you hire a car, insurance which typically comes with the rental agreement carries a very similar excess. If you have an accident or damage the car in any way that kicks the insurance into effect, you may be responsible for paying the whole of the excess.
 
The big difference between hire car excess and the one that is likely to be incorporated into your private motor insurance, however, is its sheer size. Excess on a hire car may be between £1,000 and £1,500 – or even more, depending on the type of vehicle you have chosen to rent and the country in which you are driving.
 
As the government’s own Money Advice Service warns, the cost of hire car excess may be very high.

Hire Car Excess Insurance

Given the exposure to such a potentially expensive liability, many hire car customers may want the protection of excess insurance – a simple, additional but separate form of cover which typically provides for the reimbursement of the excess you might have had to pay in the event of loss or damage to the hired vehicle.

The obvious attraction of excess insurance is something that many car rental companies are keen to exploit. The commissions earned on the sale of additional insurance contributes to their operating profits or may be used to cross-subsidise the headline rate of car hire.

Given customers’ need for excess protection – often at the last minute – and the profits to be made, hire car companies have gained a reputation for attempting an especially hard sell of the product, sometimes to the point of misrepresenting the need for it.

At Bettersafe, we offer the opportunity of your avoiding becoming involved in such hard sell negotiations and the high prices charged by many car rental companies for excess insurance.

Our specialist, standalone hire car excess insurance may be arranged whilst you are still at home in the UK, before you even set out on your travels, and if you subsequently need to claim reimbursement of any excess you may have been charged, you have the reassurance of knowing that your claim is dealt with entirely in English.

There is only one premium to pay for cover that lasts for the duration of your hire period – unlike the daily rate customarily charged by car rental companies.

Excess insurance protection from an independent specialist provider may also provide you with cover for damage to those parts of the vehicle commonly excluded under car rental companies’ policies – damage to the underside, roof, windows, tyres and wheels, for instance.

Car excess insurance may be arranged in advance from such UK-based specialists and used for cover in any part of the world in which you may be hiring a vehicle.