Looking For Car Hire Excess Insurance?

In North America and the Caribbean, a similar excess – although here called a deductible – is likely to be applied to the insurance you typically need to arrange separately when renting a vehicle.

In short, wherever in the world you may need to hire a car, the chances are that the size of the excess you may have to pay is enough to make you wish you had excess insurance – which is very simply insurance that covers the cost of any excess you may be required to pay.

Buying Your Car Hire Excess Insurance In The UK

Anticipating the risks you run in having a significant sum to pay as an excess or deductible when you next hire a car abroad, therefore, you might want to plan ahead for that eventuality and arrange your excess insurance as soon as you know you are going to be hiring – maybe once you have made your booking.

There are UK-based, specialist providers of just this kind of cover – such as here at Bettersafe, for instance – and the application may be made simply, quickly and painlessly by spending only a few minutes online. By arranging your excess protection in advance like this, you have the peace of mind and reassurance of knowing that whatever excess your car rental cover may apply – or any excess applied to hire car insurance you take out separately – is safely covered.

But there are some other very good reasons for buying your excess insurance protection whilst you are still at home and before you set out on your travels.

Why Not Wait Until I Get There?

Unfortunately, for many people, there may be little option but to wait until they arrive at their destination before buying excess insurance. Some of the reasons and drawbacks for doing that are because:

The car rental company simply failed to advise its customer in advance – at the time of booking for instance – that there is a hefty excess to pay in the event of damage to the hire car.

There is a lack of transparency, in other words, as criticised by the Telegraph newspaper on the 2^ndof April 2015.

Moreover, the rental company is not going to be slow in coming forward with its own offer of excess insurance.

Since the car rental company is playing a part in the provision of insurance products simply to earn additional valuable commissions, the daily cost of excess cover from such a source is invariably high.

Despite paying more for the protection, however, you are likely to have less comprehensive coverage than that provided by specialist providers based in the UK.

It is common practice, for example, for insurance products sold by hire car firms to specifically exclude from cover damage to particular areas of the vehicle – typically, the underside, the roof, the windows, wheels and tyres.

If you are looking to protect the excess on your car hire insurance, therefore, you might want to make sure this is something you do before you leave home, rather than leaving it until the last minute.