Save Money On Your Car Hire Insurance

The UK & Europe

In the UK and Europe, it might be difficult to establish quite how much you are paying for the insurance since it is typically included in the total hire car package.

In other words, you might find it more difficult to save money on your car hire insurance unless you shop around and compare the overall price of hiring comparable vehicles.

Where you are almost certain to be able to save a considerable amount of money, however, is in the purchase of hire car excess insurance – the cover that reimburses the cost of anything up to around £1,500 (or more) in excess charges if you damage the vehicle. You have essentially two options when buying the cover:

From The Hire Car Company

Wait until you get to the rental company’s check-in desk and buy your excess insurance at that point.

Hire car companies are likely to fall over themselves for this business since it earns them valuable commissions.

The drawback is that excess insurance from this source may typically be very expensive – in the opinion of commentators diverse as the Money Saving Expert and the Citizens’ Advice Bureau. Not only is this insurance typically expensive, it also commonly excludes damage to particular areas of the hired vehicle such as the roof, underside, windows, wheels and tyres.

From An Independent Provider

The same critics of excess insurance sold by car rental companies propose the alternative of buying the cover from an entirely independent provider – such as us here at Bettersafe.

What is different is that you may arrange the cover well in advance of your travel plans.

Independently arranged excess insurance is likely to ensure reimbursement of any excess you are required to pay, including damage to such parts of the vehicle as its roof, its underside, the windows, wheel or tyres.

What is still more different is that it is almost certain to cost you a lot less than anything offered by your car hire company.

The cover may be quickly and easily arranged online, with the single premium giving you excess protection throughout your trip – rather than the expensive daily rate customarily charged by hire car companies.

Furthermore, if you are a frequent traveller, you might want to buy annual cover from such an independent specialist, ensuring that you remain covered for multiple hire periods during the year, when you may put any worries about hire car excess firmly to the back of your mind.

However important car hire excess insurance may be, there is no reason why you might not save money when you arrange it. It might seem more convenient and more immediate to buy the cover directly from the same company from whom you are hiring your car, but this is likely to prove a more expensive option. Cover arranged through a UK-based independent specialist may be cheaper and give you greater protection.