Car Hire Excess Insurance

Are There Any Exclusions?

As with any insurance policy there are some incidences where you are not covered.

• Vehicles rented through any green motion branches within the UK
• If your country of residence is outside of the UK.
• Where use of the vehicle was not provided under a valid rental agreement including use that is free of charge or use as a courtesy by a garage.
• Where damage is as a result of wilfully self-inflicted injury or illness, alcoholism or the use of alcohol or drugs.
• Where the value of the rental vehicle exceeds £65,000 or is more than 10 years old.

What Is Car Hire Excess?

Car Hire Excess is the amount you agree to pay to a car hire company if there is any damage to the vehicle when it’s returned. When you hire a car from any rental company, it will often include basic insurance. This should cover the cost of any damages or if the car is written off. However, as a way of keeping the cost of this insurance premium down this will often include a reasonably large excess. This can be as high as £2,000!

What Is Car Hire Excess Insurance?

Car hire excess insurance covers the cost of the excess if the rental car is damaged or stolen. Put simply, if you had to pay the excess after returning your rental, Bettersafe would refund you the excess. So you won’t be left out of pocket from the excess charge.

Doesn't My Car Hire Rental Cover My Excess?

Within Europe, car rental companies are required to provide some kind of insurance policy for their hire cars. However, to keep their costs down they often leave an excess on the policy. There is normally an option to upgrade your insurance policy from the basic cover to one which also covers the excess. However, these are almost always significantly more expensive than purchasing an excess policy through a third party.

What Is CDW & SLI?

CDW stands for Collision Damage Waiver.

This policy provides you cover for any amount you become liable for over and above the car hire company. Your own policy will cover you up to US$100,000. This is a form of protection that will limit how much a car hire company will charge for repairs.

SLI stands for Supplementary Liability Insurance.

This insures you for injuries to other drivers and their vehicles. This is referred to as ‘Third-party’ insurance. Bettersafe offers a secondary SLI policy that will cover you up to $1,000,000 for third party bodily damage and damage to material property. To make sure you are covered, please ensure your car rental offers primary SLI.

Rental agreements in certain countries (U.S.A., Canada, The Caribbean, South, and Central America) only offer limited or no third-party liability insurance. If you do travel to one of these countries it is probably advisable to include CDW & SLI in your policy. If your car hire insurance covers third party’s then normal worldwide cover may be more suitable.