Car Hire Excess Insurance

The Importance of Car Hire Excess Insurance

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If you are a motorist, there will probably be several occasions when you will use a hired car - when you're on holiday for a week or two or if you are a member of a car club such as Zipcar.

Or maybe you regularly hire a car as you don't have a vehicle of your own. Whatever reason you use a hired car for, you will generally have some form of insurance in place to protect you in the event of an accident, either via your own insurer or as part of the car hire agreement.

But what about the excess? If you are involved in an accident, the car insurance will only pay out for damage over and above the excess amount - you will have to fund the first part of the claim. However, excesses can often exceed £1,000.

Protecting the excess

You probably have not given much thought to protection against paying the excess on the insurance for your hire car, but the importance of this type of cover should not be underestimated. For example, you are on holiday and have hired a modest car to get you from A to B during your stay. You have insurance in place for your hired car, believing that you are financially protected in the event of an accident. However, what you may not realise is that in the event of a claim, you will be liable for an excess - this is the first part that needs to be paid for any claim.

And, unlike a standard UK car insurance policy, where the excess amount is agreed by you and is typically £250-£500, when you hire a car in the UK or overseas the car rental company will define the excess amount. This can be anywhere from £500 right up to a staggering £1,600, subject to the supplier. So, in the event of a claim, this means that your holiday could cost you a lot more than you had planned for.

Additional protection

And it's not just the excess that you may be liable for in the event that the car is damaged or stolen. If there is damage to the tyres, the windscreen or the under body, you could be responsible for these costs as well! The good news is that you can protect yourself against having to pay for the excess on the cover for your hire car with our Car Hire Excess Insurance.