Car Hire Excess Insurance - any good?

MrHippo

mattymoo wrote: »

You also need to bear in mind that excess cover only kicks in when the loss exceeds the excess in the first place. Typical hire car excesses are around £500 iirc.

So, if you returned your car to the hire company and they spot £1,000 of damage, they will claim £500 off you and you get this back from your insurer.
If you return the car and the damage comes to £499, you have to pay this and will recover nothing from the excess insurer.

I don't think that's true. I checked with Questor and they said:

"The excess amount eg. GBP500 is the amount you are liable for.

Should there be any physical loss or damage to the rental vehicle to the sum of, for example GBP300, then this is what the rental company would charge you.

Our policy covers you up to the excess on the car rental agreement (in this example, our policy covers you up to GBP500). As you had only been charged GBP300 though, this is what you would put in a claim to us for."

I'm going to confirm with icarhireinsurance as well as I want cover close to home.

Anyone have a preference between these two companies or know about any differences in their policies, etc?

cherry-picker

Hi - I've used www.icarhireinsurance.com before. Their policies include local rentals, so there is no exclusion zone of 150kms from your home. I did have to claim previously and they paid up pretty sharpish; This wasn't for the full value of the excess so the £500 excess vs £499 of damage example posted by Mattymoo doesn't seem to apply with them. With my claim, I just had to send them a copy of the charge on my credit card and my rental agreement. They reimbursed the full amount I'd paid - circa Euro 350 vs a Euro 500 excess

MrHippo

Thanks for the reassurance. I got an annual policy with icarhireinsurance in the end as it was cheaper (£39.99) than Questor. Couldn't see any difference between their policies, I think the difference in price was because Questor automatically include key loss but it's extra for local rentals whereas as it's the other way round for icarhireinsurance (and I didn't want to bother with key loss). Sooo much better than the usual feeling of being totally ripped off at the rental desk or spending the whole holiday worrying about the car!

tinker15

I am currently looking to purchase an annual policy but it is a complete minefield out there. Is there a top company that covers all scenarios & actually pays out even if it is under the excess amount?
Thanks!