Car Hire Excess Insurance

redcon

Has anyone used this type of insurance? The idea is that you pay an annual (or per trip) premium and then do not take up the excess insurance when you hire a car abroad, thereby making it cheaper. If you do have an accident, you pay the excess to the car hire company then claim it back from the excess insurance company. The cost of the excess insurance is about £40 annually which is much cheaper than taking out the car hire's excess charge (assuming you take a few holidays a year). Has anyone had experience of using this? and did it work?

Dirks_Engine_Room

I've taken it out and although not had to use it it did give peace of mind.

jeanniebeanie_2

If you are hiring in the US, US Rentacar have 'no excess insurance' included. Good on price too, used them a lot.

http://www.usrentacar.co.uk

headpin

jeanniebeanie wrote: »

If you are hiring in the US, US Rentacar have 'no excess insurance' included. Good on price too, used them a lot.

http://www.usrentacar.co.uk

You need to be careful. Often No excess doesn't necessarily apply carte blanche. Often there will be exclusions, typically glass, tyres, wheels, keys and the underbody. Without seeing the fine print of the usrentacar cover, it is not possible to say whether it includes some, none or all of these typical exclusions in their “offer”

jeanniebeanie_2

As with any insurance it is as well to read the fine print.

Our one incident with a US Rentacar vehicle was actually a puncture and although the policy stated tyres were not covered, we were given the name of a tyre specialist who replaced the tyre without charge (not sure if that was down to US Rentacar or Dollar though)

A worldwide excess policy seems to be coming in at around £65. As with any insurance, you need to asses risk/cost against your own needs.

smallblueplanet

Took an annual policy out many moons ago - June 2003 - when it was quite difficult to find. In France and a lorry's tyre flipped up a stone that cracked the windscreen on our stationary car. Got charged (can't remember exactly) about £500 xs by the hire company. Claimed it back off carhireexcessinsurance.com (I think it was then) cost us £50 but saved hundreds...

Lots cheaper for a weeks insurance nowadays - wouldn't hire a car abroad without it.

Si67

We always try to hire cars with Full CDW / Zero Excess, but where that's not possible, such insurance is definitely worth it. We recently hired a car with Orlando rent-a-car, Lanzarote (booked through Holiday Autos). It was only a 3-day rental costing £30, but after returning to the UK it became apparent that Orlando had helped themselves to 175 Euros from our credit card for damage that they claim we caused. There was certainly no damage caused during the rental period, so we disputed it; but without success. Luckily we had taken out car hire excess insurance with worldwideinsure.com (underwritten by Axa) for about a fiver. We were reimbursed (by CHAPS) within about a week of making the claim.

trets77

Used Insurance 4 car hire many times. only claimed once.

excess reduction insurance from the rental company will not cover undercarriage , windscreen or tyres . Insurance 4 car hire does.

We claimed from a daily excess insurance policy suitable for UK car rentals from Insurance 4 car hire.

A stone was thrown up from a lorry on the M6 and chipped the windscreen of a brand new Astra rental ( less than 200 miles on the clock) . Enterprise charged me a pretty reasonable £50 for the damage. I claimed it back off Insurance 4 car hire who sent me a cheque within a week.

If your renting in Europe then always get one of these policies. My latest policy cost £38 for a year . Call them up if you cannot get that sort of price online