Excess insurance for courtesy car?

themoomins

Hi all,

I was in a non fault accident at the weekend and my car was recovered by my insurance company and taken for repairs.  They have arranged a courtesy car through Enterprise and I am due to pick it up tomorrow.

I have been reading about what I need for tomorrow and have come across horror stories galore of £1000 excesses taken for scratches that were already there and so on so I am now wondering what on earth to do.  I have never hired a car and never been in a crash before so a whole new world is opening up before me and I am lost on the detail and feel like I'm going to make a costly false move in this chess game all the other players seem to know the rules of.

I haven't got much time to sort things out so - do I need excess insurance for a courtesy car or is my own insurance excess the limit of my liability if a piece of gravel should caress the bodywork of this car?   If I am liable for a massive excess and I take out Enterprise's own excess insurance will this be reclaimable from the 3rd party once they admit liability or is it totally at my own expense?

I can't find any info on terms on this particular situation and feel I am going to be on the spot tomorrow when I turn up for the car. I do really need the car so not getting it and finding an alternative is not possible. I've already had 3 days on the bus and I'm done!   Hope someone is about who knows anything about this!

Goudy

You need to ask Enterprise about who is responsible for the excess.

Your insuance may book and pay for the excess cover via Enterprise themselves as part of the booking.

Then again they might not and then I would guess it's your responsibilty.
You will be the hirer and driver (just someone else picks up the hire charge) and any excess damage to the hire car your insurance company won't be able to recover from the at fault's policy.

You can take out hire car excess cover from Enterprise, but it will be very expensive. 

Alternatively you can take out excess cover from someone else.
Basically you buy a seperate policy you can claim on if you have had to pay out the excess for any damage on the hire car.
(pay out the excess first, then claim it back)

I use Battersafe for a yearly policy for UK and Europe and it costs less than £40 a year after their renewal discount, pretty good when I probably hire 6 to 8 cars a year.
If I took out the rental companies excess cover each time it would be close to £1000 if not more.

If you scroll down here to point 6 you will find some more excess policy suppliers, they are easy to do online.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/

So best check first.

Merlin139

First thing to do when you pick up the courtesy car is not to panic.

Systematically go around the car to check for any signs of damage no matter how small. If you can take a 6 inch ruler with you. You can then place it by any scratches and take a photo of the scratch. Do each panel very carefully. The longer you spend checking the better prepared you will be. 

Insist that someone checks it with you and marks off on the check sheet where any damage is.

Photograph each wheel and look at each tire for any sign of damage. Any damage to any tire refuse the car. After you have checked outside then check inside. Look for stains on seats. Damage to the seats or material. Scuffs to leather if applicable. Check control consul for signs of damage. Take systematic photos of all the interior. Don't forget to check the boot and spare if applicable. The front of the car is a likely place to find many chips or scratches from stone chippings.  

I agree with Goudy about using a separate policy to cover your excess.  

SaverRate

If its an insurance claim there is every chance that your insurance company are providing the insurance cover and therefore your excess on your policy applies. Its worth checking with both your insurer and Enterprise. 

I know my insurer will insure me on a hire car if they were to hire me one rather than be insured with the hire company 

themoomins

This is great everyone, thank you. Things are much clearer. I think I will have the excess cover mentioned above ready to buy on my phone before I take the car.  If I am the 'hirer' then I will be covered.

If it is more simple than that when I get there and all covered by insurance I just won't buy it. 

And thank you Merlin for the post about thoroughly checking the car.   If I had gone to get it without doing any reading I honestly wouldn't have thought of doing this for more than major issues but will now look at the whole car very closely and take photographs.

Goudy

Just ring Enterprise and check the booking.
If they can't tell you, ring your insurance company claims handler.

With a bit of luck you will be fully covered as it will no doubt be hired under some corperate scheme rather than a normal type hire, but if you're not, you know what to do.

Try not to worry too much, most hire companies are fairly honest and aren't out to rip off customers.
There are a few that are quite notorious when it comes to damage.
You can often spot these by the fact you usually have to leave a massive excess deposit.

One other check tip is when you hand the car back at the end of the rental.
It's not always possible, some just have a key dump but if you can make sure they check the car back in while you are with them.
They will usually hand you a copy of the return condition report, if not ask for it and keep it for a while.

TripleH

As s tip, if you use external cover and have an incident, take photographs of the damage before returning the vehicle.

Or if when you hand it back, you are informed of damage and deductions  take photos as the rep highlights the damage.

This makes any claims with the excess hire company quicker to sort. (Said through experience).

EssexExile

Read your insurance documents, ours covers us when using a courtesy car the same as when using our own.

Grey_Critic

Insurance companies often do a temporary transfer of your insurance cover of your car to the hire car - Once had somebody manage to hit 7 cars in one of my courtesy cars - and their insurance had to pay out for the lot. Even better we were called to recover them all and got the job of repairing.

themoomins

Thanks everyone.  I picked up car this morning with no problems.  Damage excess was going to be £350 which is the same as my own insurance, insurance is covered by my insurance company and I bought the annual Excess Insurance policy from bettersafe which at less than £40 is a pretty decent price for peace of mind. Just hope my car won't be more than 62 days in the garage!  Oh and I took plenty of photos to show any existing damage and all panels with no existing damage too although car was in pretty good condition overall. 

I agree with whoever above said most places are decent and I'll have no problems but when you are facing a whole new situation with its own rules and 'insider knowledge' and the many hideous reviews and forum posts online you feel like everyone is out to get you, especially after an unexpected no fault car accident. The poor guys doing the handover were lovely and I think a bit surprised by my lack of trust over the whole thing. 

themoomins

EssexExile said:

Read your insurance documents, ours covers us when using a courtesy car the same as when using our own.

Yes this was the case for me today but the damage excess was set by the hire company (not sure exactly how or why tbh). In this case it was the same amount either way but think that was just chance rather than it being matched.