Car hire excess insurance

Brumbear

I've just come back from a hoilday abroad and unfortunately had an 'accident' whereby I clipped a curb and wrecked a tyre on the hire car. I took out an excess insurance policy as usual as tyres aren't part of the normal insurance when hiring a car abroad.
If I make a claim on the excess insurance would I have to declare this on my own car insurance when it's due for renewal and would it affect my premium if I do or shall I just take the hit to my wallet? Also, do I have to declare the claim on any other insurances I have when they are due for renewal?

DullGreyGuy

Irrespective if you claim or not you are legally required to answer all questions truthfully and that will almost certainly include the one about if you have suffered any losses in relation to a motor incident irrespective of fault and irrespective of if you claimed or not.  

Clearly if you intend to "forget" to mention it its a much higher risk of the fraud being caught if an insurer somewhere has the claim in its systems and potentially have shared it via fraud prevention databases like CUE

Goudy

It's an odd one as you aren't insuring the hire car when you buy an excess policy and a third party can't claim from it.

The hire company insure the car for the road and just like most car insurance policies, that comes with an excess that you the hirer are usually responsible for.

Your excess policy insures against this excess.
It's not an insurance policy that is legally required to drive on the road and it's not mandatory.

If you didn't have it, you couldn't claim on it.

If you insured your own excess and had an accident, then obviously you would make a claim and have to declare that.
You wouldn't need to declare the claim for your excess. 
You would pay the excess (or have it adjusted in the case of a total loss) then claim it back on the excess policy and wouldn't be required to declare anything more.

The excess claim is of no interest to your insurance company but it might be of interest to the excess company if you renew, but I can't remember every being asked about past claims on one of these policies.

So with a hire car, yes you've had an accident on someone else's insurance policy and you insurer would want to know about that, but the fact you happened to cover yourself for the excess is nothing to do with them.

You've had an accident and a claim has been made by someone so they want/need to know.
The fact it didn't cost you in the end is here nor there.

They might ask about the circumstances, at fault or not and the size of the claim, but the actual claim for the excess isn't of interest to them, just the accident and claim on the motoring policy.

As already mentioned though, it's a mute point these days as insurers don't ask about claims alone or accidents alone but ask about claims, losses and accidents.

If you've had at least one of these, you need to tell them.

A few years ago I did bump a hire car abroad.
I didn't have excess cover back then so paid for the damage myself, it wasn't much just a scuffed bumper.
I did inform my own insurance company when I returned home.
I had a bill with a total on it and passed on all the details they asked for.

But my own insurance company never registered it as a claim.
I never lost any NCD either.
As far as I was concerned I'd done what was required and that was the end of it.

fimacdoodle

It would depend on the questions asked on renewal. excess insurance is a bolt on that I do pay annually as i hire cars abroad and i refuse to pay the hire company the ridiculous fees.
i genuinely forgot about my daughters 4 year old minor accident recently when i renewed her insurance - a cue flag came up and the company added the accident to my policy and it made no cost difference to me........they just got excited in a few emails. then her last insurer sent me through a NCB doc with  no accidents thereon ! 

zagfles

DullGreyGuy said:

Irrespective if you claim or not you are legally required to answer all questions truthfully and that will almost certainly include the one about if you have suffered any losses in relation to a motor incident irrespective of fault and irrespective of if you claimed or not.  

Clearly if you intend to "forget" to mention it its a much higher risk of the fraud being caught if an insurer somewhere has the claim in its systems and potentially have shared it via fraud prevention databases like CUE

Are they really interested in stuff like tyre damage? I had a puncture a few weeks ago, it cost £25 to fix, do I need to declare that to my insurer? 

DullGreyGuy

zagfles said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Irrespective if you claim or not you are legally required to answer all questions truthfully and that will almost certainly include the one about if you have suffered any losses in relation to a motor incident irrespective of fault and irrespective of if you claimed or not.  

Clearly if you intend to "forget" to mention it its a much higher risk of the fraud being caught if an insurer somewhere has the claim in its systems and potentially have shared it via fraud prevention databases like CUE

Are they really interested in stuff like tyre damage? I had a puncture a few weeks ago, it cost £25 to fix, do I need to declare that to my insurer? 

The answer depends on who "they" are and if "they" are able to find out about it. 

Strictly by the definition of a policy you probably technically need to but 99% are much more pragmatic. That leaves the question of when something transitions from doesn't have to be declared to having to be. To be honest its even worse with Home insurance where in principle a drop of red wine on the carpet that won't come out is a loss, or a broken glass when your careless when loading the dishwasher. 

The second part however does become more important... if you moved the rug to cover the wine drop then you are likely to be fine. Were you to make a claim on your home insurance and then withdraw it because you didn't realise your excess was £500 then plenty of insurers would have problems were you to "forget" to declare it going forward.