Third Party Insurance for Courtesy Car

burgersauce14

I have booked a car service at a dealer that offers a courtesy car for me to use while my own car is being serviced. The courtesy car insurance they provide has £750 excess by default, or I could pay £20 to reduce the excess to £50. 

Are there any third-party excess cover options for courtesy cars that may be cheaper? Would a rental car excess insurance policy cover a dealer courtesy car?

Grey_Critic

Dealers set their own rates based on their own insurance. We never accepted own insurance when cars were in for service as they could often be in and out a couple of times a day - even known the three times.

 Depends how long your car is going to be off the road. For example when in the bodyshop then (in my time in the trade) then your insurer would cover through your own insurance. 

In effect swopping your insuranc over to the courtesy car.

chrisw

Have you checked your own insurance? Mine covers me for a temporary vehicle while mine is in for service or repair, but still the garage tries to push their own insurance.

burgersauce14

Thank you for the replies. My question is whether I may be able to find cover for the £750 excess for less than the £20/day offered by the dealer. I am looking for an equivalent that applies to courtesy cars of the products described here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/#excess.

Frozen_up_north

As Chrisw mentioned, check your insurance. Mine specifically covers service loan cars.

facade

Mine covers loan cars too (Aviva Zero)

On the Certificate-

The insured vehicle
The vehicle registration mark described above or
1. any vehicle loaned to the policyholder for a maximum of seven days from a garage, motor engineer or vehicle repairer while the vehicle registration described
above is being either serviced, repaired or having an MOT test.
2. any vehicle loaned to the policyholder or, any other person entitled to drive as described in permitted drivers, by the insurer's nominated supplier as a result of a
claim under this policy whilst the vehicle registration described above is being repaired.

I checked the policy, and it doesn't say that cover is any different to my car, I interpret it as they treat the loan vehicle as my vehicle, since it is in the section defining what "your car" means, therefore it has the same cover and excesses as my car.  

However the section on driving any other cars

Under the terms of Section 2 of the policy (Your Liability) facade may, subject to the owner's express consent, also drive a motor car which: does not belong to them;
is not a rental car; is not hired to them under a hire purchase or leasing agreement.

is specifically third party cover in the policy.

However, I may be way off the mark, but Insurers generally don't like putting their hands in their pockets if someone else can share the bill and where a vehicle is insured twice, with both policies on the hook they can split the bill. If they did that in this case, then half their excess would be due each insurer.

Tbh, I'd probably just pay the £20 not to have to argue with anybody or have to waste time sorting anything out if I had to have the courtesy car, but I generally pay around £20 extra for them to send a little old man out to collect my car, and return it after service.