Car Hire Excess Insurance Comparison Tool

How much do policies cost when you compare Hire Car Excess Insurance?

Very little. A single trip policy can cost from around £1.80 a day whilst a European Annual policy costs from under £32. Almost certainly you will be protecting that huge excess you are responsible for on your hire car for less that the cost of a cup of coffee a day!

You can see below that prices through MoneyMaxim are market leading - no wonder our review ratings are some of the best in the business.

When you compare car hire excess insurance through our site you will pay as little as these prices which include special discounts available to our users!

Prices correct as at 29^th October 2024. Prices do not include a voluntary excess.

What types of car excess insurance policies are there?

There are a wide range of policies available which can cover you right around the world. These include single countries, Europe, USA & Canada or Worldwide. You can buy policies for a single trip or to cover you for the whole year.

• Daily insurance
• Annual insurance
• Family or Dual Lead Driver Excess Insurance
• Full Collision Damage Waiver policies
• Supplementary Liability Insurance policies
• European Excess Insurance
• Worldwide Excess Insurance
• USA/Canada/Americas Car Hire Insurance

Compare Car Hire Excess Insurance - Which Sites Offers the Best Deals?

Prices correct as at 29th^th October 2024. Excess Insurance Car Hire Policies are compared on the following basis - 40 year old UK resident, annual policies allow use in the country of residence, no excess applies to claims made, one week policy runs from 10 a.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. to following Saturday.

As you can see using MoneyMaxim offers huge savings over other sites offering car hire excess insurance cover, and in some cases policies are half the price!

Why buy Car Hire Excess Protection

Benefits of protecting your car hire excess are:

Protection from a large excess bill and ensures against:

• Accident damage, theft or a vandalised vehicle
• Damage to the tyres, wheels, roof and underbody
• Covers windscreens and mirrors

Save over 90% over the cost car hire firms charge for car hire excess insurance**

These types of policy are also known as:

• Insurance for Car Rental
• Rental Car Excess Insurance
• Car Hire Excess Reimbursement Insurance
• Zero Excess Car Hire Insurance

Complimentary Products are:

• CDW (Collision Damage Waiver)
  • Covers the full cost of the hire car - not just the excess
• SLI (Supplementary Liability Insurance)
  • Increases third party cover where insufficient cover is provided by the rental firm

Are you concerned about facing a large bill for a scratch on a wing, a punctured tyre or a chip in the windscreen, and tired of being asked for silly money at the car rental desk for cover that has too many exclusions?

Well you don't need to any longer. MoneyMaxim have reimbursement policies starting from around £1.80 a day that will mean you can hire a car without worry.

Policies not only cover the excesses (policy limits can be as high as £50,000) but damage to tyres, wheels, glass and other areas normally excluded by rental companies can also be covered. Many policies can provide against the costs involved with misfuelling, lost keys, personal accident insurance and much more.

Many policies also cover towing and recovery charges following an accident or puncture so you can avoid paying extra for the top up breakdown cover some rental firms are now offering to cover such incidents.

So visit our car hire excess insurance comparison service now and get a quotation - you won't believe how little it costs!

You can also Compare Car Hire and Excess Insurance in one easy search with Moneymaxim using our unique money saving service.

Car Hire Excess Insurance Comparison Reviews

We use Reviews.co.uk to collect reviews on our behalf - the most recent are displayed below.

As a policy we invite every user who has used our car hire insurance comparison service and visited an insurer to leave a review - and never request for a review to be hidden - so you know that you can rely on the scores and comments.

Our Car Hire Excess Insurance Service - As Recommended

We have been comparing car hire insurance for well over 10 years now, and during that time have been featured widely in the national press and on television.

When Martin Lewis from MoneySavingExpert offered his top tips on saving money on car hire he suggested we should be the first port of call in his essential guide to car hire - you will find his comments on car hire insurance excess, 2 minutes and 4 seconds in.

What do the Policies cover?

All policies sold through MoneyMaxim cover the main areas of claim:

• The excess you are normally responsible for if your car is:
  • damaged in an accident
  • vandalised
  • stolen
• Various areas that many car hire companies exclude from their collision damage waiver cover – such as:
  • the underside of the car
  • its roof
  • the vehicles windscreen, windows, glass, wheels and tyres

These are really important to cover and numerically they make up a significant proportion of the claims insurers are presented with.

However, policies will also cover a variety of other risks. Whether you consider them important is a personal choice. If you tend to lose things maybe lost key cover would be regarded as essential, whilst if you are travelling to Iceland being covered for a claim for volcanic ash damage could be sensible.

The list of additional features is significant, and are displayed in the details section of your quote results.

Policies can offer everything from cover for locking yourself out your hire car to hotel accommodation if you are stranded. More mainstream options include towing cover, administration fees if you are charged by your car hire company for them having to complete a damage report and loss of use fees which will protect you if the rental vehicle is off the road due to damage you have incurred.

Benefits such as personal accident and baggage cover are provided under some policies, but do be aware that these may be duplicating cover provided by your travel insurance.

What are the main exclusions on Car Hire Insurance policies?

• No policy will cover you if it is bought after the car rental has started
• Each policy has a ceiling for the maximum value of the vehicle – so if you are hiring a premium car review this on the results page. Cars worth up to £120,000 can be covered by one insurer so there is scope here
• Policies must be taken out in the name of the lead driver on the car hire agreement
• These policies cover cars, but not vans, motorhomes, motorcycles etc. Van Hire Excess Insurance and Motorhome Hire Excess Insurance is also available, but you need a different type of policy

Which countries can be visited using an Excess Insurance policy?

There are very few countries where at least a few of the car hire excess insurers will not cover – and these tend to be destinations where UN sanctions are in place, and paying a claim may breach international law.

On the other-hand, there are popular destinations where thousands of car hire excess insurance policies are used every day in high season. These include:

• France
• Italy
• Portugal
• Spain
• Ireland
• Canada
• Iceland

We provide more tailored information in these pages as there are sometimes additional factors to consider.

How We Use The Information You Give Us To Compare Policies

When you search for car hire insurance abroad we ask a number of questions designed to help us ascertain the type of policy you might need.

Where will you be renting your car?

This is important, as car hire firms in different countries tend to operate to different rules.

The standard packaged in car hire insurance in Europe includes the following:

• Collision Damage Waiver
• Theft Protection
• Third Party Insurance

Whilst it is possible to buy car hire without the first two elements it is unusual - especially if you use a European based car hire firm or broker. Just check your car rental documentation and refer back to the hiring firm if you are unsure or contact us here at MoneyMaxim.

If you tell us that you are looking for rental car insurance in Europe we will focus your search on policies which cover the excess you are responsible for, rather than the whole replacement cost of the car, as the cover provided by your rental company will cover most of the cost of a claim if your car is involved in a serious accident or is stolen.

If you select a Worldwide car hire insurance policy we then know that we need to ask you further questions, such as whether you need the Collision Damage Waiver Insurance we referred to above. More on this later.

Finally, if you choose to tell us you are renting a car in a specific country we can be more precise. This is worthwhile if one of the following circumstances apply:

1. You are hiring a vehicle in a country that is outside the European Union, is at the further boundaries of Europe or borders the Mediterranean. This is because different insurers have different definitions of Europe. These vary from at one extreme EU / EEA countries only to at the other countries as far east as Russia, and countries bordering the Mediterranean such as Morocco or Israel.

2. You are hiring in a country that might have been a deemed a war zone or subject to UN sanctions. Different insurers have different lists of countries where you are unhappy to cover rental vehicles – so by using a specific country search you can even find companies who will cover you for a hire car in Afghanistan!

3. There are a few ‘exceptions’. We have one insurer who will not cover Iceland, Armenia, Jamaica or the Dominican Republic. If you selected the specific country we would exclude them from the results. If you were going there and tried to buy a Worldwide car hire insurance policy they would shout at you – so you would be protected from buying the wrong policy, but using the single country route would be quicker.

Should I choose an Annual Policy or a Daily one?

If you are likely to hire for less than 15 days over the next twelve months a daily car hire insurance policy will probably be best - however there are certain circumstances when its worthwhile checking different scenarios.

If, for example, you need car hire insurance in the UK for 14 days and want excess insurance in the USA for 3 days two single trip policies will probably be cheaper than an annual policy.

Our comparison service is pretty clever though – if you ask for a daily policy of 45 day we will show you annual car hire insurance policies at the top of the results chart.

This is because we offer annual policies covering trips up to 65 days – and these work out much cheaper than a 45 day single trip policy. In fact if your car rental period was 60 days you could save as much as £70 taking an annual policy rather than a 60 day single trip policy.

Why the country you normally reside in matters when you compare car hire insurance

We ask this question because different insurers have differing rules when it comes to accepting customers for car hire insurance.

Some will accept users from anywhere in the world, some just users from the UK. When you let us know which country you reside in we will exclude any policy you are not eligible to buy. Do specifically tell us which island you live on if you want car hire excess cover and are a Guernsey, Jersey or Isle of Man resident - as again some policies will cover you and some won't

And will you be hiring a car in your own country?

This question is important because some car hire insurance companies have policies that will not cover you if you hire in your own country. The logic here is that they want to exclude those who are really, really regular hirers. Some people hire cars on a Monday to travel to work at the other end of the country, and on a Friday to get home.

They have worked out that this is cheaper than owning their own car, but to a car hire excess insurer they represent a much higher risk than the person who rents a car when they are off on holiday. Hence the reason they don’t allow their policies to be used in this way.

Taking a Worldwide policy? Then we will need to ask you more questions.

If you going beyond the boundaries of Europe there is far more difference in the cover you will be provided with when you get to the car rental desk.

We have explained the situation with European car hire excess insurance above, but what are the circumstances elsewhere in the world?

Africa and Australasian Car Hire Insurance Requirements

Almost identical to Europe – where excess insurance is what you will need. One or two car hire firms in Australia sometime have an excess on third party accidents – and you might want to cover these with a Supplementary Liability Insurance Policy – but that is fairly rare. Just check your car hire documentation and call us if you are unsure.

Asia Excess Insurance Requirements

But the same as Africa and Australasia, but in some countries including the ‘Stans (Khazikstan, Azerbaijan etc), Vietnam and Cambodia you sometimes find that a third party excess might apply. Refer to your rental paperwork. These can be covered using a Worldwide Excess, CDW and Supplementary Liability Insurance policy.

American Car Rental Insurance Requirements

In America (that’s all parts of North and South America and the Caribbean) car hire can be booked in one of three ways

1. Booking Directly with an American Website or Car Hire Office

If you hire your car directly with an American company – either by booking directly on a American website or by walking into a Car Hire Office in the country you are visiting you will probably be offered only very basic third party. In fact in some states you might not even be offered this automatically.

This is because people who live in these countries tend to be able to transfer their normal domestic car insurance policy onto their hire car – so don’t need to purchase additional cover.

However as a non American you can now make the choice – either to buy this cover through the rental desk (which can be expensive) or by buying a Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) Insurance and Supplementary Liability Insurance (SLI) Policy through Moneymaxim. Some users worry that these policies might not be accepted – but that is not, in our experience, an issue. American car hire firms are quite used to users having made their own insurance arrangements – although they will want a copy of the documentation, so it’s a good idea to take a copy with you.

2. Booking through a UK or European Website

If you book through a UK or European website – such as moneymaxim.co.uk or hertz.co.uk it will (almost always) be assumed that you will require Collision Damage Waiver, Theft Protection and Full Third Party Car Hire Insurance. So in these cases you would not need the CDW and SLI policy but only a excess insurance policy, which would cover any excess you are responsible for and would also cover the tyres, wheels, underbody and roof of the car, which trend to be excluded from the CDW included with the car.

3. Fly Drive Packages

Such as those sold by Virgin, TUI, Thomas Cook are sold on the same basis as if you were booking directly with an American website – so the same choices are open to you.

Please - whenever booking a Supplementary Liability Insurance policy make sure you fully understand exactly what is being offered by your rental company - and then check, if you have any doubt whatsoever, directly with the insurer you have chosen that the policy you are thinking of buying will cover your situation. You need to be fully confident when you arrive in the US especially as the insurers office in the UK will be closed by then (due to the time difference).

In Summary

We aim to help you find the best insurance company to meet the needs of your party when you hire a car. However, it is true to say that sometimes circumstances differ to a extent that more guidance is required. That’s where our industry leading customer service team come into their own.

If you are still confused or just want to run your personal situation past an expert please don’t hesitate to contact us through our live chat facility or give us a call – you will be well on your way to finding your holiday car hire insurance in minutes!