Car hire excess insurance is an important concept that you should be familiar with, especially if you are used to renting cars. In this article, you will get to know about every important aspect of car hire excess. So, let's get started:
In terms of car rentals, the excess is the amount of money that you have to pay for the rental car companies when your rented car is stolen or get damaged. It is also often referred to as deducible. Even if you have the collision damage waiver (CDW), you still might have to pay a certain amount in case of damages to the rented car. This amount of money is called excess or deposit. Even though the traditional car hire price often includes an insurance policy for accidents, you can still be liable to pay for a significant amount of money if the rented car is stolen or damaged. Moreover, car rental companies often provide their own car hire excess insurance policy, but such options are not cost-effective.
Car hire excess insurance is a type of insurance coverage that covers the excess that you might have to pay if your rented car is damaged or stolen. It is an extra insurance policy that will make sure that you do not have to pay the excess charges. Some insurance companies refer to this policy as an excess waiver or Super CDW. It is a very beneficial policy, especially for those individuals who have to rent cars on a regular basis. CDW only covers the bodywork of the vehicle. If the damage is sustained to any other part of the car, or if it gets stolen, then the CDW coverage becomes useless because it does not include the excess charges.
The working of the car hire excess insurance is quite simple. When you hire a car with a traditional insurance policy, you will be liable to pay for the damages experienced by a rental car, even if you have CDW in place. This amount of money can vary depending on the severity of the damages and the price of the car, in case of a theft. On the other hand, having an excess waiver in place will ensure you are covered for most of the damages, in case of an accident. As a result, the rental company will ask you to pay for the damages. But, having a car excess hire insurance policy will allow you to reclaim that money through your insurance company.
We, at Justrentals, always include our Premium Insurance Cover to all prices and offers. So, we advertise "no excess" prices and no additional charges for insurance or excess waivers are expected when booking your rental car or while picking it up.
Excess Reimbursement Insurance or Excess Reimbursement Cover is a service that give your the right to claim back the excess amount that you paid to the car rental company when an accident has occurred. The excess for damages of your rental car still have to paid at first, but as soon as you are back home you can ask this money back. This is a common technique used by car rental brokers in order to increase the the final price for the customer. This process of claiming back the money paid is difficult and tricky. The broker which supposed to return the money paid, often ask information and paperwork that you will be unable to deliver, since you will not be at the location (or even country) where the accident happen.
Read also: Do You Need Personal Accident Insurance on Car Rentals?
Having a reliable and efficient car hire excess policy will be a source of peace of mind for you because you will know that you are protected from the excess charges that the car rental company might want to charge you. Moreover, most of the insurance companies provide comprehensive packages that include damages to all parts of the car like windscreens, tires, body, undercarriage, and others. Such kind of thorough services will be helpful in avoiding any kind of car hire excess charges. You should also remember that if you have a car hire excess insurance policy, you will be saving a lot of money in case your hire car gets stolen or damaged.
You can buy the car hire excess cover:
There is no hard and fast rule to whether you should buy a car hire excess insurance. If you believe that you are a perfect driver who is familiar with all of the safety techniques, you might skip it. However, it is noteworthy that nobody is perfect and even if you do not like to think of yourself involved in a car accident, you must consider such a possibility. Other than the potential accident, you also have to consider the fact that not every area is safe due to which car thefts are quite common. Therefore, if you want to avoid car hire excess charges in case of unfortunate events like accident or theft, you should definitely consider getting a car hire excess insurance policy.
Read also: What Happens When You Get a Traffic Violation Ticket in Crete?
