Essentially, there are two principal ways of paying for your hire car excess insurance, so it might be helpful briefly to compare the two:
Buying from your car rental company
- when you pick up your hire car, the company typically advises you of the excess that applies to any car rental insurance you may also have bought;
- the amount of that excess – an effectively uninsured liability for which you remain responsible – varies from company to company and from country to country, but may range from several hundred to rather more than a thousand pounds;
- because of the large sums typically quoted in the company’s rental and insurance agreement, therefore, the option of purchasing hire car excess insurance may be offered;
- optional excess insurance cover is typically quoted at a daily rate;
- you might consider that the cost of the daily premium is high and adds a considerable percentage to the overall cost of your car hire;
- typically, you may purchase such insurance from the rental company either at the time of paying for your rental or at the check-in desk;
Buying from a specialist hire car insurance provider
- an alternative source for the purchase of your hire car excess insurance is a specialist provider;
- these independent providers are registered with and regulated by the UK’s Financial Services Authority and sell standalone insurance policies that might nonetheless supplement your car rental agreement;
- not only are such providers specialists in their field, you might also find that the excess insurance they offer may often be cheaper than that arranged by your car rental company;
- furthermore, the excess cover provided might also extend financial protection to you for any damage caused to your hire car’s windows, roof, underside or tyres (areas typically excluded from the insurance cover offered by many rental companies);
- a one time purchase of a standalone product from such an insurance provider may give you year round cover for multiple car rental periods during any number of trips either to Europe, the United States or the rest of the world;
- the different packages are each likely to come at a different price and it might simply be a question of deciding where in the world you are most likely to be travelling;
- if you are deciding from which of these two suppliers you wish to purchase your hire car excess insurance, you might wish to give serious consideration to an independent specialist provider.