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AUTHOR Robert Gillespie
June 02, 2014

Do You Really Need Additional Extras, Part 2 – Insurance

Part 2 of our cost saving blogs is here and this time we are looking at additional insurance products.

When hiring a car it is essential that you have the right level of cover to suit your needs and to avoid being left with a large dent in the bank account if something was to go wrong.

Most hire cars come with an excess or deductable much like the insurance policy you may have on your own car, this means if there is a claim and you are deemed to be at fault then you are liable for the excess amount.

Car hire excess can differ from supplier to supplier or even between different types of vehicle with the same supplier, it is impertivie that you make yourself aware of that amount. In the UK a typical family car excess would be between £600 to £1000.

Your Options

Firstly, every supplier will offer you an additional insurance product which can reduce the amount of the excess down to £200, £100 or in some cases zero. These products come with a daily fee which can be as much as £15 per day or more with some suppiliers. So depending on how long you intend to hire a vehicle for, this could be an expensive way of having peace of mind. For those just looking to to hire for a day or too it could be relatively cheap.

Another option available to you is an excess reimbursement policy, these are provided by a seperate insurance company and are not connected to the supplier. They work in a similar way to any other insurance policy, so if you were to cause damage to a hire car and it is deemed to be your fault, you will still be liable for the excess amount but then you can make a claim against your own policy and get a refund for the amount you have had to pay out. Another benefit of the reimbursement policy is that they tend to offer more cover than excess reduction, car hire suppliers do not tend to offer cover for tyres, windscreens and the under carriage of the vehicle while the reimbursement policies can includes these.

There are various different options available, daily protection from £3.99 per day to annual cover for multiple vehicles from £39.99 per year. These products can save you a lot of money if you hire vehicles on a regular or semi-regular basis and are certainly worth considering.

The final option is of course no additional cover at all, these policies are a choice and are not mandatory with a hire vehicle. This is obviously the option that carries the most risk but with the percentage of hires ending with an insurance claim being so low it is an option that many people will opt for, saving the most amount of money providing the vehicle is returned in the same state that it was collected in.

If you would like more information on any of the above then please dont hesitate to contact one of our experts, they are always happy to help. You can call us on +44 (0)113 880 0748, chat with us online or email us on [email protected].

Having worked in the car rental industry for over 15 years, he really knows his stuff. Rob heads up our marketing department and as a keen traveller, always has a new location to talk about. Particularly if there is a golf course nearby.

Robert Gillespie

Traveller

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