You might find the cost of car insurance for car hire little short of eye-watering – and even then you may be left with taking on the additional burden of an excess of several hundred or even more than a thousand pounds. How might you begin to help cut some of the cost of that excess?

Excess and the car rental company

• the excess of course is the uninsured liability you assume for any loss or damage to the car you are renting;

• whatever the actual amount of the excess, it is the sum you pay if the car is stolen, damaged beyond repair or involved in some other accident;

• if the car suffers only minor damage and the cost of repairs is less than the excess, you pay only the total cost of those repairs – if the loss or damage is more significant, you pay the total amount of the excess and the insurer pays the rest;

• because of the large amounts of excess typically attached to car insurance for car hire in many parts of the world, car rental companies themselves might offer you the chance to safeguard your financial responsibility for paying such a large amount by covering that risk with an additional excess insurance;

Excess and the specialist car insurance provider

• if you have not given much thought to the question of the excess on car insurance for car hire, you might be faced with little choice but to buy the offered excess protection insurance at the last minute when stood at your car rental company’s desk;

• like many last-minute buys, the problem with this is that the rental company’s premiums for excess insurance might themselves be expensive and add a considerable amount to your bill for hiring the car;

• an alternative, therefore, is to arrange that excess insurance cover in advance from a specialist car insurance provider;

• since a number of these may be found online, it is a simple matter not only to obtain a quote but also to go ahead and buy the competitively priced top up excess cover that may help you avoid taking on the risk of a bill ranging from many hundreds of pounds if your car hire is lost or damaged;

• car hire excess insurance like this is bought in this country from a registered UK insurance provider, but the cover is valid throughout most countries in the world;

• wherever you happen to be travelling and wherever you plan to hire a car, therefore, you may be confident that any excess that attaches to the car rental agreement is safely protected;

• if there is an accident and you need to pay the excess car insurance for car hire, then this may be claimed from your independent UK-based specialist insurer on your return.