You may have enjoyed driving your rental car but once you return it you probably won’t want to hear anything more about it. Unfortunately that may not always be possible and long after you’ve sent it back you may see some hefty charges going through onto your credit card from the car hire company – unless you have something called car excess insurance in place.

What’s going on?

This may arise because of something called ‘the excess’.

When you rent a car, it may come with certain forms of insurance included in the rental price. If it does not, typically the rental company will offer it to you for sale separately. In either case, the rental company’s insurance cover will most likely contain an excess – that’s the amount of money they may expect you to pay as the ‘first part’ of any claim.

It works in a relatively straightforward fashion. If the rental car is damaged to the tune of £1500 and you have an excess on the policy of £1000, then you will have to pay the first £1000 of the claim and the rental company’s insurance will cover the remaining £500.

The excess on policies provided by car rental companies is typically between £500 and £1500 and may be charged directly to your credit card. Of course, these amounts vary from insurer to insurer, so do check the excess amount.

Can these cost risks be removed?

Yes. The first option is to pay extra money to the hire company. For that, they may agree to remove the excess or at least reduce its level.

You may find though that the online specialist providers of car excess insurance offer a cheaper option. This form of insurance cover means that if you did suffer an ‘excess charge’ to your credit card following an accident, then you could simply reclaim it from your own car excess insurance policy.

Is lower cost the only benefit?

Typically, no. The car rental companies’ insurance may also exclude several areas of their vehicle from cover. If you damage any of them, it will be your credit card that gets billed for repair. You may find that any such ‘excluded area damage’ would also be covered by your excess insurance policy as well.

These policies may also be purchasable on an annual basis. This would mean that any car rented by you during the period would be covered (some specialist vehicle rentals may be excluded). This may offer big cost and time saving for regular renters.

Where is there more information?

The specialist internet providers of car excess insurance typically have websites that contain full details and prices. It may be a good idea to check them out before you hire your next car.