Many people have signed a car hire agreement while quietly wincing at the excess which is attached to the insurance part of the contract. This can be anything from a couple of hundred pounds all the way up to more than a thousand depending on the country and the vehicle. In effect this means you will be liable for this initial cost if there is any damage regardless of whether or not it was your fault in most cases. However, there is a way to protect against this potentially irritating and costly expense – car hire excess insurance.

When you hire a vehicle in a number of countries including the UK, most of Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand and most of the middle and far east, collision damage waiver, theft and third party liability are often included in the rental car price. Fortunately there is pretty much always an excess which can sometimes be referred to as the non waiver or deductible – this is the potential cost which is protected by your car hire excess insurance policy.

What normally happens is that car rental company will take your credit card number upon signing car over to you – this is so they can simply remove the excess from your card in the event of a collision, theft or similar problem – but if you have excess insurance you can simply claim is back.

Typically, all you would have to do is call a helpline within a set time frame from the incident or on your return from your holiday, whichever happens sooner. You will be asked some basic information about your claim which will then processed, and subject to acceptance, you simply have the annoying excess fee refunded to you.

Although depending on where you’re going the excess can be referred to as the super CDW non waiver or deductible, they all refer to essentially the same thing which means a potential cost – this can be particularly infuriating if something happens which was not your fault, i.e. the badge is removed from the car in an act of vandalism overnight.

A car hire excess insurance policy covers most vehicles but may not protect certain types. Typically this includes recreational vehicles including off road vehicles, vans, trucks, motorcycles, and motor homes. Besides this, you’ll be protected provided you hire the vehicle for a reasonable distance away from your home address – normally at least 25 miles.