When you rent a car you may wish to give some thought to taking out additional insurance on top of the basic car insurance in the form of car hire excess cover. This type of policy is totally different from the type of insurance that comes when you rent the car.

Standard car rental insurance
The standard car rental insurance added in with the cost of the car rental typically protects you against you damaging the car; say if you are involved in an accident. The policy may not provide protection for certain parts of the car (such as the underside or tyres); however it does give some peace of mind.

If you were to have to make a claim on the rental insurance there is a certain amount of money that you need to pay out of your pocket towards the claim, this is the excess.

Car hire excess insurance is there in the event that you make a claim and you have to pay the excess. When a claim is made the rental car provider usually takes the amount of excess from the credit card that you signed up with when you rented the vehicle. You are then able to claim on your excess insurance policy and get some, if not all, of the excess back that you were charged. With some car hire excesses hitting the £1,500 mark, taking this cover could potentially save you money in the event of a claim.