But anyone who has rented a car before will know that while it is easy to sign up to an insurance deal provided by the rental company, there will nearly always be an excess.

As with other forms of insurance, car insurance excess is an initial fee you agree to pay before the insurance kicks in properly. So if the policy has an excess of £300 pounds and there is an incident which damages the car to the tune of £600, the policyholder will be liable for the first £300 in costs.

When you take out a rented car insurance deal, attached to it the excess can be anything from a couple of hundred pounds all the way up to over £1000 depending on the country and the type of vehicle. This can mean you may end up paying out a considerable amount of money even though you have an insurance policy covering the car.

Rental car insurance coverage can therefore sometimes make drivers uneasy as they know they are driving an unfamiliar vehicle on unfamiliar roads with an excess hanging over them. However, it is possible to take out excess insurance which will protect you in the event you do have an accident or suffer a theft.

This is a kind of independent policy which is like a bolt on to the insurance the rental company will provide. You can take it out before you travel and some companies even allow you to cover yourself for up to a year, guarding your excess on a number of trips.

To claim on this kind of policy you simply have to telephone a hotline to apply to have the excess which you have paid refunded by the insurance company. So in the event of an accident or theft the rental car company may take the excess off your credit card automatically – and you can then apply on your independent excess insurance to have this refunded.

Rental car insurance coverage therefore need not always come with that irritating catch of an excess, and for a few pounds you can protect yourself against even this unwanted charge while you get on with enjoying your holiday or business trip.