Excess insurance on car hire

I do not usually take out the car hire excess policy being prepared to run the risk, which to date has been OK, however I thought I might start looking at the alternatives outside that which my credit card travel insurance offers. Upon doing some googling I cannot seem to find an appropriate insurance as it appears I have to be a resident of the country (or Europe for UK) I hire the car in.

Has anyone of you great people got any recommendations or links to any insurers?

Thanks

PS keyboard playing-up from dirty work environment.......Title should read Excess but cannot edit it........MODERATORS!:ssign16:

I thought it was a new word lol. I was just about to get the dictionary out. I've changed it for you now.

I always take the rental company's own out just so that I know everything is covered. I've had two incidents, one was with Hertz the car was hit by lighting in the hotel car park and took out the electrics on our rental and the car next to us. Had a huge fight with Hertz as they said we weren't covered (even though we had full cover) because it was an act of God. It was stupid as if I had driven over a cliff and totalled the car I would have been covered. I told them to prove it was done by the lightening bolt, they said I had told them to which I argued I wasn't a mechanic. So much for being honest. Next time I will just plead ignorant.

Second was in America with Alamo, someone had bumped us in a car park and drove off. Alamo was excellent about it and we never heard anything else.

Thankyou Katie, For the UK the extra insurance was more than the cost of the car hire, I have taken a couple of minor hits, damn pheasants! these have cost me less than any insurance costs, over all my holiday hires then I am quids in, though for USA we always take the full cover, what! with al those whom drive on the wrong side, turn on red lights, we need it.

Just found this one https://www.worldwideinsure.com/car-hire-excess-insurance.php anybody know of it?

We have had this as part of our travel insurance in Aus and it is included in credit card insurance from Westpac, provided I use the card to book it! No mention at all of not covering hire abroad. After all that is what most holidays are. Some do not even cover for domestic holidays at all.

I would just call and ask the question. Insure and Go policies cover excess if you go for higher cover, I have used them in the past.

We have had this as part of our travel insurance in Aus and it is included in credit card insurance from Westpac, provided I use the card to book it! No mention at all of not covering hire abroad. After all that is what most holidays are. Some do not even cover for domestic holidays at all.

 

I would just call and ask the question. Insure and Go policies cover excess if you go for higher cover, I have used them in the past.

Thanks rammygirl, we have travel insurance linked with our credit card for the past 12 years and have in the past had need to use it with no real problems. However the small print is forever changing at one time we had to take out all insurances offered by the car hire company, not sure what the wording is now though as the card issuer has changed insurer and the whole damn thing is more complicated, like we now do not need to use the card to purchase travel/hotels/car hire and the like we now have to advise them of the dates and countries prior to leaving OZ for the insurance to apply otherwise we just get basic medical cover.

Your Insure and Go is travel insurance and not a stand alone car hire excess and they only cover for a maximum 15 days of car hire. Thanks anyway it may help others.

Not had a stand alone one here in Aus. We had one in the UK though but it was no longer valid when we moved here. Not sure if there is one in Australia.

Checking the small print is important!

Hubby did this this year as I have always been unsure but he used I car hire insurance this year and no claims and no hassle. Problem is u need to pay the large xs so depends on credit card limits x

I do not usually take out the car hire excess policy being prepared to run the risk, which to date has been OK, however I thought I might start looking at the alternatives outside that which my credit card travel insurance offers. Upon doing some googling I cannot seem to find an appropriate insurance as it appears I have to be a resident of the country (or Europe for UK) I hire the car in.

Has anyone of you great people got any recommendations or links to any insurers?

Thanks

 

PS keyboard playing-up from dirty work environment.......Title should read Excess but cannot edit it........MODERATORS!:ssign16:

I use my Aussie card to hire a car and the insurance that comes with using the card covers the excess read your card providers instance cover if you have it

Hi

Why are you looking outside what your credit card annual travel insurance offers? We've got car hire excess insurance included upto $3k (or might be $5k) with BankWest with no annual fee for the card

We go with our westpac credit card insurance

You can buy standalone policies to cover the rental hire excess insurance, I use a British one if i'm going to Europe.

In Oz, i've used https://tripcover.com.au/.

if you're going overseas it's worth checking whether you're covered high enough, especially in the USA if the exchange rate is not in your favour.

It's far far cheaper than going with the rental company, nearly all their profit comes from selling insurance and they make hardly anything off the car rentals themselves.

Also, if you do go standalone and then need to claim, you must still pay the rental company with your credit card and then claim it back yourself from your own insurer, so it's not seamless and will take time. So you need the available credit for a few weeks.

Hi

 

Why are you looking outside what your credit card annual travel insurance offers? We've got car hire excess insurance included upto $3k (or might be $5k) with BankWest with no annual fee for the card

Just looking and checking things out. My card also fee free and complimentary travel insurance and does cover excess (only $2500). However on checking the car hire details certain things are not covered/included with their insurance the likes of windows, tyres, under carriage, lost keys (unless part of a valid claim). as these are not insured items then there is a high probability that your card insurance will not cover them either as it only covers excess on insured items, whereas a separate stand alone excess policy covers those items. So taking out 32 quid policy for a two week hire may be a prudent move, as I will have a 34 day hire the cost was nearer 50 quid but still worth a think about especially when driving in autumn/winter conditions in UK.

Yes but to be valid those UK policies need you to reside in the UK. If you can find an Aus version let me know!

Yes but to be valid those UK policies need you to reside in the UK. If you can find an Aus version let me know!

Almost true rammygirl, the first few I found did say that (as per my op) but kept looking and found the one as per the link in a later post of mine. the one slean wolfhead gave also covers world wide but when trying to get a quote I could not get the drop down menu for destination to work so will have to contact them separately, however it did seem expensive when leaving it just for Australia.

The biggest concern I have found is the items which are not insured when taking out the standard car insurance, windows, tyres etc. so I am getting more tempted to take out the standalone insurance just for them.

Tyres aren't covered on my regular car insurance, they rarely are. The Australian ones I found were very expensive compared to the UK one we had (annual policy for £49,) but cheaper then the hire company. Holiday insurance of any kind is more expensive here.

You can buy standalone policies to cover the rental hire excess insurance, I use a British one if i'm going to Europe.

 

In Oz, i've used https://tripcover.com.au/.

if you're going overseas it's worth checking whether you're covered high enough, especially in the USA if the exchange rate is not in your favour.

It's far far cheaper than going with the rental company, nearly all their profit comes from selling insurance and they make hardly anything off the car rentals themselves.

 

Also, if you do go standalone and then need to claim, you must still pay the rental company with your credit card and then claim it back yourself from your own insurer, so it's not seamless and will take time. So you need the available credit for a few weeks.

How do you use a British policy. All the ones I have seen require you to be resident in the UK to take them out. We had one but when we moved here they said it was no longer valid.

How do you use a British policy. All the ones I have seen require you to be resident in the UK to take them out. We had one but when we moved here they said it was no longer valid.

It may have been an EU one, I can't remember now. My brother in Germany put me onto it but it was valid in 2014.

Also, if you check the small print at the bottom....a lot of the policies, even the Oz ones, are actually sold on by UK insurance companies. Might be worth contacting or googling them directly.