With an insurance premium payable through car hire companies, many people end up asking ‘what is car hire excess insurance?’
Car hire excess insurance is an insurance policy that covers you for charges that are not covered by the insurance supplied by the car hire company. Cheeky some may say. Car hire companies often provide limited cover and have certain exclusions. They also make the person hiring the vehicle liable for the first proportion of the repair or replacement, which in some cases can be thousands.
Exclusions are commonly tyres, windscreen, keys and undercarriage – so if anything happens to your hire car that involves these parts of the car, you would be required to cough up some cash. The type of car hire excess insurance you need to cover you against such expenses can also vary from country to country.
For example, in the United States and Canada all drivers must have third party liability cover for at least $1 million. Without this, if a driver is deemed responsible for an accident, crippling bills can end up breaking the bank. It may not come as a surprise to the more cynical traveller that the insurance provided by car hire companies does not meet these essential criteria.
Basically car hire excess insurance tops up what the car hire company provides to a level where your excesses are covered.