Car Rental Insurance Take It When Renting Or Not?
Many car rentals these days include car rental protection as part of their rental package deals.
However there are other options to taking out insurance.
What’s in?
Car rental insurance protection splits roughly down into two main categories:
- collision damage waiver (CDW) covers damage to the car itself following a collision and may typically, cover against theft is included.
CDW typically carries an excess, which is potentially the amount of money you could be asked to contribute towards any claim. It also typically does not automatically cover the entire car. For instance you may find that the tyres are not included in the policy.
The second category is:
- third party insurance – this provides protection against claims from third parties that your use of the rental car injured them or damaged their property.
In the UK and some parts or Europe, all car rentals by law have to provide unlimited third party cover. This provides peace of mind that if a claim were made against you, you have protection.
It’s important to note that the actual insurance cover provided might vary depending on where you will be driving your rental car.
What’s extra
When renting in the UK you may want to take out care hire excess insurance, when doing so check that the policy provides insurance for all parts of the car.
For a USA rental on the other hand, you may need to think about providing the CDW itself.
In some countries, and the USA is again a good example of this, third party cover if it exists at all, may be capped at what could be unrealistically low levels.
In these circumstances, particularly when you consider the potential amounts involved in a claim, it may be prudent to purchase Supplemental Liability insurance protection (SLI) to increase your third party cover.
Bear in mind that there will be terms and conditions included in the insurance.
Where to buy
You could, of course, just purchase optional car rental protection cover from your car hire company.
You may be offered this when you pick up your rental car. It may turn out to be quite an expensive way of obtaining this type of insurance cover though.
Usually an easier way to get car rental insurance is by searching and comparing online. They might be able to offer good deals and good cover – to give you that added peace of mind!
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Tags: Car hire excess Insurance, car hire excess waiver, Car hire insurance