Car rentals generally come with a limited amount of insurance, which means that if you don’t buy car rental excess insurance and were to have an accident, you could still be liable for any costs relating to the repair of the rental car.

This is because the type of cover that protects you against having to pay for damage to your rental (collision damage waiver or ‘CDW’) generally carries an excess. The excess, the amount you agree to pay towards any claim, can vary.  In the UK, for example, it ranges between £500 and £1600. In other countries it may be more, particularly in places like the USA where CDW cover which can also known as loss damage waiver, may be very limited indeed.

With a car rental excess insurance policy, it is possible to remove or at least reduce the amounts you could be expected to pay towards a claim. This type of insurance can also be known as excess cover, or Super CDW.

However, the car rental insurance supplied by the car hire companies will generally exclude certain parts of the car from cover. These areas typically are the windscreen and other windows, the tyres, and the under body of the car.  So even if you top-up your basic cover with an excess policy bought from the car hire companies, you may find that these parts of the car are still not covered and that it would still be your responsibility to pay for the repair.

With car rental excess insurance from an insurance specialist however you not only likely to find that these ‘exclusions’ are included as standard but also that there are a number of other additional cover features including:

• broken or lost key replacement;

• cover for baggage stolen from the car;

• personal accident cover;

• recompense if you find that you have to cut your rental short due to illness.

You may also have the option of buying car rental excess insurance on a daily or an annual basis.

Daily cover operates pretty much like the cover you could buy from the car hire company. It is only valid for the number of days specified and this generally corresponds to the actual rental itself.

An annual excess insurance policy on the other hand, can cover all of your rentals over a period of a year subject of course to some terms and conditions relating to the types of vehicle that can be rented. This type of policy does not cover commercial vehicles, motorcycles, motor homes, sports, vintage models or very high value cars.

If you are a regular renter or know that you will have to rent a car on a number of occasions over the next 12-month period, then you can do a simple calculation (total number of rental days multiplied by the standard daily rate) to see for yourself the potential benefits of this type of excess insurance policy.

If you do opt for car rental excess insurance from a specialist, then you may find that should you damage your car, the rental company will probably charge your share of the repair costs to your credit card. You would then simply just have to claim on your policy for reimbursement.