Renting a car insurance

[Riley26]

If you rent a car how much is the insurance a week usually?

[scorcher]

Normally in with the rental charges.

[fatboy b]

If you’re after the excess insurance. , then just Google ‘hire car excess insurance”.

Hint: it’s a load cheaper doing it yourself and not taking theirs.

[Riley26]

Is ringing your own insurance and getting them to add on a option?

[anonymous-user]

Nope. Would be a ton of extra complexity and risk for the rental company. What’s to stop anyone cancelling the insurance once they’ve taken the car?

Why the concern? It’s all included in the rental.

[vikingaero]

In general if you have CDW insurance included in the rental, subject to any excess, your involvement in the case of any incident is more or less over when you hand the car back.

With some rental companies, if you buy your own CDW insurance, you may still be charged for the full amount of excess/damage/loss of hire, until your hire car insurance excess company reimburses you or the hire car company.

[Mark V GTD]

With all of them you will be as your cover is effectively an insurance product and you claim the cost of the excess you have incurred to the car rentals company.

[paddy1970]

This article below explains everything you need to know:

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/car-hire/article/c...

[Riley26]

Mark V GTD said:

With all of them you will be as your cover is effectively an insurance product and you claim the cost of the excess you have incurred to the car rentals company.

One firm I rang said they could only cover insurance for a maximum 2 weeks rental. Or if they sorted it it was going to be like an extra £40 a week. Do you think that means under 2 weeks they cover you included in the quote?

[Riley26]

paddy1970 said:

This article below explains everything you need to know:

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/car-hire/article/c...

Thanks so that suggests it maybe a cost of £120 a week to get fully insured on a rental car?

[vikingaero]

Riley26 said:

paddy1970 said:

This article below explains everything you need to know:

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/car-hire/article/c...

Thanks so that suggests it maybe a cost of £120 a week to get fully insured on a rental car?

I'm just wondering if Mr Riley26 is getting confused.

When you hire a car, comprehensive insurance is normally included in the daily/weekly rate but with a high excess - £1k-£2k isn't uncommon.

But you can take out collision damage waiver to reduce your excess to say a more reasonable level, say £250, or some companies allow you to reduce it to zero. Obviously much like buying expensive GAP insurance from a dealer, it is often way cheaper to buy an annual "car excess insurance policy" online.

Not many car rental companies will allow an individual to take out their own RTA insurance on a car - you could cancel the policy immediately after taking it out, or mis-declare something. I can however rent a car for fairly cheap rates (£34) for a Focus sized car, and have the vehicle covered by my company insurance policy.

[Mark V GTD]

To be clear, as Vikingaero says the rental company daily charge will include basic (fully comp) insurance in the UK but their excess will often be £1,000 or more. At the desk they will ask if you want to pay an additional daily charge (often around £20) to reduce that excess to zero. If you choose to pay that you will not incur any additional charges regardless of accident or loss of vehicle.

The alternative route is to take out your own policy (single rental or annual) which will allow you to reclaim the cost of the excess after you have been charged it. An example is below but please note these polices are not the same as paying the rental company the additional daily rate as you will get charged the excess and then have to claim it back later from your own zero excess policy. On the other hand the cost for an annual policy is only around the cost of two days zero excess payments from the hire company so you pays your money....

https://www.reducemyexcess.co.uk/g.aspx?a_aid=ADWO...

Edited by Mark V GTD on Saturday 21st May 12:47