Is annual car hire excess insurance a good buy?

By karenbryan

April 24, 2008

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I’m always trying to point out the potential pitfalls of car hire because it is complicated to come up with best all round car hire deal. You should never purchase car hire on price alone, you really just examine all aspects of the car rental agreement.

If I hire a car abroad once a year I use a car hire company which offers a truly inclusive price where either you will pay no excess in the event of damage of theft such as economycarhire or the excess will be refunded by the car rental firm if you pay an additional charge such as AutoEurope. However even with this cover damage to the roof, undercarriage, locks, tyres and windows is not covered.

I’m renting a car in Italy for one week at the end of May and I’ve booked through economycarhire which has zero excess policy excluding roof, undercarriage, tyres and windows. I think the risk of damage to these parts is fairly low and the cost of that damage won’t be too high.

However if I hire a car, away from home, more than a couple of times a year then I buy annual excess insurance is a good option. With this you are covered for any type of damage and you can go for a cheaper car hire quote which doesn’t include the no excess. The rental location must be more than 150 kilometres from your usual residence. European annual excess cover costs £49 for Europe for drivers aged up to 74 years of age, the cost is £65 for drivers aged 75 - 85. You’ll be covered for car hire periods of up to 31 days, as many times a year as you require. The policy covers all drivers named on the car hire agreement.

So to answer the question “Is annual car hire excess insurance a good buy?” my opinion is an emphatic yes, if you hire a car more than once a year and perhaps even for a single car hire if you find a really low price quote where there is a large excess and you want to cover yourself for any potential damage to the hire car.