Excess Reduction Insurance Companies

[dajop]

For some years now I have used worldwideinsure as my provider for car rental excess reduction insurance. At around 9 GBP for 3 day car hire they compare favourably to taking additional protection through the car hire agency.

Unfortunately as of 1 June, they are no longer providing such cover for non-EU residents:

We are currently unable to sell cover to anyone living outside of the UK or EEA.

We hope to have an alternative policy in place soon and apologise for any inconvenience.

Does anyone know any good alternatives? I only need excess reduction insurance, not all the bells and whistles of other insurance packages.

Also:
1) No advice needed in relation to credit card cover, my cards are Singapore based and cover is inadequate
2) Ditto re commercial travel insurance. Cover available to SG residents inadequate and I generally avoid this.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I have only just started researching this topic as I have an 11 week trip to UK + Ireland in 2018 and will probably have at least three car rentals in that period.

From reading up only just recently the following option seems to have excellent reviews. Though I am new to this type of insurance and so would welcome others views and experiences.

[FONT=wf_segoe-ui_light]Car Hire Excess Insurance - iCarhireinsurance.com[/FONT]
[FONT=wf_segoe-ui_normal]www.icarhireinsurance.com[/FONT]

 

[Franky]

I too am hiring a vehicle in Europe for about 12 days, and liked the options provided by 'icarhireinsurance.com', however like the company used by dajop, they only insure those living in the EEA. They said they are hoping to include foreigners 'in the near future', but it looks like I need to dig deeper. Their little extras were well worth a look.

 

[dajop]

Just an update, worldwideinsure are back with policies available to non-European residents once more. They are substantially more expensive than they used to be, but still well under anything you pay at a car rental desk. About 5 GBP ($8.70/day) for excess reduction up to 50,000 GBP. I went for annual policy costing about $140 AUD, worldwide (except Iceland and Jamaica), still cheaper than the $190 Europcar want to charge for 6 day rental to reduce excess to zero.

Reason why I just don't do it on regular travel insurance? The policies I can get with my current residency status mostly cover a whopping $500 in excess reduction - other than a handful of premium policies that increase that to a massive $1000. (cf: standard excess these days for many AU rentals seems to be $4000+)_

 

[UP4014]

You can get excess reduction via travel insurance which can make it pretty cheap.

 

[dajop]

You can get excess reduction via travel insurance which can make it pretty cheap.

Need to be careful on T&C. Although Australian I am currently a resident of Singapore and thus cannot purchase Australian policies. Most policies here only cover $500-$1000 which is functionally useless, the highest one I could find covered $2500, still well short of the $4700 excess on my rental.

In any event I don't take travel insurance for trips back home to MEL ... (have annual worldwide medical travel cover as well).

 

[UP4014]

Need to be careful on T&C. Although Australian I am currently a resident of Singapore and thus cannot purchase Australian policies. Most policies here only cover $500-$1000 which is functionally useless, the highest one I could find covered $2500, still well short of the $4700 excess on my rental.

In any event I don't take travel insurance for trips back home to MEL ... (have annual worldwide medical travel cover as well).

I use AON Affinity for insurance, they custom make the insurance to what items you want to include which can be heart conditions, hire cars, parachuting, how much for, where you want to go, what deductible you want etc.

I usually go for an increased deductible to show they won't be getting frivolous claims which keeps the premium down.

 

[Quickstatus]

and of course in the USA there is no such thing as excess for rental cars. You are up for the entire cost of the car unless you pay the $30-40 per day to the rental desk in which case you can smash up the car and pay nothing.

 

[dajop]

and of course in the USA there is no such thing as excess for rental cars. You are up for the entire cost of the car unless you pay the $30-40 per day to the rental desk in which case you can smash up the car and pay nothing.

A trap for the uninitiated. However often (but not always) if you book through an international website and indicate country of residence as Australia , Collision Damage Waiver will be included in the rental.

Under the cover I have, it covers up to £50,000 in damage charged by the car hire company (and it doesn't cover vehicles that retail for more than £50,000), and states "Our car hire excess insurance acts in place of CDW, at a much lower price." So it is a way of avoiding those charges at the rental desk. Unlike many travel insurance policies there is no wording requiring you to take out insurances offered by the car hire company.

 

[Quickstatus]

Thanks dajop I’ll look into your option.

Yes when booking through an international website (say Avis or Hertz) the CDW is included but the total price is effectively the domestic price plus CDW insurance so all it really does is to opt the customer in to the CDW option.

It’s not even insurance, just an extra charge so that the rental company won’t chase you for damages