Car Hire Auto Insurance

We got a very interesting question the other day from one of our American customers, it was about Auto Insurance coverage and what it included. Many American customers opt to take extra insurance through their credit card company which often isn’t the best idea, you will find if you read the fine print that it does not cover damage to other vehicles it only covers damage to your own hired vehicle and nothing else.

This “exclusive” insurance that you have with the credit card companies just isn’t worth it, when you come to a European country and want to hire you will be required by law to purchase additional insurance on top of this anyways. Usually when you hire a car in Europe this is included in the rental price, with this “exclusive” insurance however you will need to pay an extra amount to be covered legally which is of course just more money down the drain.

Our advice is to avoid getting this insurance from the American credit card companies completely, here is the exact question and the answer that we gave…

Question: I have a question about auto insurance. I know you can buy auto coverage that includes damages to the rental car through the rental car company, or have the auto rental damages covered on my credit card. My question is that if you hit another car, my auto insurance stated they will not cover overseas rentals, and the coverage from my credit card or the coverage from the rental car company states that the coverage is only for the rental car, and not for another car involved in a collision. Can you get coverage for damages to the other car as well as liability to the other passengers in case someone is injured?

It seems that all the coverage is only for the car rental, and not for damages to another vehicle in addition to injuries to the other vehicles passengers. Thank you for answering this question about damages to the other car involved in a collision.

Answer: Thanks for the below.

I understand the question clearly, when a vehicle is rented you are provided with fully comprehensive insurance (unless you choose not to have this included, which is not advisable) so for example if looking at quotes on our website, this level of insurance cover will be included as standard.

With the above said, there will also be an excess (I get the sense you are from North America, although could be mistaken if so this term will be better known to you as a ‘deductible’) excesses range from between £500.00 – £1250.00 depending on which rental company provides the vehicle, this amount is your maximum liability following an accident / damage, damage to the vehicle you are driving, a tp vehicle, tp property, tp injury etc etc. So you can see in any event your maximum liability is £1250.00 (although £1250.00 is a high excess)

You can if you wish take our zero excess / super CDW which buys away the above so if anything was to happen you have zero liability, but there is a premium for this, which always need weighing up against the excess amount itself, usually it comes down to how long the rental if for and the amount been charged by the rental company, where the vehicle is been driven, if been driven in familiar surroundings, time of year, all sorts of things really, and the extra (optional – and it is always optional) top up cover is always down to the individual to make a decision on.

Hope this provides clarification for you.