Our Guide to Choosing Your Car Hire Excess Insurance Policy

When you run a quote for car hire excess insurance, you will be asked which type of cover you require.

How do you know which one to pick?

Much depends on where you are travelling but the most important factor is knowing what is included in your rental agreement in terms of insurance cover.

The three elements you are looking out for in your hire are:

- Collision Damage Waiver

- Theft Waiver

- Third Party insurance (also known as liability insurance)

You will need to have these three parts in any rental. They can be included with your hire automatically, they may be something you can ask the rental company to add to your hire, or you may be able to purchase them independently.

What is Collision Damage Waiver?

You need to have Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) included with any vehicle hire. When CDW is in place (and provided you have stayed within the terms and conditions of your rental), you do not have to pay for the whole cost of the vehicle in the event of an accident – usually you will just be responsible for the first part of any damage which is your excess.

What is Theft Waiver?

Much like Collision Damage Waiver but, with Theft Waiver in place, you would not be responsible for the whole cost of the vehicle should it be stolen. You would usually find you are liable for an excess (the first part of any claim) but not always.

What happens if my hire does not have CDW or a Theft Waiver?

With most European hires, or when you book through a European website, you will find CDW and Theft Waiver is included within your rental rate and you only have an excess. On rare occasions, however, you may find your rental comes with just third party insurance. If this is the case, you will need to purchase separate cover for damage and theft of your vehicle.

Worldwide hires – especially those bought through a US website – can more commonly be provided without CDW or Theft Waiver.

If you need CDW and Theft Waiver to cover your upcoming rental that you can select a policy including CDW when running your quotes with MoneyMaxim.

The CDW policies available through MoneyMaxim will not only cover the vehicle you are driving for damage as a result of an accident or incident but also due to theft.

What does the Vehicle Hire Excess Insurance option cover?

If you have CDW and Theft protection included within your rental, you will be responsible for any excess PLUS additional areas which are excluded from your CDW or your rental in general.

Areas often not covered by CDW include:

• Glass and mirrors

• Tyres and wheels

• Roof and Underbody

• Lost keys

• Towing charges

The Vehicle Hire Excess Insurance option covers not only the CDW and Theft excess on your hire car but also many of the above excluded items up to their individual specified policy limits. There are other areas they can cover too such as misfuelling and admin charges.

When would I need an Excess, CDW and SLI policy?

SLI stands for Supplementary Liability Insurance. This is a top up cover for any primary liability insurance included within your rental. If you do not have any liability insurance included in your rental, they will not work.

These are generally aimed at those who have rented their car through a US or Canadian website. In those countries, residents can often cover rental vehicles through their credit card or through their private car insurance. For that reason, you may find that you have less cover included.

If you hire to drive within the US by using a UK website, you are more likely to find the three main insurances included.

Third party cover must be included in rentals in Europe under EU regulations so you should not require this cover if you are hiring in, for example, Spain.

We provide more information about US and Canadian car hire.