Whether you regularly hire a car, or you occasionally rent a vehicle for holidays and long journeys, you’ll be aware of the ‘excess’ on your car hire contract.

You’ll also have an excess to pay if you have an accident in your own car. This is likely to be a sum of the voluntary excess you chose when buying the policy, plus an additional compulsory excess figure.

In both cases -- car hire and personal car ownership -- the excess is very likely to be several hundreds of pounds, and could even run into the thousands. Excess insurance is therefore a low-cost way to avoid having to pay the full excess if damage is found to your own car, or to a vehicle you rent.

Why is Excess Insurance Important for Car Hire Customers?

The majority of car hire companies charge some kind of excess on their policies, but if you’re expecting the figure to be similar to a regular car insurance policy, you might be surprised.

Many car hire companies charge much higher excesses than you’d see on a regular insurance quote.

In addition, car hire companies tend to inspect their cars very carefully, and will also bill the full excess figure for even the tiniest scratch. Of course, not all of them do this. But if you return a hire car with damage, you can expect to pay out the full whack in many cases.

Car damage is sometimes inevitable. Often, it just happens during normal, safe driving; you may pick up a ding or a dent from a piece of gravel, or damage something while driving on an uneven, unfamiliar road.

The risk of potentially then paying out hundreds (or thousands) of pounds could be enough to ruin your holiday. Excess insurance ensures that you’re protected from that.

Is Excess Insurance Worth it?

If you hire a car regularly, then excess insurance is something of a no-brainer. You’ll save money by buying one policy per year, which will then protect you each time you hire a car during the term of the policy. Be sure to check with your insurer about any restrictions; some policies only apply to hire within the UK, for example, while others offer global cover.

If you own your own car, or you hire a car infrequently, we still recommend excess insurance for peace of mind. Why? Because, in most cases, your excess insurance cover is significantly cheaper than the excess you’ll be charged if damage is found. You can purchase a policy that just covers one vehicle, which is great for anyone who owns their own car and would struggle to pay the full excess after damage.

This means you can hire a car with confidence, knowing that the final bill will be affordable. And it could also mean that you bring down the cost of your personal car insurance by pushing your agreed voluntary excess that bit higher.

*The information in this blog is designed to provide helpful information on the subjects discussed. Please seek a professional for expert advice as we can not be held responsible for any damages or negative consequences upon following this information.

The Apple App Store is home to more than a million apps; some are creative and engaging, while others are just plain boring. With so many apps to choose from, it can become quite confusing when deciding which app to download either for fun or utility. Here, we have highlighted 5 apps which are truly incredible and they stand out among the plethora of apps available in the app store.

1.    Photoshop Fix

This app is produced by Adobe and it is basically a scaled down version of the popular photo editing software known as Photoshop. The software is only available on the desktop; however, Adobe has taken one step further to make it available for a mobile phone, in this case on iOS devices. It doesn’t have the full features of the desktop version, but it allows you to quickly edit your photos.

You can heal blemishes, adjust the brightness, contrast, and the colour, edit the jaw line, and reshape photos. It can be downloaded for free on the Apple store.

2.    Camera+

The camera on any recent iPhone is quite good, but with camera+, it gets even better. A famous app downloaded by nearly 14 million people ever since its launch in 2010, camera+ allows you to have control over your photos in a way that you never thought was possible using a mobile phone camera.

Sporting a multitude of functionalities such as lens control, digital zoom, innovative filters, amazing effects, etc. you will feel as though as you own a professional DSLR camera. It is available on the app store for £2.29.

3.    Clear

There are numerous organization apps through which you can create to-do lists for your everyday tasks, but most of them are quite difficult to use. Clear is an app that is used by nearly 2 million people; it is said that it is as simple to use as a pen and paper. The user interface has an uncomplicated design and it merges with the reminders on your phone. You can easily create and manage a to-do list for your daily chores. This app works on the Apple Watch as well and it is available in the app store for £3.99.

4.    Waze

Waze is a navigation app that allows users to use their iOS device’s built-in GPS to navigate to their destination easily. The app can inform you of how fast you are travelling and it can also reroute you around heavy traffic to shorten your commute time. Additionally, it has the functionality to display warnings about accidents, construction work, police, red-light cameras, speed cameras, etc.

5.    Infuse 4

Everyone knows that Apple devices especially iPhones can play movies, but they are at a disadvantage when it comes to file formats, limited storage capacities, and a complicated file import mechanism. Infuse 4 is an app that is essentially a workaround; you can play videos of different file formats, stream video content from a Mac or PC, and it even provides metadata and art for your videos. It is available on the app store for £7.63.

*The information in this blog is designed to provide helpful information on the subjects discussed. Please seek a professional for expert advice as we can not be held responsible for any damages or negative consequences upon following this information.