Breakdown Cover Varies
When you buy car hire excess insurance, you benefit from knowing that any damage is covered by your policy.
In addition, you may be offered breakdown cover. But it’s important to understand the difference between traditional breakdown cover and car hire breakdown cover.
In short, car hire excess insurance essentially pays for any breakdown cover you use via your hire company. So if you break down, you don’t use your excess insurance to recover the vehicle - you use your regular car hire company’s breakdown procedure, and then claim any costs back from the excess insurance provider.
This gives you the peace of mind of dealing with the car hire company direct for the purposes of getting the car recovered and fixed. If you’re given a bill, you’d then pass that on to your excess insurance provider, and they’d process it as a claim.
Important Notes
With any car hire transaction or car hire excess insurance policy, the fine print is important. Check that your hire company provides adequate breakdown cover, and then check that your car hire excess insurer will meet the costs if you need to claim.
Of course, you need to ensure that your car hire excess policy is valid for the duration and location of your car hire rental. If you’re due to hire more than one car a year, you’ll generally find that an annual policy is the most cost-effective solution. It also means you’re covered for any car hire transaction without the need to keep buying new policies to cover the excess.
Hiring cars outside your home country may mean you need a different car hire excess policy. Again, for ease of administration, we recommend that you buy an annual policy covering all the locations you’re going to visit. A Europe-wide policy is a sensible choice if you hire cars at home and abroad.
Be sure to check that your car hire company provides adequate breakdown cover for the locations you plan to drive in.
Final Thoughts
Car hire excess insurance offers valuable protection against unexpected costs when hiring a car. Not only does it ensure that you aren’t exposed to massive costs for damage, it could also help to cover any breakdown costs that are passed on to you by your car hire company. For a small one-off fee, or a modest annual payment, you could obtain car hire excess cover for every trip.
For more information about our policies,speak to a friendly advisor at Row.co.uk today.