Looking at this – http://www.insurance4carhire.com/index.asp?subRefID=&pageID=47&langID=1&refID=1666&curID=1

Owt else worth a gander?

Not sure about the one you linked to, but there is info about this on moneysavingexpert.com, worth a quick look.

Eh? I deal with motor insurance, and hire fairly frequently.

CDW is essentially, you paying to reduce the excess. IE the car might have a £500 excess. Paying say £5 per day extra, usually reduces that down to nil. I don’t see what the insurable risk is here? Unless the CDW is only removing the excess down to say £200? Even then, seems a rip off to me.

In the UK for example your insurance has say a £300 excess. You have a non fault accident, and you get put into a hire car. The TP part of your insurance transfers over from your own policy. But if the hire car has a £500 excess, then you might elect to pay CDW. But if say, your own excess was £300, and the hire car has a £300 excess, then whatever happens, theres a £300 excess. Olny one excess can be decducted, as the claim is only made on one policy. So insurers refuse to refund CDW, as to pay it gives you betterment. IE the hire car then has a policy on more favourable terms than the policy you actually chose on your own car.

So that website links to an example of a £2000 excess, and this policy is essentially insuring against that. But what sort of hire car firm runs the risk of trying to recover £2k from any driver, especially in the tourist market, when people disapear abroad after their holiday ect. I have never seen an excess that high? The ad even mentions declining the care hire excess insurance, yet it may be less than this? Bizarre.

Jujuuk68 – this is an alternative to the rental company’s CDW. Last time I paid a CDW I’m sure it was £11 per day? So on a week long rental this would be worthwhile.

Couple of points to be aware of: (1) there is often a restriction on not hiring vehicles close to home and (2) you will normally require to give a c/card swipe to the hire company if you don’t take CDW from them. This WILL be charged if there is any damage and then you need to get your private insurer to repay you.

Thanks guys. A bit more research required I think.
I don’t understand the condition about not renting near your home. Sounds bit strange. Could potentially be important if need to hire for work though.

I normally pay it if I’m skint and don’t if I’m flush

Geoff,

I’m not sure if they all have the same limitation (or perhaps have a higher priced package which doesn’t cost as much).

When people at my old company were hiring vehicles we took the view that the CDW was over priced and that the excess was something we could stomach. With no claims it “paid for itself” in a year of not much hiring. Hiring was an alternative to owning company vehicles where we would have had to pay an excess anyway. If your company has its own vehicles there is the potential to insure the hire care completely through the company insurers (but when I last checked you had to have company vehicles to get that sort of policy).

But what sort of hire car firm runs the risk of trying to recover £2k from any driver

most won’t hand a car over without a credit card.

– my impression is that high excesses (by high i mean £600-£1000 on economy £2000 on larger quality cars) have become norm as punters look at the headline hire price on websites and then feel they have to pay an over the top and very profitable CDW on pick up because are shocked by the xs – my guess is when excesses on standard cars were £200 or so people wouldn’t pay the CDW and take the risk

I’d like to bet that it’s exactly that – advertise low rates and then scare people into “optionally” taking out higher cover.

I’m getting increasingly geoffed off with people trying to sell me cover for shit. Extended warranty this, accidental damage that, it’s a licence to print money. Far better to squirrel away an amount each month into your own rainy day fund, then you’re guaranteed a payout without any paperwork or some crappy loophole where they don’t pay out on Tuesdays when the moon is waxing into Aquarius.

But what sort of hire car firm runs the risk of trying to recover £2k from any driver

We hired a couple of vans and a car in Aus and they took 3k from the credit card and refunded it (minus credit card fee) when we returned them. Seems to be more common these days. The hire companies own reduced excess option was around £25/day. We used an on-line excess insurance company and it was only a couple of quid, only available for the car, though. Never claimed or crashed so no idea if it works.

I tend to go for reducing the excess abroad, when it may be a pain to try and reclaim any excess paid out – and I’ve seen it as high as 800 Euro for an Economy car.

I’d risk it in the UK. The rental people were kind enough not to charge me the excess after the rental car I’d hired was written off so I didn’t even need to mess about claiming it back anyway.