Rental vehicle insurance and excesses

[dodgeyhack]

Hey all,

I'm trying to understand more about how rental vehicle insurance works, and whether it's wise to take additional cover.

In the past, I've always relied on plat CC coverage, however I've been doing some reading and I'm not sure that's a good thing to be doing with my current case - renting a car from SIXT in the UK.

Currently, the inclusions are as follows:
Rate includes 600 mls
Loss Damage Waiver
Third Party Insurance
Road tax, RFL
Loss Damage Waiver with an excess of GBP 1000.00
Theft Protection with an excess of GBP 1000.00

All the policies I've seen, require the vehicle to be comprehensively insured for the excess to be covered.
In this case, I don't have any indication that the vehicle is comprehensively insured. Just that my liability in the event of an accident or theft is limited to GBP 1000.00.
Reading Car Hire Insurances - Excess Insurance LDW - CDW  doesn't give me a lot more information.

Can anyone fill me in on what the situation is with respect to UK care hire and insurance?
Looks like CDW in the US is a special case too - is this the same as the UK?

 

[dajop]

I'm no legal expert, but I've always taken LDW and CDW to basically mean protection against loss or damage to the car you are renting. Combined with 3rd party coverage it provides what we would call comprehensive insurance (albeit with a steep excess ). Without it, essentially you only have 3rd party insurance.
You can reduce the excess on a per daily basis with the car hire company, or if you are not confident in your travel insurance covering it, there are insurers (particularly in the UK) that do provide specific cover for reducing the excess on car rentals, which tend to work out cheaper. The name of the company I have used in the past escapes me, but do a google search on car rental excess reduction, you should get a range of options.

 

[vetrade]

I haven't rented in UK, dodgeyhack, but I did do quite a bit of research on renting cars prior to a recent trip where we hired cars in 7 cities in Sth Africa, France, Germany, Canada and USA so I think I can be of some basic assistance. Firstly, there is a lot of info on this site if you do a key word search. I found the info on here generally a lot more detailed and specific than what I found on sites like tripadvisor. There's a lot more info there than I can write here but here are some basics:

Re CC cover for the excess: You need to read the T&Cs for your specific card because they all seem to vary. For example my NAB Platinum covers the excess for OS rentals provided you have used the card to pre-pay for at least $500 of your trip expenses but my ANZ Platinum only covers the excess for rentals within Australia and you still pay the first $350. CC insurance usually doesn't cover personal injury or your property

LCW = Loss damage Waiver – includes other cars
CDW = Collision Damage Waiver. – only damage to your car

CDW/LCW is not insurance - it is what we call the "excess" (or rather it reduces the amount of excess you would be liable for). You definitely should have this anywhere you hire. There is often the further option to pay a further amount of about 5 Euro /day to reduce the excess to zero.

Car rental Brokers / consolidators in the UK have the advantage that they include all the necessary insurance like CDW/LDW in their quotes. I think it is a legal requirement that all hire cars in the UK are insured and the CDW/LDW is included in the rental cost. UK brokers often have better rates than going direct to the car rental companies and are excellent for booking cars virtually anywhere in the world. I used arguscarhire.co.uk and autoeurope.co.uk but also checked prices with avis.co.uk, hertz.co.uk and europcar.co.uk.

The excess you may be liable to pay varies a lot from one country to another - Europe seems to have the highest (around 1000 Euro) whereas in Sth Africa the excess was only around 3000 Rand ($300). In the US car hire insurance is usually part of their home insurance policy so yanks don't need to take out hire car insurance in the USA but foreigners don't have that cover so they definitely need to have it included in the rental cost. That can be a trap when looking up quotes from US companies because the quote doesn't include insurance.

 

[dodgeyhack]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the detailed answers.
I've been trying to get hold of QBE to get their take on this, but haven't had much time and they seemed to be having issues with their telephone system when I called.

Have discovered MoneyMaxim | Compare Car Hire & Excess Insurance which aggregates quotes from various insurers.
At $12 or so for complete cover (including roof, wheels, windscreen, etc), it seems reasonable to just go with that rather than CC cover.

 

[Mark3000]

I've just rented a car from Hertz.com.au, pick up at Zurich airport. It includes CDW which covers
Collision Damage Waiver reduces your financial liability for damage to the Hertz vehicle, its parts and accessories except for theft, attempted theft or vandalism, provided the vehicle is used in accordance with the terms and conditions of the rental agreement.

This seems to leave me liable for the entire value if the car is stolen?
In the event of any other loss or damage to the car, regardless of fault, your financial responsibility extends to the full value of the car at the time of rental, less its salvage value, plus expenses for towing, storage impound fees, an administrative fee and a reasonable charge for loss of use.

They offer optional insurance for Loss Damage Waiver (LDW), Liability Insurance Supplement (LIS),
LDW = [FONT=arial, helvetica]By accepting LDW, you will be relieved of all financial responsibility for loss or damage to the rental car, whether or not you have insurance to cover such damage[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica]So it seems I have no choice but to get the LDW, because travel insurance and credit card insurance only cover the "excess" and if the car is stolen I have to pay the whole cost of the car, not just the excess?[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica]It annoys me that they don't give the price of that insurance when you book online and I have to wait until I get to Zurich airport to find out the cost[/FONT]