Insuring a hire car – What do I need?



The short answer to the question ‘I’m insuring a hire car, what insurance do I need?’ is, it depends. I know that isn’t terribly helpful so here is what I do.

I personally never buy PAI (Personal Accident Insurance)/ PEI (Personal Effects Insurance) etc. This is all covered under my travel insurance as is ESP (Emergency Sickness Protection).

I also tend not to buy any extensions to own damage cover such as roadside assistance policies. If I get a flat or lose the keys I’ll muddle through Road signsomehow. However, if you know you are someone who is highly likely to lose their keys, put the wrong fuel in (this is really hard in the US where diesel is hard to come by and mostly you are just presented with a choice of different grades of petrol) etc then you may consider this worthwhile. Several of the excess reduction policies you can buy in the UK cover this anyway so if you do buy one make sure you know what it covers in addition to the excess.

I do buy an annual insurance policy to reduce the amount of the excess as I don’t like driving around foreign cities knowing a slight mishap could cost me $3000!

The hardest question I find is around SLI (Supplemental Liability Insurance). In the US each State determines the minimum third party liability cover it is legal to take a vehicle on to the road with and in the land of high value payouts for personal injury, this can be a surprisingly low number. This will be the base  level of third party liability insurance provided under your rental agreement unless you buy the Supplemental or Additional cover. My current UK bought excess reduction policy also includes SLI so I am now very confident about ticking the ‘no’ box but again you will need to think through what you want to do.

Our suggestion…

If you have bought your car hire through a consolidator complete with insurance package check very carefully to see what it covers. If you Have bought your car hire straight from a hire company, make sure you know what insurance is included in the price. This can be tricky!

If you feel you are in any way under insured or exposed to an excess risk greater than your comfort level, shop for additional insurance in the UK before you travel. This will be far more economical than buying additional cover at the car rental desk.

Some good places to look for additional car hire insurance are
Worldwide Insure offer car hire excess insurance as well as specific policy for the US with combined SLI and excess reduction insurance.

Insurance4carhire.com also offer a range of car hire excess insurance on a daily and an annual basis. They have worldwide policies and a specific policy for the USA and Canada offering additional SLI and CDW insurance.

 

Hi, we know a lot about insurance but we don’t know much about you! To make sure you get the right cover, it is important that you check any policy carefully and if you have any questions you should talk to an insurance advisor. Louise