Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Car Rental Insurance For The Price Conscious

If your experience of hiring a car is that the amount actually charged to your credit card always seems to be more expensive than you thought when you first looked at the prices, then the chances are that it was top-up the car rental insurance that was responsible for the price hike.

Car rental advertisements usually indicate prices which totally includes the payment for rental insurance.

The trouble is though, that this does not necessarily provide as much cover and protection as you may think or indeed prefer to have behind you.

The reasons for this are twofold:

-collision damage waiver (CDW) cover typically carries an excess which cold be as much as £1600 and which represents the amount of money that you would be expected to contribute to any insurance claim;
-CDW also typically excludes certain parts of the car from cover meaning that you would be responsible for their repair or replacement.

It would be very exorbitant on your part f you intend to buy top-up insurance. The best solution is to look around and explore other affordable options like selecting various policies from car rental companies. This is highly recommended should you finally decide to cover future expenses.

Fortunately, many providers in various locations are available if you want to choose an insurance which is more affordable and this can be easily accessed via the Internet if you need to save time.

Not only that but their excess cover may also include:

-certain parts of the vehicle which is not fully covered under CDW;
-other named drivers at no extra cost;
-an annual policy can be availed if you have been a regular renter.

Do note that terms and conditions will apply and within these will be exclusions and limitations, so you should read these carefully and ensure you understand them.

You may think that buying your car rental Insurance from the direct providers could just make things more complicated. In fact nothing could be further from the truth.

You just need to make sure that you:

-purchase excess insurance cover prior to your rental;
-say no to offers of top-up cover when you pick up the keys;
-if there is excess to pay for damage to the car the hire company will charge this to your credit card;
-promptly ask for a refund of the policy from your car rental insurance company.

Click here for more information on Car Rental Insurance