Why buy additional Insurance products through your car hire firm?

The reasons people choose to buy additional insurance products from a car hire company:

1. Peace of mind - if you have an accident or your car hire is damaged or it is stolen, as long as you have operated it within the terms of your rental agreement, you can just hand over the keys at the end of the rental and, having completed an incident report form, leave the hire company to do the rest. You don't need to be worried then that your claim from an excess insurer might be rejected.

2. It's less hassle - you don't have to submit claim report details, rental contracts, credit card bills etc.

3. It can reduce the deposit (pre-authorisation) required to be reserved on your credit card, as the hire firm know the costs of most damage are already covered.

4. Occasionally it can offer wider cover (not normally) - but sometimes there are additional benefits to some of these policies such as covering clutch damage.

The reasons people choose not to buy this type of cover from a car hire firm:

1. Its normally more expensive (although not always) - we will show you the cost so you can decide before you book.

2. Cover tends to be more limited (so wheels, tyres, glass, underbody and roof of the car are normally excluded or require an extra policy to be bought as well.

3. Some covers reduce the excess to a lower amount rather than covering it totally.

Insurances