A car hire excess insurance policy can save you hundreds of pounds when renting a vehicle. Whether you’re only planning on hiring a car once for your holiday, or if you’re a more regular renter, understanding the difference between a single trip excess insurance policy and an annual one will help you avoid paying more than you need to.
This handy guide explains exactly how each of the policies work, and who they are best for.
What is Car Hire Excess Insurance?
Car hire excess insurance, sometimes known as excess waiver insurance, protects your wallet. Car hire firms often charge excesses of £1,000-£3,000 if the car you hire sustains damage, is stolen, or is involved in an accident. An excess insurance policy for hire cars like the ones we offer at ReduceMyExcess can reimburse this amount, as we understand that sometimes these things are not your fault and can’t always be prevented.
Cover Period
The main difference between the two policies is the length of time you are covered for – as their names suggest.
Both single trip and annual policies will cover vehicles you hire in the UK, Europe and all destinations included in our Worldwide and Worldwide+ options, as long as you select the correct geographical cover when purchasing your policy.
Similarly, both the single and annual policies have a total excess reimbursement limit of £10,000.
Single trip car hire excess insurance
Single trip policies cover one continuous car hire period, or several back-to-back rentals, as long as they are consecutive insofar as they run without a break. Only one rental vehicle will be covered at one time and the rental must fall within the dates outlined on your excess insurance policy documents. A ReduceMyExcess policy can cover you up to 180 consecutive days.
Cover starts when you collect the car; you must make sure you provide the date you will collect the car as you fill in the quote form. The policy will then end when you return the car, or when the insurance ends, whichever comes first.
Annual car hire excess insurance
Annual policies are designed for multiple rentals throughout a 12-month period.
You can hire an unlimited number of vehicles throughout the year and each individual rental can last up to 31 or 62 days depending on the duration you select. However, only one vehicle will be covered at one time. is covered as long as it takes places within the annual insurance period outlined on your insurance certificate.
Family Cover
The family cover optional add-on is only available with annual policies. This extra allows you to add four additional family members living at the same address as you to also be covered by the policy.
Each named driver can hire cars separately and still benefit from the coverage. This means that families renting cars throughout the year will get much better value for money on an annual policy as it saves buying multiple single trip policies.
Which Policy is Best for Me?
Choose single trip if
- You’re only going to hire a car once in a 12-month period
- You’re taking one long rental of up to 180 days (or multiple back-to-back within 180 days)
- You want the simplest and cheapest one-off option
Choose an annual trip policy if
- You’re hiring vehicles on two or more separate occasions within a 12-month period
- You want the flexibility of unlimited multiple rentals one policy
- You have family members who will also be hiring cars and could therefore benefit from car hire excess insurance (you will need to add on family cover to your annual policy)
- You want the best long-term value
A single trip excess insurance policy are from £2.15* a day whereas annual policies are from £47.30*. This means if you are going on one two-week holiday this could cost you £30.10. If you then decided to go away again and needed another single-trip policy for two weeks this would cost you £60.20, meaning the £47.30 policy was significantly better value for money.
For most drivers hiring a car on more than one occasion (i.e. not consecutive rentals) makes the annual car hire excess insurance policy the cheapest and most convenient option).
*price shown applies to cover in UK & Europe
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