If you’ve rented a car recently, you’ll know how hard it is to calculate the true cost of your rental and the type of damage you’ll be covered for. Car hire excess insurance aims to reimburse you for any excess charges if you have an accident or if your hire car is stolen.
Excess charges can run into hundreds or even thousands of pounds, depending on the provider. We’ve teamed up with Halo Insurance Services - a Zurich company - to offer you comprehensive, cost effective and reliable car hire excess insurance, which you can buy up front, ahead of your hire.
When you collect your hire car, as part of your rental agreement you may be offered an optional Excess Waiver. You may feel pressure to buy it on the spot, without the time to consider if it is suitable for you. Zurich Car Hire Excess Insurance keeps it simple and we cover any excess up to £6,000 at any car rental company, leaving you free to search out the best deal.
Please read the Policy Wording for more information.
You’ll spend less time at the rental desk if you buy excess insurance before you travel.
We offer single trip policies from £2.99 per day as well as annual policies from £39.99. Choose between European, North American or Worldwide cover.
Our policy covers more vulnerable parts of the vehicle including windscreen, tyres and roof. One less thing to worry about when you return the vehicle.
Our policy covers up to 9 named drivers aged 21-85 with a valid license which entitles you to drive in the territory in which you are hiring.
From being locked out of your vehicle to cover in case of misfueling or breakdown charges, your excess insurance comes with a number of complimentary benefits to give you peace of mind for your upcoming trip.
Zurich offer a variety of affordable upgrades that can be added to your policy, helping to increase your overall savings against last-minute options offered to you at the car rental desk.
Available in multi-trip annual only ✔
Available in daily & multi-trip annual✔✔
Not available✗
| Car hire excess insurance covers you for: | Europe |
Worldwide |
USA & Canada |
Worldwide plus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excess Insurance (up to £6,000 Sum Insured) |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔ |
| Misfuelling, towing & breakdown (Up to £1,000 Sum Insured) |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔ |
| Loss Damage Waiver/Collision damage (up to £100,000 Sum Insured) |
✗ |
✗ |
✔✔ |
✔ |
| Vehicle lock out charges (up to £500) |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔ |
| Car Jacking/Road Rage incident (up to £1,000) |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔ |
| Hotel expenses (up to £150) |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔ |
| Travel expenses (up to £50) |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔ |
| Cancellation/early return of hire car on doctor’s advice (up to £500, max £25/day) | ✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔ |
| Drop off charges (up to £300) |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔ |
| Continuous cover up to 65 days |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
| In-country/local car rentals |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✗ |
✔ |
Optional upgrades (additional premium) |
Europe |
Worldwide |
USA & Canada |
Worldwide plus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motorhome & campervan (up to £2,000 Sum Insured) |
✔ |
✔ |
✗ |
✗ |
| Key replacement protection (up to £1,000) |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔ |
| Personal Accident Insurance (up to £10,000) |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔✔ |
✔ |
Yes, if your car is damaged or stolen it’s likely that you’ll have to pay the excess charge to the rental company. However with Zurich Car Hire Excess Insurance, simply claim online and Zurich will reimburse any excess charge that you have paid.
Please ensure you have sufficient credit on your credit card in case you need to pay for excess charges.
Policyholders must be aged between 21 and 85.
If you would like to make a claim please click here to view our claims process.
You are covered for the region in which the policy was purchased for and if you are a resident of the EU you’ll also be covered if theft or damage occurs within 150km of your home.
You can request auto renewal when purchasing your annual policy to ensure you have continuous cover. This means we will automatically renew your policy when it runs out, unless you tell us not to.
21 days before the expiry date of your policy, we will email you to the email address we have on your existing policy and tell you about your policy, we will inform you of any changes to your premium or the policy terms and conditions.
If you choose not to auto-renew your policy you can suspend your policy by calling us on our freephone number 0800 088 2985.
Our policies provide cover automatically for up to 9 named drivers, provided that they are all named on the rental agreement.
When you purchase one of our car excess policies you are automatically covered for any car that you rent in the territory for which you have bought cover as long as you are the main driver on the car rental agreement. If you are not the main driver of the vehicle, you are not covered by the policy automatically. You must ensure that any additional drivers are named on the rental agreement then they will also be covered for any excess charges such as loss or damage to the vehicle.
All named drivers on the excess policy must have a valid license which entitles you to drive in the territory in which you are hiring and must be aged between 21 and 85.
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