European Car Hire Excess Insurance

What does Europe car hire excess cover?

What's included

Below is a summary of the key features and benefits of our car hire excess policy.

For full details, please see the policy wording.

The excess on damage and theft up to a maximum of £6,500 cover in total, per year
Drivers aged between 21 and 84 inclusive
Cover for up to seven additional drivers (so long as they’re named in your rental agreement). There is no need to add them to your insurance4carhire policy.
Rental periods of up to 60 consecutive days
Misfuelling and car key cover – each up to £500 per claim (max. £2,000 per year)
Flat battery cover up to £1,000 per year
Late pick-up charges due to unscheduled flight delays
Cover for your courtesy car (the vehicle loaned to you while your rental car is being repaired, or when your own car is in the garage and you’re given a courtesy car).

What's not included

Below are some of the key exclusions you need to be aware of.

Full details can be found in the policy wording.

Car rentals in which the insurance4carhire policy holder is not the lead driver on the rental agreement
Policies purchased after the collection of your rental vehicle
Cars worth more than £120,000 or over 10 years old
Cover for off-road driving
Commercial vehicles, motorbikes, camper vans, mobile homes, vans or any vehicle with more than nine seats. To insure your van hire (UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands only), visit our van hire excess page
Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) or Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI). Most rental policies include this, but some (notably in the US) do not. If you need CDW and SLI cover, visit our Annual Worldwide Plus CDW & SLI page
Cover for policyholders that are not resident in the UK, Channel Islands, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, The Netherlands, Republic of Ireland or Germany.

Show policy document

Europe Car Hire Excess Insurance FAQs

Car hire excess cover is an alternative to the excess cover offered by the car rental company. If you need to make a claim with the rental company, simply pay the excess and then claim it back through insurance4carhire.

Although your car rental company will most likely offer some level of insurance cover as standard, there is likely to be a high excess (meaning that should you need to make a claim, you'll be liable to pay some amount towards it). insurance4carhire will cover this amount, so that should you make a claim, you'll be reimbursed for this excess up to the policy limits.

Our Europe policy covers car hires in Europe, including the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Ireland, Iceland, islands in the Mediterranean, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Azores. Please note, however, that it does not cover the Region of Crimea.

There is no need to add them to your insurance4carhire policy. All our policies automatically allow you to cover up to seven additional drivers per rental, as long as each driver is named as an additional driver on your rental agreement.

The lead driver on the rental agreement must be the insurance4carhire policy holder. The lead driver and each additional driver must be aged between 21 and 84 at the time of purchase and a resident in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain, the Republic of Ireland or Sweden.

No, additional drivers cannot hire a car on their own. The policy holder on the Insurance4carhire policy always must be the person named as the lead driver / car club member on any rental agreement. The policy holder can include up to seven additional insured drivers as long as each additional driver is named on the rental agreement.

If you require two family members to be a lead driver so they can hire two separate vehicles simultaneously or hire cars separately, you will need to purchase our joint policy. This policy is available to family members related in the following ways: by marriage, civil partnership, engagement, parent-child, child-in-law, parent-in-law, sibling, sibling-in-law. Our joint policy option is available with our Annual Europe and Annual Worldwide car hire excess policies.