Collision Damage Waiver CDW Insurance FAQ

CDW Overview

For campervan and motorhome rentals, try our motorhome and campervan excess cover overview or for 4x4s and 4x4 campers, try our 4x4 excess cover page.

 For a detailed overview of your car rental insurance options and CDW for each major region please refer to our Introduction to Europe, our Overview of the Insurance Options in the USA and our Australia/New Zealand Overview.

Using RentalCover.com, you would pay the rental company in the event of damages and then claim that amount to the issuer of your RentalCover.com policy.

There are three key amounts relating to car hire excess in each country, namely:

  1. Excess when CDW is Included: This is the maximum that you would pay for damages when your vehicle has CDW ("Collision Damage Waiver") applied. CDW reduces your excess from the full value of the car to the amount shown in the third column.
  2. Cost per Day for "Super CDW/Super LDW": This reduces your excess from the amounts shown in Column 1 to the amounts shown in Column 3. Super CDW/Super LDW is also known as "excess reduction" among other names (read on for more information).
  3. Reduced Excess (after adding Super CDW/Excess Reduction): This is the maximum amount payable if you pay for Super CDW/Super LDW/Excess Reduction.