Car Rental Insurance in the UK

See our Europe Collision Damage Waiver & Loss Damage Waiver page for a detailed explanation of your insurance options in Europe. For campervan and motorhome rentals, try our motorhome and campervan excess coverage overview or for 4x4s and 4x4 campers, try our 4x4 excess coverage page.

At the rental desk you will be offered insurance (also called Excess Reduction or Excess Waiver or Super Collision Damage Waiver (SCDW) or Super Loss Damage Waiver (SLDW) etc). Instead you can purchase a RentalCover.com policy which will provide coverage for the "excess" which applies to any rental vehicle locally. The vehicle's standard liability is the maximum amount you would have to pay in the event of an accident. For example, a car with £2200 standard liability means that any damages up to £2200 in repair costs will be paid by you. This payment for repair costs is called "excess" and the rental companies offer to reduce that for a certain amount per day depending on the company and vehicle you have chosen.

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. Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) (also known as "standard excess"): This is the amount that you would pay for damages if you do not take the supplier's "excess reduction" (see #2 below)
2. Cost of Super CDW (also known as "excess waiver" and "damage waiver"): This is the amount payable per day to reduce your excess towards the "reduced excess/claim fee" (see #3 below)
3. Super CDW: This is the maximum amount payable if you take out excess reduction, akin to a maximum "claim fee".

With your Rental Cover policy:

1. Your claim fee will be $0.
2. All types of damages including roadside assistance will be covered.
3. Credit card fees, admin fees & other costs that the rental companies add to the final bill will be covered.