Avoid hefty car rental excess charges with rental cover – discover the benefits of choosing rental cover for your next trip.
Over the last six years, RentalCover.com has become one of the largest independent names in the world for vehicle rental cover, offering a range of excess cover options for any car or motorhome rental.
With a dedicated customer support team offering help in more than 10 languages, you'll be able to get assistance wherever you are any time of the day.
Receive a quote for Rental Cover
How does Cental Cover work?
No one wants to think about what can go wrong while on the road (or how much it can cost you if something does), and with RentalCover.com's policies for car rental excess insurance, you can take a bit of the worry away.
RentalCover.com gives extra protection on top of any basic cover your car rental company may provide, and insures you for up to $100,000 against vehicle theft or damage - including cracked windscreens, flat tyres, damaged headlights, lost keys and towing costs. It'll also cover costs associated with fixing the car including any credit card fees and administrative costs that may be charged by a mechanic.
Back to topWhy choose RentalCover.com?
- 100% of your excess is covered. You won’t have to worry about paying any excess amount when your rental vehicle is damaged.
- 50% cheaper than excess reduction cover. While you can take out an excess reduction policy from your car rental provider, this is significantly more expensive than a policy from RentalCover.com.
- Broader cover. RentalCover.com ensures you are covered for a broad range of accidents and circumstances, including underbody damage, single vehicle accidents, driving at night, collisions with animals, rollovers and much more. Excess reduction cover from rental providers, however, typically contains a long list of exclusions which can lead to a nasty surprise when your rental vehicle is damaged.
- Cover available for campervans, motorhomes and 4WDs. RentalCover.com offers policies for a wide variety of rental vehicles.
- Tailored cover. RentalCover.com policies are specifically tailored to offer protection against the unique risks of certain countries.
- Lower claim fees. It costs more to make a claim under a rental company excess reduction policy than it does under a policy from RentalCover.com.
- Free Gap Cover. Every policy from RentalCover.com comes with $3,500 of Free Gap Cover. This is designed to offer much-needed financial protection in circumstances where the amount you are claiming is less than the amount covered by the primary issuer of your RentalCover.com insurance policy. For example, your RentalCover.com policy may not provide as much cover as the standard excess charged on your vehicle, in which case the Free Gap Cover kicks in to ensure that you are not hit in your hip pocket.
How much does it cost?
RentalCover.com's policies average out to be about 50% less than the average excess insurance that you can add on at the rental desk direct from the car hire company, which can cost up to $30 per day and not necessarily offer the $0 excess that all RentalCover.com policies include. Depending on where in the world you're getting extra cover, policies range from $5 to $15 per day. The company also has a price-beat guarantee, so if you do come across excess coverage for less, just let them know and they'll beat it (not available for bookings in the USA).
We did a test booking for excess in Australia for a range of one to seven days to see how much it costs.
| Number of Days | Price (Total) |
|---|---|
| 1 | $13.91 |
| 2 | $25.04 |
| 3 | $36.18 |
| 4 | $44.63 |
| 5 | $61.21 |
| 6 | $73.72 |
| 7 | $86.25 |
How is it different to the excess reduction that comes with my rental?
Car rental companies will typically offer excess reduction cover, which can also be referred to as an excess waiver or damage waiver. This type of policy, as the name suggests, reduces the amount of excess you will have to pay in the event that your rental car is damaged.
While this reduces your excess from a significant amount to something much more manageable, you could still have to pay an excess of up to $1,000.
Back to topHow do I make a RentalCover.com claim?
If you're in an accident or have any damage to your car, you'll need to first pay the rental car company whatever they charge for the damage. You then can claim back the charges online via email, but you'll need the following documents to do so:
- Copy of your rental agreement
- Copy of your drivers licence, or whoever was driving the car at the time of the accident
- Any correspondence about the damage
- Copy of your credit card statement showing the charges from your rental car copmany
- Invoice from the rental car company
- Any receipts showing the repairs have been made
RentalCover.com averages a three-day turnaround for claims.
Campervan and motorhome rental excess cover
When you’re setting off for a holiday, sometimes you want to rent a vehicle a little bigger than a run-of-the-mill passenger vehicle. For many tourists in Australia and New Zealand, motorhomes and campervans offer an innovative and affordable way to travel. Of course, typical rental company excess costs for these vehicles can be quite expensive, so RentalCover.com offers protection for hirers of campervans and motorhomes in Australia and New Zealand.
These policies work in exactly the same way as RentalCover.com’s policies for ordinary rental vehicles, covering you when your campervan or motorhome is crashed, stolen or damaged. For a much lower cost that an excess reduction policy from your rental provider, RentalCover.com reimburses you the total amount of any excess you are required to pay. While rental companies will exclude a broad range of situations and circumstances from there excess reduction coverage, RentalCover.com offers protection for an extensive range of incidents. Cover is included for the following:
- Windscreen, tyres, underbody, roof, awning and water damage
- Single-vehicle accidents, night time driving, collisions with animals, rollovers
- When a vehicle is off the road to undergo repairs, the rental company’s resulting lost revenue. This is known as demurrage
In addition, RentalCover.com policies are tailored to the market in which they are offered, designed to cover specific risks unique to that country. For example, as kangaroos are a hazard for Australian drivers, RentalCover.com’s Australian policies contain cover for damage caused by hitting animals.
Back to top4x4 Excess Cover
RentalCover.com 4x4 Excess Cover provides protection in a much broader range of circumstances and situations that what you'll get direct from the car hire company.
For example, while companies like Apollo and Wicked will not cover vehicle rollovers regardless of the cause, RentalCover.com protects you in such situations. Many companies will not cover overhead and underbody damage no matter what the circumstances, while a RentalCover.com policy will. Of course, RentalCover.com also ensures that you do not have to be put out of pocket for any excess when your rental 4WD is damaged. This could end up saving you lots of money and gives you the confidence and peace of mind you need to simply relax and enjoy your travels.
What else do I need to know about RentalCover.com?
Ready to apply?
If your ready to take out car rental excess cover with Rental Cover, you can follow the secure link in the table above through to the Rental Cover website to receive a free quote and apply for cover. finder.com.au always recommends that you take the time to view the policy terms and conditions before purchasing cover to know exactly what you are covered for. Rental Cover's team are always on hand to answer any questions you may have regarding your policy.
We’re from Canada, 69 years old, renting a small car for 21 days and driving between Sydney and up to Noosa heads area. My question is why don’t you just say 100% insured with no exclusions. There always seems to be the possibility in so many insurance coverages of something not mentioned or not mentioned for specific circumstances etc. And how does one recover the costs in any are charged. Do you deal with the rental car company?
Hi Keith,
Thanks for your question. When it comes to exclusions, just like with many financial products, there have to be conditions and exclusions to ensure that the person involved was doing the right thing at the time of the incident and entered into the contract with the utmost good faith. For example, it wouldn’t be fair for someone who had a no fault accident to be treated the same way as someone who was drunk behind the wheel.
As for rental cover, we do have one insurer in our panel who covers specifically rental vehicle excess. Please have a look at the page linked below.
https://www.finder.com.au/car-rental-excess-insurance
I hope this was helpful,
Richard
Yes, that part I understand but what I was trying to ask not very well was why exclude bumpers and trim for instance as Tripcover (Allianz) does. What if I am hit or scraped in a parking lot while shopping and the perpetrator takes off, or a kangaroo jumps in front of my car while I am driving? That could easily amount to $1000 or more in damages. Do such exclusions mean I would not be covered?
Hi Keith,
Sorry for the misunderstanding. This section excludes damage to bumpers and trim outside of damage caused by a motor vehicle accident as this would be considered general wear and tear, which rental companies don’t normally charge for.
I hope this was helpful,
Richard
The more I look at all this the less clear things get. I almost bought Tripcover’s excess insurance but suddenly noticed they are really only covering the excess on the rental car itself.
My car rental company also does not cover the excess for: Liability Insurance for injuries or damages to persons or
things outside the vehicle. Rental limits potential injury or
damages to a deductible of approximately AUD 4,015.00.
Are there any companies that do that? You see what I mean about exclusions. In Canada we refer to “comprehensive” insurance. Is here not a “comprehensive” excess cover insurance somewhere?
Thanks
Keith
Hi Keith,
Thanks for your question. Yes, Tripcover offer rental excess insurance only. Generally, most comprehensive policy have a rental excess component. If you enter your travel details into the travel insurance quoting engine on the travel insurance home page, you will be given a list of policies to choose from. On that page under each provider, there is a more info button. If you click on the button, you can review the comprehensive policies that offer rental excess insurance, and how much is covered.
I hope this was helpful,
Richard
Thanks for your reply. I will look at your page but if you notice, rental excess at the car rental company also refers to third party liability, which tripcover does not appear to address.
Keith