In the morning on the way to work my husband told me his friend came back from his recent holiday. Everything was perfect and they had great fun; except one slight problem that cost them £1000. Unfortunately on a tight road he scratched the rental car and this cost him the full excess amount of £1000. Crazy!
I really feel bad because I wish he had asked me beforehand about extra protection from such occurrences. I rent quite often and many times when renting a car the excess of the insurance is not very clear. Car Rental companies usually offer the most basic insurance included like third party and then require a payment for any excess damagesuch as material scratches, accidents etc. Sometimes it can be £200 and others evenquote £1000, as was in this case.
I remember once when I was a student I wanted to rent a car for the weekend and the company wanted £500 for excess insurance. Needless to say I didn’t go with this option. I hate borrowing things as I would like to return them in the same condition and would hate breaking or ruining them. This applies to anything I borrow including car rentals. So as you can imagine when I rent a car I make sure I am fully covered or I will be stressing out the whole duration.
As car hire companies only offer the basic insurance they then try to up-sell you for “full protection”. Basically another way of trying to get as much money out of your pocket as possible. These are called excess insurance protection and start from £10 a day for the duration of your rental and I have seen some going up to £15 a day. Which sometimes can be more than your daily rental charge. In our friend’s case this would be a great option had he taken it, since it would have saved him at least £800 of the bill.
Many people get this option with the rental company as they do have piece of mind and also it is good in case you don’t have enough cash if anything happens. Usually the excess insurance with the rental company doesn’t require you to pay for the damage but they rather just take it up with their insurance.
However there are many companies out in the market who specialise in selling excess car rental insurance and they are a lot cheaper than the rental companies. You can buy excess only for the duration of your rental or if you rent often you can buy a yearly protection for any rentals and this is usually the cheapest option, especially if you rent more than 3 times a year. You can always do the maths and see what works best for you.
I personally bought the yearly worldwide option for only £57 per year which I consider a bargain for having that extra piece of mind. I wish our friend had asked about this before he rented since this would have saved him from paying a very sour £1000 bill for a scratch. Though I hope this article helps someone else before they rent. 🙂
It is definitely worth paying a little extra money rather than paying substantial amount later on in case something happens.
You can use the comparison site Moneymaxim for the best quote or go directly to Questor insurance ( this is the one I used) or Direct Car Excess Insurance. The last two are also available for cashback via Topcashback which is how I bought my deal with up to 15% cashback.
Every little helps. 🙂
Andy says
Those world-wide insurance policies are available only to European residents :/
Muslim Travel Girl says
I am sure they have something similar in the US and other European countries. Many US based cards offer protection which is not the norm in the UK.
Ali says
Asalam Alaykum
Sounds fabulous but the only problem is that I havent found a islamic single source that says that this type of insurance is halal which makes it a bit ironic that it is being encouraged on this blog/website.
The general ruling for insurance is that its haram since its a form of gambling however given the fact that it is so prevalent the scholars have agreed that certain mandatory insurance is allowed. So for example, in most countries you cant drive a car without a minimum insurance and hence it is allowed to take this but anything above and beyond is not.
Quote : “However, it should be remarked here, that since third party car insurance is a mandatory legal requirement for every car-owner, one can affect this kind of insurance, as it is not possible for one to avoid it. – Muhammad ibn Adam
Darul Iftaa” Source : http://seekershub.org/ans-blog/2010/01/19/islams-position-on-prevalent-forms-of-insurance/
If you are aware of any other scholas or instituitions that say such additional/optional insurances are halal then please do share with me otherwise I would advise you to not take this additional insurance nor encourage other muslims to do it.
If you damage the car , pay up and if you cant afford it then dont rent it in the first place and this is the policy that I follow. Alhamdullilah, I have rented a car perhaps 20 times in my life and contine to do so and only once I had to pay the excess of 800Eur for a small scratch. It was not fun but I can only say Alhamdullilah for the other 19 times and Bismillah for the next time.
Ali
Muslim Travel Girl says
Thanks for your comment. Like many other things, it is a personal choice of someone taking one and their options. You can’t say someone is better not to rent as it might be a necessity but not everyone has the 800euro to pay up. If you read around the site you know I also try to balance both options.
Also this site is read by non-Muslims too who don’t have an issue with insurance.
Asif Younis says
Salaam Ali,
Glad you mentioned this. I was thinking the same thing.
As a frequent traveller I love reading a muslims’ take on destination but advising and compromising on insurance matters isn’t something I was expecting. Regardless of whether non-muslims read it or not, endorsing something that isn’t halal is problematic.
Ali says
Asalam
Sorry, forgot to add this link as well.
http://alqalam.org.uk/fatawa/is-comprehensive-car-insurance-permitted-or-should-third-party-insurance-only-be-taken/
Ali