Many travellers hire a car at their destination – at the airport, or close to their accommodation – and quietly assume that if something happens to the car, their travel insurance will somehow cover it too. That's a myth, and it's worth seeing clearly what travel insurance actually covers on a trip with a hire car, and what a completely different product is there to solve.
- Travel insurance protects the people – accident, illness, baggage, assistance – not the bodywork of the hired vehicle.
- For damage to the hire car itself, the answer is the hire company's own excess waiver at the desk, a bank card's built-in hire-car cover, or a separately purchased excess insurance – these are separate products, each with its own terms.
- Where the two genuinely meet: if you or a travelling companion are injured in an accident in the hire car, your travel insurance's medical and accident elements, and its assistance service, apply in exactly the same way as in any other road situation.
What does travel insurance cover when you're driving a hire car?
Its role doesn't change depending on whether you're sitting in your own car or a hired one: travel insurance is there for emergency medical care, accidents and the assistance that goes with them. If there's a collision and you're injured, the assistance hotline organises the care and the necessary steps in exactly the same way as after a pedestrian accident. One point is worth watching, though: baggage cover often limits or excludes theft from an unattended car – the baggage cover and sub-limits article and the exclusions map article go into this in detail. It's not worth leaving valuables in plain sight in a hire car either.
For damage to the hire car itself, there are three solutions
First, there's the hire company's own offer at the desk: an excess waiver service sold at the counter, which is typically the most convenient option, though not necessarily the cheapest. Second, many bank cards come with hire-car cover built in – this usually requires you to pay the rental with that particular card, and it often excludes certain car categories or countries. Third, you can take out standalone excess insurance in advance, from home, which covers the excess set out in the hire agreement if there's a claim. The three solutions aren't mutually exclusive but alternatives – which one is worth it always depends on the terms of that particular hire.
What's worth knowing before you book?
The small print in the hire agreement matters at least as much as the travel insurance terms: check who's allowed to drive, how large the excess set out in the contract is, which kinds of damage are assessed separately – tyres, the windscreen and chassis damage often have their own rules – and whether there's any restriction on crossing borders. It's worth taking photos or a video of the car's condition at pick-up and drop-off – that's strong evidence if a dispute ever arises. For travellers taking their own car abroad, the driving abroad by car, motorbike or motorhome article sets out similar logic, except there the question is MTPL and casco cover, while here it's the hire agreement.
The same thinking applies if you hire a motorbike, scooter or quad locally instead of a car – for these, the range of hire-desk cover and the exclusions (a missing helmet, say, or the wrong licence category) are often narrower still than for a car. If there's an accident, it's just as worth calling your travel insurer's assistance line, exactly as the calling the assistance hotline article describes – the type of vehicle doesn't change the fact that you're the one the cover protects – it does, however, affect whether the accident counts as an insured event: quad biking, and under several policy terms motorcycling too, is only covered with a separate sports add-on, so it's worth checking this in your own policy terms before you set off.
Frequently asked questions on this topic
If I crash the hire car, can I call my travel insurer's assistance line?
Yes, if you or a travelling companion is injured: assistance helps organise medical care and the accident element in exactly the same way as in any other situation. The claim for the vehicle itself runs in parallel, through the hire company or the excess insurance.
Is it enough that my bank card provides hire-car cover?
It might be – but you need to check the card's terms to find out: which car categories and which countries it applies to, and what payment condition it's tied to. It's the same logic as the travel insurance that comes with your bank card article describes: the cover can be real, you just need to know the details.
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