Credit cards with complimentary domestic car rental excess insurance

Whether you’re driving somewhere familiar or headed off on an all new adventure, a road trip can be a fantastic holiday option – as long as you trust whoever’s in charge of the music. If you’re looking to hire a car, whether it’s for a road trip or some other purpose, then you’ll have the choice of purchasing car rental excess insurance from a hire company. Before you do, though, check your credit card if you have one. You could already be covered.

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Here’s a quick summary of what rental car excess insurance is, a snapshot of some of the credit cards that offer it as part of travel insurance policies and some tips on how you can get it if you don’t currently have it.

What is car rental excess insurance?

Car rental excess insurance is designed to cover you for the excess you’d otherwise be required to pay in the event that your hire car is damaged or stolen. When you hire a car, some insurance cover is usually included in the fee. However, there would typically be a car insurance excess, which is the amount you pay out of pocket if you make an eligible claim under the hire company’s standard liability cover.

There may be the option for you to pay more on car insurance to the car hire company directly to lower the excess, even to $0. This is known as rental excess insurance. Keep in mind that these types of insurance policies only cover you for the excess amount you are liable for and are subject to a range of exclusions.

Another option is car hire excess insurance offered through your credit card. If you are involved in an accident in a hire car, typically the excess will be charged to your credit card by the hire car company. If you have rental car excess insurance as a complimentary feature of your credit card, this charge would typically be reimbursed for an eligible claim.

Excesses on rental car damage can be quite expensive, and up to thousands of dollars in some cases, so it’s worth carefully considering any insurance policy that you take out, either directly or indirectly, if you are hiring a vehicle, and reading the fine print.

Learn more: Rental car insurance in Australia

Which credit cards include complimentary domestic rental car excess cover?

Canstar Research reviewed credit cards listed on our database, and found that there are a number of companies that do offer complimentary credit card rental insurance with their products.

The providers in the list below are sorted alphabetically by name. Bear in mind that some of these providers offer complimentary rental vehicle excess cover for overseas travel only.

It’s also important to remember that there are eligibility criteria that have to be met for this cover to kick in, which could include things such as charging all or part of travel costs to the card.

Before committing to any particular credit card, check upfront with your provider and read the Target Market Determination (TMD), Key Facts Sheet and other important policy documents so you understand details about any relevant car excess cover.

Credit card providers who offer complimentary rental vehicle excess cover

• American Express
• ANZ
• Bank of Melbourne (Overseas Only)
• BankSA (Overseas Only)
• Bendigo Bank
• Beyond Bank
• BOQ
• Commonwealth Bank (Overseas Only)
• Great Southern Bank (Overseas Only)
• Heritage Bank
• HSBC
• ING (Overseas Only)
• NAB
• Qudos Bank (Overseas Only)
• St.George Bank (Overseas Only)
• Suncorp Bank
• Westpac

Source: www.canstar.com.au – 23/11/2023. Based on personal credit cards on Canstar’s database that offer rental vehicle excess cover as complimentary insurance. To be eligible for insurance, you must take out hire car insurance when renting the vehicle from a registered hire car provider. Please see the individual card product documents for full terms and conditions of complimentary insurance policies

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Do you need rental car excess insurance?

Whether or not you need car hire excess insurance comes down to your personal circumstances. However, rental car insurance excesses can be an unexpected expense that could have a major impact on the cost of your trip.

How much excess you would have to pay in the event of an accident should be detailed in the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and terms and conditions provided by the hire car company. It’s a good idea to understand what costs you might be up for if you have an accident before deciding on a hire car company.

It is difficult to provide a general estimate of how much rental car excess insurance would cost the average hire car driver, as there are so many variables involved, such as the company issuing it, the person taking it out, and the location and risks associated with how the rental car is going to be used. So it’s difficult to compare policies unless you obtain a few quotes yourself. However, the price of rental car excess insurance is typically much less than the insurance excess would cost if you were to have an accident. And for some credit card holders, this type of insurance could also be complimentary (providing the card’s terms and conditions for the insurance are met).

So, if you’re interested in this type of insurance for a hire car in Australia, before you buy an insurance policy from a rental car agent, it could be a good idea to check with your provider to see if you already have the option for credit card car rental insurance.

If you’re in the market for a new credit card that offers hire car excess insurance, or if you just want to get a new insurance policy for your own car in Australia, you can compare your options with Canstar.

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