What Insurance Cover is Provided with an SLI Policy?

We explain what happens if you need to make an insurance claim on your SLI Policy.

This insurance covers you for claims made by third parties for either damage to their property (say their car) or injuries to themselves.

In Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and most parts of the Middle and Far East this is normally already included within the minimum insurance provided by your hire company.

In the US, Canada and the Caribbean (and a few other countries around the world) whilst some liability insurance may be included in the car hire package, it is likely to be at a level which does not offer enough cover.

For instance in a number of US states the legal minimum level of liability insurance a car rental company must provide is below $15,000. If you do not take any extra insurance you could be left with a large bill if you are involved in a serious accident. 'Top up' or Supplementary Liability Insurance can be bought to increase cover to a higher limit.

It is important to make sure that you do have primary third party cover from your rental firm even if it is to a low level. This is because the level of protection offered by policies shown on our service is either lower - or nothing at all - if you do not have the primary cover from the rental firm.

If you have bought one of the policies that do not offer primary cover and you did not have the State Minimum or local primary cover you could end up with no third party cover at all - so it's really important to check this.

For a detailed breakdown of US minimum SLI levels read our guide.

It is important to note that the 'primary' liability insurance supplied by your local rental firm would provide cover for the first part of any claim, with the supplementary cover coming into force for larger claims.

This is why the insurance policies offering Supplementary Liability Insurance are so affordable - because most claims are fairly modest and therefore are covered by the first part through the rental firm - it's only when third party damage is for a sum greater than the State Minimum Liability limit that your policy would be called upon.

If you are involved in an accident you should refer to your car hire insurance company as they will want to get involved and hep you with the claim..

Details of companies offering supplemental liability cover are found when asking for a quote from the MoneyMaxim car hire insurance service. Policies bought through this service are normally a fraction of the cost of policies bought at the car rental desk and can top up any locally provided liability insurance to $1m.

Visit the MoneyMaxim car hire insurance comparison site - 100 quotes reviewed in 60 seconds!

If you are looking for car hire quotes visit our car rental comparison service here

This content was last reviewed on 06/03/2024

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