Yes, deductibles are the American expression equivalent to the term excess in English.
Excess (or deductible) means the amount you are liable for should any damage occur to your hire vehicle whilst you are in control of it. When you have CDW (Collision Damage Waiver) with your vehicle, it covers (check Ts and Cs) all the costs of damage except for the excess and any excluded areas of the car (see below).
For example, if you caused £2500 of damage to your hire car and have an £800 excess you would have to pay £800 before the rental company will pay the rest. To protect yourself, you may want to take out car hire excess insurance which will generally cover the excess for situations such as accidents.
Many policies also cover tyres, windows, roof and the underbody of cars (often excluded areas) though we do strongly recommend reading the terms and conditions of your insurance policy to find out what it does cover.
Should you have any further queries, please contact our car hire insurance team who will be happy to help you!