Car Hire Insurance Policies Sales from Zurich have been suspended – we explore alternative options

Recently Zurich Insurance announced that they would no longer be offering car hire excess insurance policies directly from their website.

In a update published they stated that from the 1st October 2022, Zurich would no longer be providing car hire excess insurance to new customers. Existing customers would not be affected, at least until the renewal of their policy of course.

This means that customers who have previously bought short term policies from them or are looking to renew an annual policy would no longer be able to do so directly with the company. However, it does not mean that. Zurich have totally withdrawn from the car hire excess insurance business.

MoneyMaxim, through its car hire excess insurance comparison service, offer a range of policies, including policies arranged by Cover-more, which is a subsidiary of Zurich. These are sold under the brand names of icarhireinsurance or carhireexcess, both long standing members of the MoneyMaxim car hire insurance panel.

However whereas in the past icarhireinsurance policies were underwritten by Zurich they are now underwritten by Newline Insurance Company Limited who are authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority here in the UK - so a change there too.

Carhirexcess insurance policies have been underwritten by Newline for a number of years, having become part of the Cover-more stable more recently.

Following the changes it is very worthwhile running a car hire insurance comparison if you are an existing Zurich user, as there are a number of other insurers who use Newline as a underwriter, and of course many others as well who may suit you better going forward.