16 July 2012

Peer to peer car clubs

Car club insurance excesses can be high and protection is available - but only in some case - we explain why.

Owning and running a car is expensive, and according to the Economist, this is driving an increasing number of consumers to take the decision to avoid ownership altogether and hire a car when needed. They also note an increasing willingness for owners of cars to try to recoup some of their costs by signing up with peer-to-peer car hire exchanges though these are still mostly centred around larger cities.

Many of these however have will hold the car club member responsible for a quite sizeable excess which is where Car Hire Excess Insurance policies can help. Excess insurers will cover that excess, and damage to other parts of the car such as the tyres and wheels, underbody and roof.

An important point to note though is that these policies cover car clubs, such as Zip Car or Enterprise Car Club, where the cars are owned and managed by a central organisation. However they do not cover cases where the cars are hired on a peer to peer basis - i.e. the car is being hired by one private individual to another.

If the car club you are joining meets the above criteria do look at the policies open to you at car club insurance excess policies, but please do not consider one of these if you are looking at a peer to peer arrangement.