22 January 2025

Which countries can be covered with a European Car Hire Excess Policy?

Hiring a car? Find out whether you need European or Worldwide car hire excess insurance

If you are hiring a car, you may want top up your cover with car hire excess insurance. These policies can reimburse you for any excess you have to pay out on your rental car and for costs relating to damaged wheels or a cracked windscreen. They can also cover other areas that may be excluded from your collision damage waiver including the roof and the underbody up to the policy limits. Car hire excess insurance is available as either short term or annual policies and with either Worldwide or European cover.

Sound simple so far? Maybe, but look a little closer and you will discover that not all definitions of European cover under these policies are the same.

There are more than 15 car hire excess insurance providers available through the MoneyMaxim comparison service and only a few of them give the same explanation of 'Europe'.

Some companies refer to countries that are within the 'continent of Europe', others to European Union member states and many to European countries 'to the west of the Ural mountains'.

If you are searching for a car hire excess policy, don't worry, you don't need to know the EU member states or where the Ural mountains are! Through the MoneyMaxim Car Hire Excess Comparison Service, we make it much more simple. You can enter the specific country you will be visiting and any suitable policies will be displayed for you.

In addition to a definition of Europe, the car hire excess insurance policies can sometimes contain exclusions, such as one company will not cover Iceland and several exclude Russia or Belarus. What may be most disconcerting is that some of these European policies actually cover Tunisia and Morocco which are geographically in Africa, and some also cover Israel which is in Asia! Again these will be taken into account by MoneyMaxim when you run a quote for those individual countries.

If you are travelling with your hire car in more than one country, then all of these countries would need to be included in the policy for you to have complete cover. Either run separate quotes for each country, or, check which countries are covered under the policy details when you run your first quote.

If you are visiting an island then you will need to enter the country that they belong to. For example, the Canary Islands, which include Lanzarote, Tenerife, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria, are part of Spain. Madeira and the Azores are both Portuguese.

To confuse matters though (sorry) if you are hiring in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man you will find them in the drop down country selection list as some policies have different rules for these specific islands.

If you are a UK resident and are visiting either the Channel Islands, Isle of Man or Northern Ireland you will need to tick the box to say that you will be hiring within your country of residence so that the policies can be tailored accordingly.

Although we endeavour to keep our service updated, policies can change so it is important that, when you have chosen a policy, you read through the policy terms and conditions. Bear in mind that currently all the companies exclude claims relating to travel in a country or area where the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has advised against travel. For this reason, sometimes despite offering cover in a particular country, a region within that country may not be covered. If you are unsure after reading a policy document, a quick call to the relevant company can provide you with the information you need.

Image courtesy of: Pixabay