Rental Vehicle Excess Pack

Our rental car excess add-on covers the insurance excess on any dings, dents or theft to your hire car or hire vehicle while overseas or in Australia.

Travel insurance for car hire excess.

If you hire a vehicle from a car rental company while on your trip and it is involved in an accident, is damaged or is stolen while in your care, Travel with Kit will pay you the excess on the car rental insurance you took our with the car hire company.

The most we will pay is $5,000.

Rental vehicle means only a rented sedan, campervan, hatchback or station wagon, four-wheel drive or mini bus/people mover rented from a licensed motor vehicle rental company.

Rental Vehicle Hire in Australia
In Australia the LDW (Loss Damage Waiver) insurance must be taken out when you hire a rental vehicle and this cover has an excess. You have the option to take out additional cover with the rental vehicle company called Excess Reduction.

If the excess the hire company charges is less than the cover provided under the travel policy ie less than $5,000 you can elect not to take the excess reduction cover with the car hire company because your travel policy will cover the excess up to $5,000.

You must read the terms and conditions relating to both the options provided by the rental vehicle companies as there are exclusions.

Rental Vehicle Hire Overseas
If you are renting a vehicle overseas, the USA for example, you can hire a car without taking any insurance whatsoever.

The hirer’s/driver’s liability is therefore the full cost of repairs and any third party damage. Depending on the accident or damage this could amount to a substantial sum.

Therefore, our travel insurance policy requires you to take out some insurance cover with the rental vehicle company because our insurance excess cover with a maximum benefit of $5,000 will not be enough cover in the case of a serious accident. Even if you take out their insurance cover, the excess with their policies can still be $15k to $20k.

This means you need to check the excess you will be liable to pay with their insurance, and take an excess reduction option with the hire car company if it’s greater than $5,000 because your travel policy will only cover you up to $5,000 excess.

Note that our cover is for licensed rental companies such as Hertz, Europcar, Avis, Budget or Thrifty, not for car share programs like Car Nextdoor or Go Get.

Keep in mind

• You must have a signed rental agreement from a licensed car rental company and have taken an insurance option on your car hire. In addition to ‘What we don’t cover at all’, we will not pay if
  • you use a rental vehicle not in accordance with the rental agreement
  • you use a rental vehicle to transport items other than personal luggage

  Very specific and strict conditions apply. Not all rules and exclusions have been listed here. Please see the Combined Product Disclosure Statement and Policy Wording for full details.