CarInsuRent Review: How I Handle Rental Car Insurance
We’ve already been driving for eight hours from the Rocky Mountains to the Sand Dunes. It was almost midnight. Completely dark in the desert, without another car in sight. Both of us were fighting to be awake when we almost missed the left turn. We didn’t crash. We swerved right on time, and suddenly we were both wide awake.
After hugging each other and taking a moment to realize we were still alive, we checked the car. Thank goodness, it didn’t have any scratches! Because we didn’t get any car insurance for this trip.
I understand why most people don’t tick that box to get insurance for a rental car. It’s just expensive. And often for long trips, the total premium is so expensive it that it ends up so close to the potential damage payment.
So when I heard about CarInsuRent and car hire excess insurance, I was surprised at how affordable it is. Affordable enough that it makes no sense to get the counter insurance. Plus, I was surprised to see a 4.8 rating on Trustpilot for an insurance company.
So, in this review, I’ll tell you more about car hire excess insurance, and whether you should get or skip it.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, including a partnership with CarInsuRent. That means I may earn a small commission if you buy through my links, at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products I actually use, love, and trust. Opinions are 100% my own. Read my full disclosure here.
Why This Isn’t Really About Accidents
The main argument for getting a rental car insurance is just in case an accident happens. That’s exactly why you skip it, especially if you’re an experienced driver and have never had an accident.
But in our experience, that’s not the main reason to get insurance.
The first reason, as cheesy as it sounds, is peace of mind. It’s having the freedom to fully be present on your road trip, or whatever adventure you’re on.
It wasn’t only that midnight when I was worried the car had damage. I was worried the whole trip! I just wished I’d paid the $20 for our 2-day trip.
But there’s a second reason, and it has nothing to do with how well you drive.
We’ve read a lot about rental companies’ shady practices, especially the budget ones. Stories of being charged for damages you didn’t cause, or for damage that happened before or after the rental.
Earlier this month, Matthias and I rented a car from Centauro in Barcelona. We’ve rented cars several times in several countries, so we’re used to taking photos and a video of the car before we drive off.
Good thing we did. We noticed scratches on the front that weren’t recorded in the rental company’s own contract photos. We went back to the counter. The staff acknowledged it, said the marks probably hadn’t been caught in the previous check, and said they’d add them to the record.
Nothing bad happened. We got our full €1,500 deposit back the next day. But if we hadn’t had our own proof, that deposit could have gone the other way.
These are the main reasons why car hire insurance makes sense. You avoid paying high out-of-pocket costs if the rental car is damaged or stolen. You don’t have to stress about unexpected repair charges when you return the vehicle. Plus, buying an independent policy beforehand is usually much cheaper than buying the rental company’s expensive daily waiver.
What are the Typical Rental Car Insurance
Before I explain what car hire excess insurance is, let’s first talk about the insurance you’re offered at the counter when you rent a car.
Normally, you’re offered different plans in tiers. It usually looks like this:
Basic cover, already included in your rate. This is the CDW, or Collision Damage Waiver. This prevents you from having to pay to repair or replace the car if it is damaged in an accident or any other event outside of your control.
But it doesn’t mean that “you pay nothing.” It just means “your liability is capped.”
Without any CDW, if you crash a rental and the repair costs €12,000, you owe €12,000. What CDW does is waive the rental company’s right to charge you the full cost of damage. But the first chunk of any damage is still yours. That chunk is the excess. That’s what they sell you for an upgrade.
In case with our Spain rental: the CDWis included, the excess €1,500. If the repair bill is €4,000, the CDW absorbs €2,500 of it, and we pay the first €1,500. If the repair bill is €800, the CDW absorbs nothing, because the whole bill sits below our excess. We pay all €800.
The upgrade, usually called Super CDW or Full Coverage. This reduces your excess to zero. It’s also the expensive one, often up to €25 a day for limited cover. Spoiler: This is what you’re buying when you buy a car hire excess insurance.
Then the add-ons. Roadside assistance, glass and tire cover, personal protection. On our US rental, roadside assistance alone was $6.99 a day.
So what is car hire excess insurance?
It’s a separate policy you buy from an independent insurance company before your trip. It doesn’t replace the CDW. It covers the excess.
So why not just get the Full Coverage that reduces the excess to zero?
Because the upgrade is expensive.
Rental companies keep their prices competitive by only including the mandatory insurances. And because everyone joins the pool because everyone is required, it’s cheaper. But the full coverage is optional, not everyone joins, so it’s expensive.
They are also banking that as long as they can lure you to rent a car, they can upsell you. That’s why renting a car usually starts cheap but you end up paying a high price after the counter tells you all what you could be charge in case things happen.
An independent insurer like CarInsuRent isn’t trying to upsell you at a rental desk. It charges you the real cost of the insurance.
How does Car Insurance Excess Works
Decline the expensive upgrade at the counter and rent with just the standard CDW, which is the already included in your basic rent. If anything happens to the car, the rental company charges you the excess. Then you file a claim with your excess insurance, and they reimburse you.
That’s honest tradeoff though: it’s a reimbursement. You pay the rental company first and get the money back after. If a €1,500 charge would hurt your trip budget even temporarily, that’s worth factoring in.
I would assume though that you have that money with the rental company because they usually charge you security deposit, which what they usually charge in your credit card.
How Cheap Is Car Hire Excess Insurance Compared to Full Coverage?
This is the part that surprised me the most that’s why I’m considering getting a car hire insurance excess as compared to the full coverage.
As of 2026, CarInsuRent’s single-trip cover starts from around $9.56 a day for a 7-day trip and $17.9 for a one-day trip. The annual policies are where it gets interesting: $129.90 a year for a regional plan covering Europe, the USA and Canada, Australia, or the UK, and $159.90 to $319.80 a year for an annual worldwide car hire excess insurance plan, depending on whether you want $2,500 or $4,500 of cover.
Even if you only plan one trip of a month which what we did in the US, it’s already fully-paid for. And you can do unlimited trips up to 45 days on each trip!
Now compare that with the counter. Full Coverage or Super CDW at the rental desk can run up to €25 a day. On a 10-day rental in Europe, CarInsuRent’s own comparison puts their cover at around €55 against €308 for the equivalent from Sixt.
Here’s what that looks like against our actual rentals:
| Our rental | Exposure | Full coverage upgrade | Excess insurance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spain, Centauro | €1,500 excess | Super CDW, up to ~€25/day | ~$8.49/day, or covered by a $129.90 annual plan |
| Japan, 5 days | ~€295 excess | Full Coverage, typically ~$9-10/day | ~$8.49/day |
| US, Alamo | CDW bundled in the rate | Roadside Plus alone was $6.99/day | ~$8.49/day covers far more |
Look at the Spain row again. One €1,500 excess is more than 11 years of the annual regional plan.
And that’s the honest math. If you rent once a year in a low-excess country like Japan, the difference is small and you can reasonably skip everything. But if you rent even twice a year, or once in a high-excess country, the annual plan basically pays for itself against a single counter upsell, let alone an actual damage charge.
Prices change, so double-check the current rates before you book. But the gap between the counter and an independent policy is not a small one. It’s the whole argument.
