Full coverage plus insurance. Car rental - how to save on insurance

When renting a car, the rental company will offer you several insurance options to choose from. Now we will explain what all these strange letters mean and how you can save money.

1. TLP (Third Leability Protection) or TPL (Third Party Liability)- insurance of cars of third parties injured through your fault. In Russia it is called OSAGO. This insurance must be included in the price initially. Without it, the car will not be issued.

2. CDW (Collision Damage Waiver)- insurance of the rented car against damage. More familiar to us CASCO, but without theft risk insurance... It should be noted that this type of insurance involves a mandatory franchise (indicated in the contract as EXCESS). That is, the limit of liability that you share with the insurer. Loss amount not covered.

For example, the deductible is € 200. The car has suffered damage. It doesn't matter whose fault. The amount of damage is 1000 euros. You pay 200 euros, Insurance Company 800 euros. Or, if you cause damage to the car in the amount of 100 euros, you cover the damage in full. The deductible amount will be blocked on your bank card until the car is returned to the rental company, plus a few days to settle the formalities.

3. SCDW (Super Collision Damage Waiver) – CASCO without deductible... That is, clause 2 CDW with fully covered costs. If you hit a car, scratch, - do not pay anything to anyone. They returned the keys, waved to the distributor and flew home.

4. TW (Theft Waiver) or TP (Theft Protection)- protection against theft.

5. LDW - CDW + TW- that is, clause 2 + clause 4 - car insurance against damage and theft - CASCO, but with a deductible.

6. SLDW- this is a super CASCO, covers all costs, both with damage and theft. Everything that happens to the car is all at the expense of the insurance company.

7. PAI and SPAI (Personal Accident Insurance and Super Personal Accident Insurance)- insurance that covers damage to the health of the driver and passengers. It is clearly superfluous, since you already have a life insurance policy for those traveling abroad.

How to save on car rental insurance

If you drive at home without CASCO insurance, you are ready to pay the cost of repairing a rental car in case of unpleasant surprises, you are completely confident in yourself and hope for a case, you can not read further. If you prefer to pay and spend your vacation in peace, we will tell you where and how to apply for an SLDW - full CASCO is 5 times cheaper than from a distributor.

We go to the website of any distributor and see how much it costs two weeks to rent a car, for example, at the airport in Rome.

The total cost of a car rental is 195.68 euros. CASCO insurance with a deductible is already included in the price, we do not show them so as not to take up space. The deductible is EUR 1900. But for full CASCO without a deductible, you have to pay an additional 36.60 euros per day! Week 256.20 euros plus the rental price. So, if we want to rent a car for 2 weeks and get full insurance, we have to pay more than 500 euros.

How to save on a franchise

It is necessary to arrange insurance in advance, before concluding a car rental agreement "Car Hire Excess Insurance"... That is, to insure the franchise with a third company. Advanced tourists always do this. And managers in rental companies do not like this, because, as you can see for yourself, insurance for them is a significant part of the profit.

How it works

Take out insurance before renting.
If the rental car is damaged during the rental, you pay the cost within the franchise. Collect documents - a police certificate, which you can get at the scene of an accident or by dropping into the nearest department (the distributor will require it in any case, so make a copy), a report of the rental company on damage, an invoice with the amount that the distributor withheld from you for the damage caused ...
Send all documents to the insurer (in electronic form) and within 3-15 days you will receive money on the card.

Checked - it works! The benefits are very significant!

Where to get insurance for a car rental franchise

This type of insurance is widespread abroad. Naturally, such a policy cannot be issued anywhere in our country. Most Western companies (99.9%) do not insure citizens of Russia, the CIS and some countries of Eastern Europe... Therefore, the choice is not great.

WorldWideInsure

Domestic tourists are familiar with the British company WorldWideInsure. For example, the cost of a franchise insurance in the same place in Italy for 14 days is 94 euros, which is equal to three days of insurance from the rental company! For a short period of time, insurance will cost about 5 euros per day, compared to 37 at the distributor.

If during the year you often rent a car in different countries, we recommend that you get an annual policy from WWI. It costs about 140 euros.

And if you travel 1-3 times a year, most likely it will be enough for you to arrange one-time policies for each lease machines and do it better in a company - Rentalcover.

Rentalcover is the largest insurer

In addition to WWI, Russian citizens also insure company... This company is originally from Australia. A startup that appeared only 2 years ago. During this short period of time, the company entered the TOP of the largest fast-growing Australian companies. Rentalkover specializes exclusively in franchise insurance. In terms of the volume of insurance business, Rentalcover overtook WWI several times in two years.

One of the most famous and largest Rentalcars brokers works with Rentalcover. If you book a car through Rentalkars, then you can add franchise insurance at the stage of booking and payment, without even going to the insurer's website. But! We found that in this case, insurance will cost more, Rentalcars adds its commission to the cost.

Therefore, we recommend ordering a car from a broker, and buying insurance directly on the website. Our cozy editorial office has used their insurance several times this year and was very pleased. Moreover, it has been tested on our own sad experience - the insurance from Rentalcover works! We can safely recommend them.

Of the advantages, it is worth highlighting the fact that the site has a round-the-clock chat with the support service (in English, of course). WWI, by the way, takes a long time to respond to letters.

It is very easy to buy a policy from Rentalcover:

Indicate the country and date of travel.
You will immediately receive a cost estimate.
Fill in information about yourself - name, date of birth, phone number, email.
You pay by card and get your policy right there. You don't need to print it, just keep it in the mail

Important! The policyholder and the person signing the lease must be the same person. And everyone who is in the rental agreement is automatically covered by the insurance policy.

The site has Russian, it is automatic, so it is very clumsy, we recommend switching to English.

In connection with the increasing cases of refusal to issue visas to the Schengen countries, we recommend that you insure tourists against the inability to travel or can not leave. In addition, there are a number of other "accidents", insurance against which will help tourists to reduce or completely avoid material losses. Since our company is successfully working with the insurance company ERV (JSC "ERV Travel Insurance"), we offer you the insurance rules of this particular company.

Remember:

Travel cancellation insurance is voluntary.
Travel agency commission from insurance premium is not paid.
The issued insurance confirms the fact of the conclusion of the contract between natural person, i.e. a tourist and an insurance company represented by its Attorney, i.e. travel agency that acts on behalf of and on behalf of the insurance company.
All monetary settlements for an insured event occur directly with the insurance company, in this case in ERV (JSC "ERV Travel Insurance") .

Attention!

1. It is impossible to include travel cancellation insurance in the application if it is issued for less than in 5 days before the tour starts.

2. If the tour is presented in $ - cancellation insurance is given in $, if the tour is presented in Euro - cancellation insurance is given in Euro.

Cases covered by travel cancellation insurance plus:

1. Emergency hospitalization *

2. Injuries of any complexity hindering the trip *

3. Especially dangerous infections, as well as "Children's infections" *

4. Death *

5. Refusal or delay in issuing a visa, as well as refusal to enter the country *

6. Subpoena (as a victim, witness or expert)

7. Damage to property (more than 70% loss)

8. Delay or early return of the insured from the trip

9. Identification of technical malfunctions, failures, failure in the operation of machine devices and other unforeseen circumstances that have occurred with the means of water transport (liner, boat, icebreaker, motor ship, yacht, etc.)

10. Early return of the Insured from the trip when emergency hospitalization or the death of a close relative or close relative of a spouse

11. Outpatient treatment (including sick leave) *

12. Natural disasters preventing the travel or return of the Insured from the trip *

13. Insurance covers Travel Companions *

* The insurance covers the Insured person and his close relatives, as well as close relatives of the spouse of the Insured person.

Close relatives- father, mother, children, legal spouses, brothers and sisters, grandchildren, grandparents

Special insurance conditions:

insurance of all citizens, including non-residents of the Russian Federation
insurance applies to all passports (with and without visas)
if the tourist had a "visa refusal", then we accept for insurance after 3 months

- the choice of many tourists. Indeed, if you like driving in principle, then in many cases car rental will be the best solution for exploring the country or area where you went. Moreover, now, in the days of the developed Internet, it has become quite simple to organize it - you can book a car in any country in the world without getting up from the couch. Moreover, choosing between by different companies and . You will receive the car directly at the airport of arrival - no problem.

But still, even now, when the service has become as customer-friendly as possible, it is very important to pay attention to some issues in order not to get into a mess. The most important of these is, of course, insurance... We will talk about this in this article.

Let's make a reservation right away: the world is huge and diverse, but the rules for car rental are more or less unified everywhere. This is due to the fact that large rent-a-car operate all over the world. Globalization is bearing fruit. Of course, different parts of the planet may have their own nuances (therefore, when going somewhere in Zimbabwe, you should inquire about them), but the general outline remains the same.

The rental company itself, when concluding a contract, can offer you several insurance options that differ in terms of conditions and prices. Most likely, you will come across the following terms during registration:

Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) Is the insurance of the car itself against damage that may be caused to it through your fault. Something like a familiar to all Russian motorists CASCO, can sometimes also be called LossDamageWaiver (LDW)... The notorious concept of "franchise" is inextricably linked with this type of insurance, which is so much talked about in all travel forums (and which we will talk about below), although in fact there is a franchise in all these cases. The main type of insurance.
TheftInsurance (TI) orTheftProtection (TP)- as the name suggests, theft insurance. Not the most demanded service when traveling in some Switzerland or Iceland, but by no means superfluous in less safe countries.
Personal Accident Insurance- this insurance already covers the damage that you yourself can in case of an accident. That is, a kind of medical insurance. Of course, travelers usually have medical insurance, but it makes sense to compare the conditions in the available one with the offered ones. Perhaps PAI will come in handy for you.
Third Party Liability Insurance (TPL) - in fact, we all are familiar with OSAGO, that is, insurance of cars of third parties that have suffered through your fault.

In any case, the key point of insurance for rent-a-car itself is CDW, and the most important aspect of CDW is the notorious “ franchise". What is it? Let's figure it out.

Franchise or all-inclusive?

Franchise speaking simple language- it limitation of your liability... She equals maximum amount which you will pay in case of occurrence insured event... Everything that comes out in excess of this amount is paid by the insurance company. The average deductible is 800 euros, although it can vary significantly in one direction or another. Somewhere you will be offered a tariff with a franchise of 350 euros, somewhere they will ask for all 2000.

There are also options for insurance without any deductible - the so-called "full insurance", for which 100% of the costs of the insured event is borne by the company. Usually such a scheme is called Super CDW(SCDW), Full collision damage waiver(FDW, FDCW), or quite simply - SuperCover... Naturally, such insurance will cost significantly more than usual. Obviously, the franchise is most significant in the context of CDW - in the event of a car theft, this amount is no longer very important.

A franchise is good if you are very confident in yourself: you will give very little money for insurance, and if nothing happens to the car, you will save a lot. But in accident case you will have to fork out, because with a franchise, the insurance company will pay only serious damage in excess of the amount of your liability. You will have to pay for minor damages, despite the seemingly issued insurance.

By the way, since we're talking about minor damage - keep in mind that insurance does not always cover the headlights and especially, wheels... This often turns out to be an additional paid (albeit inexpensive) option. It's up to you how to proceed; insurance seems like a waste of money to many people if nothing bad happens. And a completely different conversation, if something does happen.

"Superinsurance" is more often chosen by drivers with little experience, or in the case when it is supposed to travel in rather difficult conditions. The pleasure is very expensive, and the point is not even in absolute terms, but in the fact that with a sufficiently long lease, such insurance eats up too large a percentage of the total amount. Therefore, those who plan to rent a car for a long enough period, and at the same time do not want to get involved with a franchise, should consider another option - which we will talk about a little later.

There is one more interesting point: the possibility of refunding the franchise(Refundable Excess). In this case, in the event of an accident or other incident, of course, they will immediately keep the money within the franchise - but after that they will return it (if you follow the formal procedure clearly, pay attention to the rules of your company). Previously, to obtain this service, it was required to contact a third-party insurance company, but now the refund of the franchise is almost always offered by both rent-a-car and brokers. As a result, you run the risk of not losing money, but only parting with it for a while - a big argument in favor of cheaper insurance.

Is there any alternative to what rent-a-car offers?

Although at first glance it seems that the system is perfect, quite a few customers of car rental companies refuse to design full insurance from rent-a-car. Instead, they go to third-party insurance companies to contract with them.

Third-party companies offer exactly coverage of the deductible or your liability not covered by rent-a-car insurance. That is, without rent-a-car insurance, you will first have to pay, but then you will receive money back from a third-party insurance. It would seem, what's the point if you can return the franchise anyway? There's a meaning.

Firstly, such insurance is issued not to the car, but to the driver... That is, you can issue it for a certain period of time, for example, for a year - and use it by renting different cars in different companies.
Second, third party insurance covers a much larger number of insured events and costs than conventional rent-a-car insurance. For example, the loss of the keys to the car, or its evacuation. So it becomes much quieter.
Thirdly, such insurance is very inexpensive- hardly more than 50 euros per year. It is not at all expensive to arrange it, and spend much less nerves. And with a long lease (say, for a month), the savings become obvious.

Now - about the bad. Not all such companies work with citizens of the former USSR - in particular, the leader of this industry, Insurance4carhire.com, does not work. Fortunately, there are alternatives to this (certainly worthy) company in Europe. The two most obvious are British companies worldwideinsure.com and questor-insurance.co.uk, both of which have received positive reviews on the RuNet.

There are other disadvantages - in the event of an insured event, you will have to a lot of paperwork(however, in fairness - the same applies to the return of the franchise on a regular CDW). After all, the money will be returned only if the procedure established by the insurer is strictly followed. For example, if you don't provide Required documents regarding your accident, nothing will come of the police. Moreover, you will have no more than 30 days to collect documents, and you need to report the occurrence of an insured event immediately.

To choose for you

The attitude to insurance is a personal matter for everyone: some prefer to overpay for peace of mind, others are confident and wish to save money. Many people change their minds with experience.

As noted at the beginning of the article, the car rental market is very developed, especially in Europe, and offers everyone a convenient option. Most importantly, do not be afraid of seeming difficulties: insurance was created just to relieve you of anxiety. Not for nothing in English language the very word "insurance" comes from "sure" - "confidence".

The insurance company ERV, according to tourists, has high rating... US thrice I had to be convinced of this while receiving medical care under their policy in Thailand. The insurer works smoothly and efficiently. The letters of guarantee for payment arrived at the hospitals quickly and we never I didn’t have to leave passports or money as a pledge (a common practice with other insurances), while waiting for the approval of payment of bills.
In addition, ERV insurance offers protection for wider range of risks than its competitors.

Of course, each option from additional services increases the cost of the policy... What is convenient is the various ERV tariff plans (programs), which differ in the set of insured risks. This makes it possible to choose the best option, taking into account the peculiarities of health and the area in which you are heading.
How to choose a set of services taking into account individual needs and do not overpay? Read on.

To begin with - where to buy?
In 2019, ERV insurance can be bought both from the company itself and on comparison services (aggregators) medical policies- such as Polis812, and Instore.travel... (Until October 2017, ERV policies were sold on, but the insurance company did not renew the cooperation agreement with this aggregator.)
Prices are the same everywhere, since aggregators charge a commission not from clients, but from insurance companies, however, it is more convenient to register on Polis812, Instore.travel and Sravn.ru, since the site of ERV itself is often buggy.

When buying, both from the insurer itself and from aggregators, we have to choose one of the standard programs, which will be discussed below.

Note! The minimum insurance amount at ERV for Schengen is $ 40 000 , and for Thailand - $ 100 000 .

By the number and variety of risks from which it protects ERV, no one can compare with this policy, including such good insurance, how Polis AXA and Allianz... Another question is whether you need all the options, which, of course, are reflected in the price. However, compare for yourself.

		Polis AXA
Assistance
Positive reviews from travelers	More than 95%	More than 95%	More than 95%
Leisure	Switched on	Switched on	Switched on
Relief of allergies	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dengue fever	Insured	Insured	Insured
Motorcycle / moped driving	Included	Included	Included
Evacuation of children	In full	Up to 5000 €	In full
Sunburn	Insured	Insured	Not insured
Outpatient clinic visits	Not limited	Not limited	No more than 2
Price increase for a child	Not	Schengen - up to 2 times Asia - up to 10 times	Up to 3.75 times
Exacerbation of chronic diseases	In full	Up to 1000 €	5% of the amount insured
Complication of pregnancy	Up to 31 weeks	Not	Not
Helping a newborn	Yes, in the Optima program	Not	Not
Help with the presence of alcohol in the blood	Yes, in the Optima program	Not	Not
Assistance in terrorist attacks	Yes	Not	Not
Disaster relief	Yes	Not	Not
Online Doctor	Not	Yes	Not
The right to choose the clinic yourself	Not	Yes, in the Premium program	Not
Luggage insurance	2000 $, in the Optima program	600 $, in C and Premium programs	For add. fee
Insurance civil liability	$ 35,000, in the Optima program	5000 $, in the Premium program	For add. fee
Franchise	Not	Not	Turkey only, 25 $
Buying a policy while traveling	Not	Not	Yes
Where can I buy

Tariff plans

If you buy a policy for Polis812, or the website of the ERV company, then two main tariff plans are obvious: Standard Plus and OPTIMA... They differ only in the set of insurance risks. Well, the price. It is likely that the optimal Standard Plus will suit you, and you will not have to overpay for the more expensive OPTIMA. However, it is possible that it is in the OPTIMA plan that the options you really need are included ...

Standard Plus

Policy Standard Plus, one might say, consists of two parts.
The first is a standard set of services required to obtain a Schengen visa: doctor's call, outpatient care, inpatient treatment, etc.
The second is the same "plus" of the tariff plan, an impressive (one and a half dozen risks) set of additional services: exacerbation of chronic diseases, legal assistance, loss of documents, flight delay ... For a complete list, see the insurance comparison service.

OPTIMA

Features of the tariff plan: to the risks that are insured in the Standard Plus policy, baggage insurance, civil liability insurance, assistance in the presence of alcoholic intoxication have been added. The terms of rendering assistance in case of complications in pregnant women have been increased. More details -.
Comparison of packages Standard Plus and OPTIMA - in the table.

Please note: additional options included in the OPTIMA tariff plan increase the cost of the policy almost doubled.

If you do not need insurance of civil liability, assistance with premature birth or alcohol intoxication, then there is no need to overpay.

Full coverage

The mention of the ERV "Full Coverage" program accidentally came across on the Internet. However, there is no such tariff plan either on Sravny.ru, or on Instore.travel, or on the official ERV website.
I asked the insurance company and got the answer:
- The "Full coverage" program is included in the package tours, which are implemented by the tour operator "Pegas". This program exclusive, created only for a tour operator, in this regard, it is impossible to purchase it without a tour package.
Impossible - well, no need 🙂 Having looked at the conditions on the website of the travel agency, I came to the conclusion that it is not of interest to independent travelers. The insurance coverage is minimal (€ 30,000 for Europe, $ 40,000 for Thailand). Everywhere - a deductible of 30 euros or dollars. And assistants in many (but not all) countries are not, but other service companies: for example, in Thailand, Vietnam, Spain, Tunisia -, in Indonesia, China - MedAssist International. It looks like everything is designed to reduce the cost of the policy and tour package.

ERV insurance for pregnant women

Any ERV plan provides assistance with complications of pregnancy. But the conditions of the Standard Plus and OPTIMA programs are significantly different.
In the package Standard Plus help included until 24th week pregnancy at the start date of the trip. An insured event is a pregnancy complication that occurs no later than 10 days from the start of the trip. The maximum amount of assistance is $ 10,000, regardless of how much you are insured for.

Program OPTIMA provides for much Better conditions... Help is provided in case of complications of pregnancy up to 31 weeks at the time of the insured event. The amount of this assistance is equal to the amount insured ($ 50,000 or $ 100,000). In addition, the OPTIMA program includes help with premature birth(for the entire amount of insurance coverage) and help newborn(for $ 10,000).
And so far, these are the best conditions for pregnant women traveling abroad among all insurers.

ERV insurance for Thailand

Perhaps the main feature of ERV insurance for Thailand is the amount of insurance coverage. She's fixed - $ 100 000 ... And the price of the policy is not low. Thailand is considered a high-risk country, and any decent company either puts a high price tag, or uses a franchise, or, like ERV, insures for at least $ 100,000.
Here is the price at the time of this writing. ERV for 14 days in Thailand:

Have Tripinsurance prices are even higher.

The Liberty has a lower price point but uses a $ 30 deductible.

ERV insurance for Thailand has a nice nuance: the territory of the policy will be "the whole world"... You can safely explore neighboring countries so as not to sit too long.

Policy for Schengen

For a trip to the Schengen countries, ERV insurance is, in my opinion, one of the best, since both the company itself and it are based in Europe have earned a good reputation over several decades.
Another option with many positive reviews, at a lower price - policy Tripinsurance... Compare:
ERV prices for 2 weeks ...

... and Tripinsurance prices. As you can see you can save.

Be aware that Tripinsurance has insurance of exacerbation of chronic diseases limited to $ 3000. If this is an important point for you, the risk of exacerbation is high, it is better to buy an ERV policy after all.

ERV cancellation insurance

Travel cancellation insurance provides compensation for the traveler's expenses in three cases:
- when canceling a trip
- in case of early return from a trip
- in case of a forced delay in return.
When canceling a trip An insured event is the inability to travel due to illness (yours, your next of kin or a partner in the trip), injury, refusal to issue a visa, when summoned to court and a number of other documented reasons. (Full list of reasons -.)
If the trip does not take place due to the above reasons, the ERV insurance company will compensate the cost of tickets, hotel and transfer fees in the event that these reservations cannot be canceled by yourself.
When returning from a trip early insured events are illness (with hospitalization) or death of a close relative of the insured (spouse). The company will compensate the cost of tickets in economy class or the difference in price if tickets can be reissued for an earlier date, and the cost of hotel accommodation for "unused" days.

Delayed return the insured event is the illness (with hospitalization) of the insured person or travel partner. The insurer will reimburse the cost of staying at the hotel (no more than 3 stars) within three days and the purchase of new tickets if the old ones cannot be returned or exchanged.

List of reasons for cancellation of the trip, which are recognized as an insured event

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Note! ERV travel cancellation insurance must be purchased before applying for a visa and no later than five days before the start of the trip.

A short summary of the ERV insurance company

JSC "ERV Tourist Insurance" has been operating in Russia since 2006. Authorized capital- 120 million rubles. 100% owned by Europäische Reiseversicherung Aktiengesellschaft, München; it belongs to one of the largest insurance groups in Europe, the Munich Re Group.
ERV was born in 1907. Company specialization - travel insurance ... Therefore, no one else offers much of what it offers on the Russian market.

ERV assistance

ERV Assistance - Euro-Center Holding, a holding of service companies dispersed in several countries. For example, from Thailand we called the service center in Prague, the ERV head office, and we sent letters of guarantee to the clinics from Euro-Center Thailand.