Recover your excess following an accident
Excess Protection allows you to be reimbursed for the cost of the excess on successful claims against your policy.
For Premier Car Insurance policies with a start date of 31 March 2024 or earlier, Excess Protection is included as standard, up to £500 within the policy year for your excess if you're unable to claim it back from a responsible third party.
From 1 April 2024, we're temporarily unable to offer Excess Insurance, either as part of new Premier policies or as an optional extra.
How we can help
- Make multiple claims up to your annual cover level of £500.
- Covers you for accidents deemed your fault, including fire, theft and malicious damage claims.
Things you should know
- You must claim on your car insurance policy and have had to pay the full excess for your claim.
- Windscreen and glass claims are not covered.
What is car insurance excess?
Car insurance excess is the amount of money you are required to pay when you make a claim on your policy. Simply put, your excess is the amount of money that you agree to put forward towards a claim, with your insurer covering the remaining costs.
Say your car insurance policy has an excess of £500, for example, and you claim £2000 worth of damage to your vehicle — you’ll pay the first £500 towards repair costs while your insurer will put forward the remaining £1500.
What determines how high my excess is?
Your excess is split into two parts. The first part is the compulsory excess, which is a non-negotiable amount set by your insurance company, based on your age and your car. The second part is the voluntary excess, which you can set yourself. So, for example, if the compulsory excess on your policy is £100, and you set your voluntary excess at £100, you would pay the first £200 of a £600 claim.
Normally, the lower you set your excess, the more expensive your car insurance policy is likely to be.
So what is excess protection?
Excess protection is an additional cover that is included as standard in some car insurance policies or can be added on to others for a fee. It basically refunds the excess that you have to pay in a claim where there is no responsible third party.
To use the above example again: if your car requires £600 of repair work after a theft claim and you have an insurance policy with a £200 excess, your car insurance would pay out the £400 and you would pay your £200 excess. Then, your additional excess protection would refund the £200 excess you had to pay, so essentially you would pay nothing towards the repairs.
With some policies, you can set the maximum amount that your excess protection policy will pay out (usually between £250 and £750). If you need to make a claim on your car insurance, you’ll need to make two separate claims: one to pay for the repair or replacement of your car, and one to refund the excess you paid.
What does excess protection cover me for?
Your excess protection policy would payout in the event of an accident where there is no responsible third party, and includes fire, theft and vandalism
I’m hiring a car. What is an excess damage waiver?
You can also buy car hire excess insurance. If the car you’ve hired is damaged or stolen during your rental period then you’ll have to pay the rental company an excess, i.e. part of the cost of repairing or replacing the vehicle. But if you take out an excess damage waiver - also known as a collision damage waiver - you’ll be protected against having to pay this excess.
What is car hire excess insurance?
Car hire excess insurance protects you from the excess costs that you would be required to pay if you need to make a claim on a rental vehicle. If your rental car is damaged or stolen and you are held liable, this optional insurance coverage will reimburse you for any excess that you pay forward to the rental company.