Cover and liability
Insurance and excess, in plain English
A car hired from our own fleet is insured under a self-drive-hire policy we hold, not under yours, and the cover is in the rate rather than sold to you at handover. If the car is damaged you pay up to an excess, currently £1,500–£35,000 depending on the vehicle in our catalogue data, and the policy covers the rest. The policy itself is being finalised before launch, so every term that applies to your hire is confirmed to you in writing before the car moves.
The insurance arrangement is not finalised yet
We are not naming an underwriter, quoting a policy wording or stating a term we have not been given. What is on this page is how self-drive-hire cover works and what the figures in our catalogue currently say, both of which are useful now. The excess and deposit figures are provisional until the fleet and the policy are signed off, and the numbers that bind are the ones on your written quote.
- Cover basis
- Self-drive hire
- Excess, fleet cars
- £2,000–£10,000
- Deposit, held separately
- £1,500–£50,000
- Taken online
- Nothing
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Updated September 2026
Is insurance included in the rate?
On a car from our own fleet, yes. We are the supplier, the vehicle is insured under a self-drive-hire policy we hold, and you drive on it. There is no separate insurance product to buy at handover and no monthly cover charge bolted on afterwards — the figure is the figure. That policy is being put in place before we start hiring, and we will not hand over a car that is not covered.
Cover applies to the drivers named on the hire in advance, for the dates on the agreement, for normal road use in the UK. Each of those three is a condition, not a formality: an unnamed driver, a day outside the booked period or a use the policy excludes all mean the car is not insured at that moment, whoever is sitting in it.
Who can be a named driver is a separate question with its own page — driver requirements covers age, licence history and points.
What does the excess actually mean in practice?
The excess is the ceiling on what you pay towards damage. Below it, you pay the bill. Above it, you pay the excess and the policy covers the rest. It is not a fee, it is not charged up front, and you never meet it at all unless something happens.
Worked example
Take the Audi SQ7, which carries an excess of £3,000. The repair figures below are illustrative — they are there to show the arithmetic, not to predict a bill.
| What happens | Repair | You pay |
|---|---|---|
| A kerbed wheel and a scuffed bumper | £500 | £500 |
| A significant front-end repair | £12,000 | £3,000 |
| Nothing happens | — | Nothing |
The third row is the normal one. The excess exists to be the worst case, not the expected one.
The excess is not the deposit. The deposit is money held against the card and given back; the excess is a liability limit you only ever meet if there is damage. Both figures are published on every car’s page and repeated on your quote, before there is anything to sign.
How much is the excess on each kind of car?
Excess tracks the cost of putting the car right, so it climbs with the value and the complexity of the vehicle. Where a span is shown, the figure varies by car within that category and the exact number is on the car’s own page.
| Category | Insurance excess | Security deposit | Cars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supercars | £5,000–£35,000 | £5,000–£50,000 | 10 |
| Sports cars | £2,000–£10,000 | £2,000–£10,000 | 13 |
| Grand tourers | £3,500–£25,000 | £3,500–£30,000 | 10 |
| Luxury SUVs | £2,000–£10,000 | £2,000–£10,000 | 41 |
| Prestige saloons | £1,500–£20,000 | £1,500–£30,000 | 29 |
| Convertibles | £3,000–£10,000 | £3,000–£10,000 | 9 |
The deposit is refundable and is not a payment towards the hire. Neither figure is ever taken through this website — see driver requirements.
What is not covered?
Some things are outside any self-drive-hire policy, and it is better to read them here than to discover them afterwards. The exact wording that applies to your hire is on your agreement, which we send before delivery rather than hand over on the day.
Normally covered
- Damage to the hire vehicle, above the excess.
- Damage you cause to other people’s property.
- Injury to other people.
- Fire and theft, above the excess.
- Every driver named on the hire in advance.
Never covered
- Anybody driving who is not named on the hire.
- Circuit, competitive or timed driving of any kind.
- Driving under the influence of drink or drugs.
- Wrong fuel, and damage from ignoring a warning light.
- Deliberate damage, and use for anything unlawful.
- Your own belongings left in the car.
An exclusion is not a penalty clause with a bigger number attached. If the policy does not cover the event at all, the excess stops being the ceiling and the liability is the whole cost — which is why an unnamed driver at the wheel is the one thing we are inflexible about.
Can I use my own insurance policy instead?
For a car from our fleet, no — the vehicle is ours and it goes out on our cover. That is not an upsell: the cover is already in the rate, so there is nothing to save by substituting your own.
Do not rely on a driving-other-cars extension on a personal policy either. Those extensions almost universally exclude hire and rental vehicles, they are usually third-party only, and they carry value ceilings far below the cars on this site. Turning up believing you are covered by one is the single most common misunderstanding in this sector.
If you hold a commercial or fleet motor policy of your own and want the car added to it, say so at the enquiry stage. It is handled case by case, in writing, with your insurer’s cover note seen and checked before the car moves — never as a verbal assurance on the day.
Whose insurance covers a car you source rather than own?
The supplying partner’s. Around 101 of the 112 cars in the catalogue are badged “we can source”, which means they are arranged through a vetted partner rather than owned by us. On those, the cover, the excess and the driver criteria are set by whoever holds the vehicle — and we confirm all three with you in writing before anything is agreed, rather than assuming they match ours.
On a car badged “in our fleet”, the answer is simpler: the car is ours, the policy is ours, and the figures published on the page are the ones that apply. See the fleet.
What happens if the car is damaged?
Tell us straight away, and arrange nothing yourself. A repair you organise privately is not an insured repair, and it usually costs you more than the excess would have.
- 01Make sure everybody is safe. If anyone is hurt, or the car is blocking a live carriageway, that is a 999 call before it is anything else.
- 02Call us before you move the car, if you safely can. We will tell you what to do next for that specific vehicle. Recovery of a low car is not a job for a standard flatbed and a strap.
- 03Photograph everything. The damage, the position of the vehicles, the road, the registration of anyone else involved, and their name and insurer. Do not admit liability at the scene — that is for the insurers, and saying sorry can complicate a claim you would otherwise have won.
- 04We open the claim. The vehicle is ours on a fleet car, so the claim is ours to handle. You give us a factual account of what happened and we deal with the insurer.
- 05Your liability is settled against the excess. You pay the repair up to the excess for that car, and no more, on any claim the policy covers. If another driver was at fault and their insurer accepts it, you may pay nothing at all.
Am I insured on a track?
Not on a road policy. Every UK motor policy excludes driving on a circuit, and that exclusion does not soften because the day is described as a “driving experience” or an “airfield session”. Take a road-insured hire car onto a track and you are personally liable for the whole value of it.
Which does not mean we cannot do it. A track day is arranged as a separate hire, with cover written for circuit use and to the circuit’s own requirements, and it is priced differently for obvious reasons. Say it is for a track day in your first message — see the catalogue — and we will quote it properly rather than discover it later.
Can the excess be reduced?
Ask when you enquire and we will tell you what is possible on that specific car. What we will not do is publish a reduction here that we cannot honour on every vehicle: the excess on a car’s page is the figure that applies unless something in writing says otherwise.
Standalone excess-reimbursement policies sold by third parties are a separate matter. Some cover hire vehicles and some carry value limits well below the cars on this site, so read the vehicle value ceiling before you buy one — it is the clause that catches people out.
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Insurance and excess — common questions
Does a claim affect my own no-claims discount?
No. The car is insured under our policy rather than yours, so a claim is made against ours and your no-claims discount is untouched. You will normally still have to declare the incident to your own insurer at renewal, because most motor proposal forms ask about any accident in the last five years whoever was insuring the car at the time.
Do I need to tell my own insurer that I am hiring the car?
Not to hire it, no — you are driving on our cover, not on yours. It is worth a look at your own policy anyway if you hold one, because a few insurers ask to be told about regular hire use, and it costs nothing to check.
Who pays for a puncture or a kerbed wheel?
Tyre, wheel, glass and underbody damage are treated differently from one policy to the next, so we set out exactly how they are handled on your hire agreement before delivery rather than after the event. What we will not do is present it as a surprise at collection — the condition of the car is photographed at both ends of the hire, by us and by you.
What happens if the car is stolen?
Tell us and the police immediately, and get a crime reference number. Your liability on a covered theft is capped at the excess for that vehicle. Theft where the keys were left with the car is a common exclusion on motor policies generally, so treat the keys as you would your own — the terms that apply to your hire are confirmed to you in writing beforehand.
Can I take the car abroad?
Ask before you book, not after. Taking any hire vehicle out of the UK needs the owner’s written authority and cover that extends to where you are going, and neither can be arranged at the port. If a European trip is the reason for the hire, say so in your first message and we will tell you straight away whether it is possible on that car.
Is breakdown assistance included?
Every car goes out prepared and with a number to call if something goes wrong with it. What we can do about it depends on where you are and what has happened, so we tell you the arrangement for your specific hire in writing at confirmation rather than implying a guarantee we cannot always keep.
Want the detail on cover?
Tell us the dates. We’ll confirm the car.
Send us the dates and a delivery postcode — that is all we need to start. Someone here will come back to you with what is genuinely available and the full cost, deposit, excess and mileage included.
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