Excess Insurance

Insurance Excess Cover

What is an Insurance Excess?

The excess is the amount you have to pay in the event of a claim on your insurance policy.  For example if you are unfortunate enough to have to make a claim on your car insurance policy, a motorcycle insurance policy, campervan policy  as a result of theft or an accident, or your home insurance policy due to a break in, an accident or fire.

Generally the larger your excess the lower your insurance premium. You will often have to pay the excess even if the claim is not your fault, although on a car insurance policy you may be able to recover this cost where your insurer can recover all the costs from the other drivers policy i.e. non fault.

More about excess insurance and get a quote

What is insurance excess cover?

Excess cover is an extra “layer” of insurance you can purchase which covers your excess.   If you make a claim on your underlying policy e.g. your car insurance, the excess cover policy will pay back your excess payments up to a pre-agreed limit.

Get a quote for excess cover

How Excess Cover Works

There are two main kinds of excess cover policies:

Linked policy Excess Cover

This covers the excess on a single underlying policy (e.g. a car insurance policy) and one which covers the excesses across a range of policies all in one go.

For linked policy excess cover products, a higher limit will allow you to reclaim excesses on multiple claims during the year until you reach the limit.

Get quote

Lifestyle Excess Policy

Sometimes known as a “lifestyle” excess policy and will generally cover excesses on your car, home, travel, pet, caravan, motorcycle and medical insurance policies all in one go.

On lifestyle policies, a higher limit will allow you to reclaim excesses you pay on all qualifying underlying policies until your reach the limit.

The way it works is that you buy the excess cover either at the same time as your insurance policy(ies), or at some other point in the year.  If you claim on your underlying policy, you pay your excess as normal, and then use your excess cover policy to reclaim the excess you have paid, up to a pre-agreed limit.

Get a quote for excess insurance

You decide on this limit when you buy the excess cover – policies tend to offer limits from £250 for the year to £750 or more. The higher the limit, the more expensive the excess cover policy, but the more excesses you will be able to claim during the year of the excess policy.

When You Might Need Excess Cover

Excess cover could be for you if you have a high excess on one or more of your insurance policies, as it allows you to pay a small amount to cover yourself against the cost of the excess in the event of a claim.  This could be, for example because you are a young driver with a large compulsory excess or just looking to reduce the cost of your insurance by taking out a big excess.

It could also be very useful if you pay a lot for your insurance and would like to take a higher excess to reduce your premium, but don’t want the risk of the cost of the excess in the event of a claim.

Excess Cover - More Information

Excess Cover Conditions

Excess cover policies are fairly simple, but you should still think carefully about the limit you need for the year. Also, for lifestyle policies, they generally only cover insurance policies in the same policyholder’s name.

More details about excess cover