Family of Car Renters? How Family Cover Works

When you get a quote from Cover4Rentals, you’ll be presented with two options for who needs to be covered. In addition to covering you, there is also the option to add family cover.

Family cover is an optional add-on available on annual car hire excess insurance policies. In a nutshell, it allows more than one person from the same household to be insured under one policy, rather than each member of the family needing their own separate cover.

This means different family members can hire cars independently during the policy year and still be protected by the same car hire excess insurance policy.

Anna’s Top Tips💡

• I would think about who is actually hiring car, not just who’s travelling.
• If someone in my household rents cars in their own name, I make sure they’re named on my policy before they go.

Who Is Covered By Family Cover?

With family cover, you can add up to four additional family members to your policy – they must all live at the same address as the main policyholder and extends to include:

• A spouse or partner, including civil partners and cohabiting couples
• Parents and step-parents
• Children and step-children
• Brothers and sisters, including step-siblings
• Foster children

Each person is named individually on the policy. When a family member hires a vehicle, they must be a lead driver on the rental agreement for our cover to apply.

How Does Family Cover Work In Practice?

Once family cover is added to your annual Cover4Rentals policy, you’ll be asked to provide each family member’s full name and date of birth.

After that:

• Each named family member can hire a car separately
• Each rental is covered for eligible excess charges
• All hires must take place within the policy period

Family cover is designed for households where people travel at different times, rather than always travelling and renting cars together.

What Does Family Cover Protect?

Family cover doesn’t change what’s covered, it extends the same protection to more people.

Each named family member receives the same core benefits as the main policyholder when they rent a car, including:

• Reimbursement of the car rental excess if the vehicle is damaged or stolen
• Cover for common risk areas such as tyres, windscreen and undercarriage damage
• Protection against issues like lost keys or misfuelling, depending on the policy

The cover applies in exactly the same way as it would for a single driver annual policy.

When Does Family Cover Make Sense?

Family cover is usually a good option if:

• More than one person in your household rents car during the year
• You travel separately rather than always on the same trip
• You want to avoid buying multiple single- trip excess insurance policies
• You prefer to manage one policy instead of several

What Family Cover Doesn’t Include

To avoid confusion, it’s important to understand the limits of family cover:

• Family cover is only available on annual policies
• All drivers must be named on the policy before they rent a car
• All drivers must live at the same address

Family Cover vs Additional Drivers

If you don’t add family cover, your policy can still protect additional drivers listed on the rental agreement, as long as the policyholder is the lead driver.

For example, if you rent a car and add your partner as an additional driver at the desk, they can still drive the vehicle and be covered by your Cover4Rentals policy for the duration of that specific rental. You don’t need to name them on your policy and they don’t need to live at your address.

However, additional drivers can’t rent cars on their own and use your policy. Cover only applies when the policyholder is the lead driver on the rental agreement.