Rental Guides
Insurance and the Excess Explained
Hire cars come with insurance included, which is true and misleading in equal measure. This guide explains what the basic cover actually pays for, what the excess means in practice, which waivers are worth their daily price and which gaps remain open whatever you buy.
Updated 26 September 2026
What is included as standard
Every hire car on the road here carries the compulsory cover required by law, which protects other people and their property if you are at fault. That part is genuinely included, it is not optional, and it is not what anyone is selling you at the counter. Confusion begins because the word insurance is used for both this and for the quite separate question of who pays for damage to the car you are driving.
Damage to the hire car itself is normally handled by a collision waiver that is bundled into the rate. A waiver is not insurance in the strict sense; it is an agreement by the hire company not to pursue you for the full repair cost, provided the conditions are met. It leaves the excess with you, and it falls away entirely if a condition is broken, which is why the conditions matter more than the waiver.
The excess, in dirhams rather than in principle
The excess is the first slice of any repair bill, and you carry it whether or not the incident was your doing. On a modest saloon it might be one and a half thousand dirhams. On a large SUV, five thousand is common. On the premium fleet it can reach fifteen or twenty thousand, and on the top of the range it can be considerably more than that. The number is on the agreement, not on the rate board.
This matters most in the incidents nobody plans for: a trolley in a car park, a stone chip in a windscreen, a kerbed alloy wheel in a tight space. None of these involves another vehicle, none produces a police report, and each of them can sit entirely inside the excess, meaning you pay all of it. Windscreens and tyres are frequently excluded from the waiver altogether, which surprises people every single time.
Which waivers are worth buying
The daily super waiver, which reduces the excess towards zero, is worth taking when the excess is large relative to the hire cost, when you will park in public car parks rather than a private space, when anyone else will drive, or when the hire runs longer than a few days. Over a week it often costs less than the excess you would owe for one careless trolley, and it converts an unknown into a fixed line on the bill.
It is worth less when the hire is short, the car is ordinary, the parking is secure and you are the only driver. Separately, tyre and glass cover is usually sold as a small extra and is usually reasonable value on any drive that leaves the city, because chips from desert and construction traffic are common. Personal accident cover, by contrast, frequently duplicates protection you already hold, and is worth checking before rather than buying twice.
The gaps no waiver closes
Several exclusions survive every waiver on the price list. Driving off a sealed road is the first and the most commonly breached. Driving outside the country without written permission is the second. Driving under the influence of anything voids everything, without exception. So does allowing someone not named on the agreement to take the wheel, which is the exclusion that catches families most often, because a spouse is added in the moment and not on the paperwork.
Interior damage, lost keys, incorrect fuelling and towing charges also sit outside most waivers. None of these is an unfair condition, and all of them are enforceable because you signed for them. Read the exclusions once, at leisure, before the day of collection rather than at the counter. Every hire company publishes them, and they are more alike than different, so one careful reading serves for years.
What to do at the moment something happens
If there is any contact with another vehicle or any injury, the police must be involved and a report obtained. Without that report the waiver may not apply at all, and this is the single most expensive mistake made by visitors who are used to exchanging details and driving away. Stay with the car, call the emergency number on the agreement, and do not agree to settle anything privately at the roadside, however reasonable the other driver seems.
For damage without another party, photograph everything before moving the car, then telephone the hire desk and report it the same day rather than at return. Late disclosure is treated far less sympathetically than an immediate call, and it can be enough on its own to lose the waiver. Keep the report reference with the agreement, and keep both until the deposit has returned and the file is closed.
What to take away
- The included cover protects other people; damage to the hire car is a separate question.
- Tyres, glass, interior damage and off-road use sit outside most waivers.
- Any contact with another vehicle needs a police report, or the waiver may not apply.
Read it before you sign
Read the contract before the queue does it for you
If there is a hire agreement in front of you, or a monthly quotation you are unsure about, a short conversation beforehand usually settles it. Nothing is sold here, no vehicle is booked on your behalf, and no hire company hears your name.