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- Car insurance excess is the amount you are expected to contribute towards the cost of any claim you make following an accident.
- When you damage your car in an accident, the insurance company will expect you to pay towards the overall cost of the repairs.
- If the damage to your car costs £1,250 and your excess is £250, then you pay £250 towards the repairs and the insurance company pays the remaining £1,000.
Confused about the difference between compulsory and voluntary excess?
What is car insurance excess?
When you get a car insurance quote, you’re asked to agree an excess. This is the amount you’ll have to pay towards costs if you make a claim. Your total excess is made up of a compulsory and a voluntary excess.
Why do we have car insurance excess?
Your car insurance excess helps keep your premium lower by sharing some of the risk between policyholders and insurers. It can reduce costs by preventing smaller, more frequent claims.
Having an excess also encourages safer driving as drivers are more likely to take extra care if they know they’ll have to cover some of the cost themselves following an accident.
Different types of car insurance excess
There are two types of car insurance excess - compulsory and voluntary. If you make a claim, you need to pay both the compulsory and the voluntary amounts.
What is compulsory excess on car insurance?
As the name suggests, this excess is non negotiable and is set by the insurer. It is the minimum amount your insurance company expects you to pay towards vehicle repairs or personal accident claims.
The compulsory excess varies from one person to another and depends on:
- Your age
- Your driving experience
- The type of car you drive
- Previous insurance history and any driving convictions
Insurance companies impose a compulsory excess to stop drivers claiming for every small dent and scratch. If there were no minimum amount to pay, there would be many more claims and insurance premiums would rocket up.
By imposing a minimum compulsory payment, insurance companies make sure they only deal with the more costly and serious claims, for which car insurance is really intended.
What is voluntary excess on car insurance?
Voluntary excess is the amount you choose to pay towards the cost of a claim in addition to the compulsory excess.
So, if you have a compulsory excess of £150 and you choose to pay a voluntary excess of £200, you'll pay out a total of £350 towards the cost of repairs. Your insurance company will cover the rest.
Windscreen excess
This is a reduced amount of excess you pay to get windscreen chips repaired, or if the damage is more severe, replaced.
Insurers recognise that it's important to get your windscreen repaired before it cracks completely and becomes more of a hazard, so they reduce the overall excess for this type of repair.
Why should I pay the 'voluntary' excess?
It may sound a bit counter-intuitive to volunteer to pay extra, but it could work out cheaper for you in the long run.
If you're a careful driver who rarely makes a claim, increasing your voluntary excess could result in lower annual insurance premiums. And because you drive carefully you're less likely to need to pay out this voluntary amount.
So it's a calculated risk that you offer to pay out more if you do have an accident, in the hope and expectation that you won't need to make a claim.
However, if your excess is very high and you have an accident that results in significant repairs to your car, you could find yourself paying out for virtually the whole cost of the repair. Or not even bothering to make a claim if the repair is less than your excess.
How does car insurance excess work?
Our example below shows how a car insurance excess works:
Let's say your policy has a £250 excess.
You have an accident and you make a claim.
The bill to repair the damage comes to £1,000.
You pay your £250 excess towards the bill.
We cover the balance of £750 to settle the bill.
Everyone's excess is different, so it’s best to check your policy documents to find out how much you might have to pay if you had to make a claim.
Do I still pay the excess even if the accident wasn't my fault?
Initially, you will be asked to pay the excess, but if your insurance company can reclaim the cost of repairs to your car from the other driver involved, you will be refunded. Sometimes, if the other driver is refusing to accept responsibility for the accident, this can take time.
LV= offer optional extras such as motor legal expenses that may help you recover your excess if there is a dispute.
When to pay your excess in the event of a claim
With LV= any excess you need to pay is paid directly to the garage if you've used one of our recommended repairers to get your vehicle back on the road.
If you don't use an LV= recommended repairer for your repairs you'll need to pay an additional £200 excess and we can't offer a hire car (if you have this cover) or warranty on the repairs.
If your car cannot be repaired and is written off, we will get an engineer to value it. When you've agreed the valuation, we take the excess off the value of the car and reimburse you with the balance.