Rental car insurance: the most important facts at a glance (2026)

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AT A GLANCE

You need separate rental car insurance for your hire car.
We recommend that you take out fully comprehensive and third-party liability insurance for your rental car.
In most cases, your travel or personal liability insurance will not cover damage to rental cars.
Ask about the scope of the insurance cover included before hiring the car.
Make sure that the sums insured for third-party claims and damage to your rental car are high enough.

Cruising along the coastal roads of southern France or conquering the Wild West on Route 66 in a rental car – that is pure freedom. Being in an accident with your rental car and having to pay for it – that is pure frustration. The useful information in our guide will help you to avoid this kind of annoyance.

Which insurance do I need for my rental car?

As a general rule, if you are using a rental car, you should also take out insurance for it – ideally directly from the rental company. In most cases, your existing insurance policies will not pay for any damage to your hire car.

A distinction should be drawn between damage that you cause to your rental car, which is covered by fully comprehensive insurance – for example if you reverse into a post while parking – and damage and injury that you cause to other people with your rental car, which are covered by your third-party liability insurance – for example if you overlook a cyclist while turning off.

Third-party liability insurance for your rental car is generally included in the rental price, but comprehensive insurance is usually voluntary. If you opt against the latter and cause damage to your rental car, you will have to pay the costs yourself.

What do I have to bear in mind with regard to rental car insurance?

Ask your car rental company what is really insured and up to what amount. Read the small print in your contract, even if it is tedious:

Which events are insured and which are not?
How high are the sums insured?
Is damage to the tyres and windscreen insured?
Are other people allowed to drive the rental car, or only you?
How high is your deductible on the rental car insurance?

Cover or price?

As a rule of thumb, the more cover you have, the higher the premium. Comprehensive insurance without a deductible costs more than pure third-party liability cover with a high deductible. You decide whether you would rather have a lower premium and then pay more in the event of a claim, or vice versa.

With rental car insurance, therefore, you should compare the sums insured, the benefits included and, above all, the deductible, i.e. the proportion of a claim that you must pay yourself.

GOOD TO KNOW

Rental car deductible cover is already included in our travel insurance. This means that we will cover the fully comprehensive deductible on your rental car up to an amount of CHF 3,000 in the event of a claim. You can then agree a high deductible with the car rental company and pay less for the car hire.

Please note: this cover is limited to the deductible on your comprehensive rental car insurance. If you do not take out comprehensive insurance when you rent the car, you will have to pay for any damage to the vehicle yourself. Incidentally, some credit cards also include deductible cover. Find out whether this is also the case with your card and how high the sum insured is.

Be careful with third-party liability

Pay attention to the sums insured, especially when taking out insurance for your rental car abroad. They are often different – usually lower than in Switzerland. Despite having third-party liability cover for your hire car, you could end up in a situation in which the loss caused is higher than the sum insured.

In the event of accidents involving injuries, the costs can easily run into hundreds of thousands or even millions of francs, and part of this amount would not be covered by the foreign liability insurance. The sum insured for your rental car insurance abroad should be at least CHF 5 to 10 million – in Switzerland, incidentally, the figure is CHF 100 million.

GOOD TO KNOW

If you have personal liability insurance with us, we will cover the difference between the third-party liability sum applicable in the other European country and the statutory minimum sum insured in Switzerland in the event of a claim (known as the Majorca clause).

Before setting off

Do you have the right insurance? Check your rental car carefully before you set off. Are there any dents, scratches or glass damage? Are the lights and air conditioning working properly and are the tyres intact?

Report any existing damage immediately to the rental company and have them record it in writing. If you also take photos of it, you can prove what damage was already there when you return the vehicle.

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Do I also need separate insurance if I organise a rental van for a house move?

Yes. However, fully comprehensive insurance is included with most rental van suppliers. To be on the safe side, you should ask what insurance cover applies and check the sums insured and deductibles in the event of a claim.

You can read about the difference between fully and partially comprehensive cover in our guide.

Does my existing insurance cover rental cars?

Usually, no. You should take out separate rental car insurance via the rental company.

Your personal liability insurance covers neither damage to your rental car under the fully comprehensive cover nor third-party liability losses that you cause to third parties with your rental vehicle. Incidentally, this also applies to the “driving third-party motor vehicles” add-on, which generally does not cover damage to rented cars.

Your car insurance usually does not pay for damage to rental cars either as it only covers your own vehicle. It is true that some insurance companies cover rental car costs up to a certain amount, for example as part of the breakdown assistance insurance. However, in the event of damage to a rental car, you have to pay for this yourself – even if it is only a courtesy car from your garage that you are using for a short time while yours is being repaired. Be sure to ask the garage how the courtesy car is insured.

GOOD TO KNOW

If you need a courtesy car for an extended period of time because your vehicle is out of action due to damage, repairs, servicing or other work, you can apply for replacement vehicle registration papers from the traffic licensing authority for up to 30 days. During this period, your insurance cover will be transferred to the replacement vehicle.

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