Family Cover Explained

When you go through the ReduceMyExcess quote journey, you will see two options for ‘Who’s Covered’ – ‘Just You’ or ‘Your Family’.

Family cover is an optional add-on available on annual ReduceMyExcess car hire excess insurance policies. It allows you to cover more than one person under the same policy rather than buying separate cover for each person. It means your family members can hire cars independently throughout the year and still be protected by one policy.

Who will be covered by family cover?

With family cover, you can add up to four additional family members as named lead drivers, as long as they live at the same address as you.

Family members include:

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

Each person is named individually on the policy and will be treated as the lead driver when they hire a car. Remember: the policyholder must be the lead driver on the contract. If your family member is hiring a car, they must be the lead driver.

How does family cover actually work?

Once you have opted to add family cover to your ReduceMyExcess policy, you will enter your family member’s full name and date of birth. Then:

• Each named family member can hire a car separately
• Each hire is covered for eligible excess charges
• Only one hire car is covered at any one time, per driver
• All hires must fall within the policy period

Family cover is designed to make it simpler for households where different people travel at different times.

What does family cover protect you against?

Family cover doesn’t change what you’re protected against. It stretches the cover so more people are covered for the same things.

Each named family member gets the same core benefits as the main policyholder when they hire a car. This includes:

• Reimbursement of the car hire excess if the vehicle is damaged or stolen
• Cover for common problem areas like tyres, windscreen and undercarriage damage
• Protection against everyday mistakes like lost keys or misfuelling, depending on the policy

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

For a refresher on what a ReduceMyExcess policy can include, read our article.

When does family cover make sense?

If there is more than one person in your household hiring cars during the year, you travel separately rather than always together, you want to avoid buying multiple single trip excess insurance policies, or you want one simple policy to manage instead of several – then adding family cover to your policy makes sense.

For lots of families it works out better value than arranging separate cover for each driver each time they travel.

What family cover doesn’t do

We want to set clear expectations not to catch you out, but to help you understand your policy and avoid any confusion if you need to make a claim.

• Family cover is only available on annual policies
• All drivers must be named on the policy in advance
• All drivers must live at the same address

Family cover vs eight additional lead drivers

If you do not opt for family cover, the policy will automatically cover up to eight additional drivers as long as they are named on your rental agreement. You do not need to name these drivers on your ReduceMyExcess policy.

What this means in practice is that if you are hiring a car abroad and want your spouse to also be able to drive, they can be added to the rental agreement and will still be protected by ReduceMyExcess car hire excess insurance. The only requirement is that the lead driver on the rental agreement must be the same person as the policyholder.

Any additional drivers named on the rental agreement do not need to live with you at your home address. However, additional drivers cannot hire cars separately and still benefit from your excess insurance. Cover only applies when you are the lead driver on the hire.