Renting a car close to home, can I buy car hire excess insurance?

This is is a querstion I raised recently with the people at insurance4carhire.com.

Apparently if you take out one of their annual policies there are restrictions. It is Not valid if vehicle is rented from a location within 150km of usual residence (for example, if you live in London, you are not covered to rent a vehicle in London. The rental location must be more than 150km away from your London home).

As there are many people needing a car to rent close to home for different reasons like:

• They only have one car, it is holiday time and they need a larger one for a day trip
• They only have one car and a family member is using this and another family member needs a car for a day or two.
• They don't have a regular car of their own and prefer to rent when they need one.
• The car is in the garage for repair.

Although the annual policies do not cover this type of situation apparently the " The Daily Excess Reimbursement Insurance" policy does. According to their website the only geographical exclusions are: No cover is provided under this policy for any trip in, to, or through Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Congo, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Liberia, North Korea, Myanmar, Sudan and Zimbabwe'

The website says it costs £4.50 (€5.76) per day and it covers:

Cover Excess on damage to the rented vehicle, Excess on theft Covers damage to windows, tyres, undercarriage & the roof

Valid worldwide: can be used at all car rental locations and with all car rental companies

Covers the policy holder & all additional drivers

Next time I need a rental car when I am in my home area I will certainly get this Daily Excess Reimbursement Insurance