Car insurance coverage
Many times we hear reports about rental car insurance with the terms CDW, FDW, SCDW and various similar terms, which many times we do not know and do not understand. Most car rental companies use these names for their insurance, although you may find different titles for the same insurance.
Full Exemption Insurance CDW
1.1 Full Exemption Insurance (CDW)
Complete or basic security package with exemption. This means that when we rent a car, we will have to pay the daily rent of the car (let’s say 10 euros and we will explain later) and they will ask us for a security deposit (eg 500 euros) for this car. With CDW, the rental company has the car insured with mixed insurance with some exemption (eg 500 euros, which is the amount that will be requested from the customer as a guarantee). This means that for any damage to the car, the first 500 euros will be asked to be paid by the company and the remaining amount will be paid by the vehicle’s insurance.
Let’s look at an example:
Suppose we rent a car for 10 euros a day for 5 days. We will pay 10×5 = 50 euros and a 500 euro guarantee. In total, we will need 550 euros. When we return the car and if no damage has been caused, the rental company will refund us 500 euros. In case a mirror breaks, they will keep the value of the mirror. If the mirror has 50 euros, they will return the 450 to us.