The insurance acronyms in a rental agreement look like paperwork, yet they decide how much of any damage comes out of your own pocket. It pays to understand them before you are at the desk being offered an extra hundred-euro upgrade.
What CDW actually means
CDW (Collision Damage Waiver) is not insurance in the usual sense — it is the rental company waiving its right to charge you the full cost of damage. An excess remains: typically 700 to 1,200 euros on a small car, up to 2,000 on SUVs and vans. That amount is blocked on your card at pick-up. Theft is handled by a separate acronym, TP or THW, and works exactly the same way.
What CDW never covers
Even with CDW in place, tyres, wheels, glass, the underbody, the roof, locks and lost keys stay outside the cover. These items cause most of the disputes at drop-off. Destroy a tyre in a pothole and you pay for it in full, whatever your contract says. Damage caused by driving on unpaved roads is usually excluded outright too.
Zero excess from the desk, or your own excess policy
Zero excess bought at the desk costs roughly 15 to 30 euros a day. The upside is that no large deposit is blocked on your card and any damage is settled on the spot with a signature. A standalone annual excess policy from an independent insurer is cheaper, around 50 to 80 euros a year, but the rental desk will still block the deposit and you claim the money back afterwards with the invoice and damage report.
Whichever you choose, photograph the car from every side including the roof, wheels and windscreen — at pick-up and again at drop-off. Time-stamped photos are the strongest argument you can have in a dispute. Every offer we send states the excess and exactly what is included, so you can compare options side by side. Our service is free and the price is the same as, or lower than, booking with the rental company directly.
