Voluntary Excess
An excess is the amount you must pay in the event of a claim – regardless of who is at fault. A voluntary excess is the amount that you choose to bear in addition to the policy excess that has to be paid in the event of a claim for damage to your own vehicle.
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Voluntary excess is normally used to help reduce the insurance premium to gain cheaper motor insurance. You can select the amount of voluntary excess you are prepared to pay. In the simplest of terms, the excess on a car insurance policy is a fixed contribution that you, as the policy holder, will have to stump up in the event of a motor insurance claim.
So if you have an excess of £1,000, and you’re making a £1,500 claim, the insurance provider will only pay out £500 as the first £1,000 will come out of your pocket. The usual compulsory excesses that are applied to a policy are based on the age excess and standard excess. You may also have an excess should you be a less experienced driver or Young driver.
Comprehensive Car Insurance holders can lower their annual premium cost by including a voluntary excess as an additional feature. The downfall of this is that in the event of a claim the voluntary excess plus the compulsory excess can work out quite expensive. You should remember that the only reason this reduces your premium is because you will end up paying out more at the point of making a claim and when budgeting for your car insurance.
Voluntary excesses do NOT apply to Third Party Insurance policies.