Car hireinsuranceWhat is covered, what is not, and what voids it entirely
Every car on this island comes with insurance, and on the roads people actually want to drive, there are four things it leaves out. Wheels, underside, windscreen, interior. None of that is unusual for Spain and none of it is hidden, but it is the difference between a scraped alloy costing you nothing and costing you a few hundred euros, so it is worth five minutes before you book rather than five minutes after the kerb.
Three things decide whether renting a car costs what you were quoted, and they are worth separating before you book: what the car is insured for, what it is not, and what you would owe if something happened. They are different questions with different answers. All three are attached to every car in the search, stated before you commit rather than at the desk.
Most of the picture is straightforward. Every car we list is legally insured to be driven on this island, third-party liability included, and every car carries damage and theft cover of some kind as standard. You are not hiring an uninsured car and then buying insurance; you are hiring an insured car and deciding whether to reduce what you would owe if the worst happened. The excess is that number, and it is on the car in the results along with the deposit.
What differs from car to car, rather than from supplier to supplier, is how large that excess is, whether a deposit is held against it, and what the extra cover offered alongside the car actually removes. That is why this site puts all of it on the card before you choose instead of at pickup: two cars at the same daily rate can be very different bookings, and the difference is usually here rather than in the badge on the bonnet.
It is held against the main driver's card for the rental and released afterwards, on a timescale the voucher states. Plenty of cars here take none at all, and where one applies the amount is on the car before you book.
It is the most you would pay if the car were damaged. Reducing it is what the extra cover buys, and whether that is worth it depends entirely on which roads you plan to drive.
Wheels and tyres, the underside, the glass, and the interior. Read that list next to a photograph of the Masca road and the decision makes itself. A kerbed alloy on a passing bay is the single most common way a Tenerife hire ends up costing more than it was quoted.
This is a condition of the rental rather than a line in the policy, and it has teeth: taking the car onto an unpaved track is outside what you agreed to, which is the shortest route from a limited claim to no claim at all. The tempting tracks are in Teno and the back of the Anaga, and the sealed roads up there are the good ones anyway.
Minimum age and minimum licence experience are set per car, not per country, and the agent can decline at pickup if the driver does not meet them. Anyone who might take the wheel has to be on the booking as a driver; a friend who is not named on it is not insured to drive, whatever the arrangement in your own car at home.
Limits are one thing; losing the cover entirely is another, and there are only two ways to manage it. The first is not telling the supplier straight away when something happens, or not getting a police report where one is required. The second is damage that counts as deliberate or negligent, and taking the car onto an unpaved track sits closer to that line than most people realise, because the terms allow paved public roads only.
In practice one thing covers most of it: your voucher names your supplier and how to reach them. If anything happens, that is the call to make, and they take it from there. What each car includes is on the car itself in the search, and the full procedure is set out on the terms page rather than here.
Price a car for your dates and the deposit, the excess and what the cover leaves out are all on it before you commit.
All four corners, both bumpers, the wheels, the windscreen and the roof, with the time stamp on. Two minutes on a phone, and it is the only evidence you will have that a mark was already there. Do the same when you hand it back.
If a scuff is on the car and not on the sheet, have it added before you leave. This is normal and nobody will mind; what costs money is discovering the mismatch at the end of the fortnight.
The rule is to return it as you got it, and nobody pays you for bringing it back fuller. Note where the needle sits when you drive away, and fill up on the motorway rather than at the last station before the terminal.
A physical credit card with raised numbers in the main driver's name is what most suppliers want for the deposit, and the licence has to be the card rather than a photograph or an app. Your voucher says whether a debit card is accepted. This is the single most common reason a pickup fails.
It depends on the roads, and on this island that is a real distinction rather than a hedge. A week of motorway between the airport and a resort, with the car parked in a hotel garage, is about as low-risk as hire driving gets, and the standard cover on the car is proportionate to it.
A week that includes Masca, the old west coast roads or the narrow parts of the Anaga is a different proposition, because those roads are walled, single track in places, and produce precisely the wheel and underside damage the standard policy excludes. If that is your week, reducing the excess is usually the cheaper decision, and it is a smaller number than most people expect next to the cost of one alloy. Either way, the choice is on the car in the search rather than a conversation at pickup, and a car that holds no deposit changes what is at stake again.
The questions below are the ones worth answering before you pick a car rather than after: what the deposit is against the excess, what the standard policy leaves out, when the extra cover pays for itself and what would void the lot. The rental conditions themselves are written out in full on the terms page.
What is the difference between the deposit and the excess?
The deposit is money held against your card while you have the car, and it comes back. The excess is the most you would owe if the car were damaged. A car can have a large deposit and a small excess, or neither, and both are shown on the car before you book.
Is insurance included in the price?
Yes. Every car carries standard cover, and its excess and deposit are shown on the car before you book rather than produced at the desk. What changes from car to car is how big those two numbers are, and what the standard policy does not stretch to, which is the next answer.
What does standard cover leave out?
Wheels and tyres, the underside, the windscreen and glass, and the interior. That is not unusual for Spain, but it matters more here because the roads worth driving are narrow and walled, and those four are exactly what a kerb, a rock or a low wall reaches first.
Should I buy the extra cover?
If you are driving Masca, the Teno roads or anything single track, the arithmetic usually favours it, because those are the roads that produce exactly the damage the standard policy excludes. For a week of motorway between the airport and a resort, it matters much less.
What voids the insurance completely?
Two things. Not reporting an incident straight away and not getting a police report where one is needed, unless the supplier has agreed otherwise. And damage that is deliberate or the result of neglect, which includes driving somewhere the terms do not allow, like an unpaved track.
Do I need a credit card, or will a debit card do?
Take a physical credit card with raised numbers in the main driver's name. Many suppliers require exactly that, and not having it is the most common reason a pickup goes wrong. Some accept a debit card instead, but it has to be physical, personalised and embossed as well, and in the same name. A card on a phone, a flat printed card, or a card in your partner's name is what gets people turned away. Your voucher says which applies to your car, so read it before you fly.
Does my credit card or annual policy cover it?
Sometimes, and it works differently: those policies usually reimburse you AFTER the supplier has charged your card, rather than stopping the charge. You still need the card and the deposit when you collect.
Live prices for your dates from any pickup point on the island, with the deposit, the excess and the cover shown on every car.