Your excess is the amount you pay towards a claim before your insurer pays anything. It’s one of the few numbers on your policy that only becomes real at the worst possible moment — which is why it’s worth understanding now rather than at the roadside.
There are two of them, and they add up
Compulsory excess is set by the insurer. You can’t change it. It reflects how the policy has been rated: your age, licence history, the car, where it’s kept, previous claims. Newer or younger drivers usually see a higher one.
Voluntary excess is the bit you choose when you buy. Take on more of the first slice of a claim and the premium generally comes down.
The number that matters is both of them together. A £250 compulsory excess with a £500 voluntary excess means you’re paying the first £750 of any claim. People often remember the voluntary figure — the one they picked — and forget the other half is stacked underneath it.
There can also be additional compulsory excesses that only apply in specific circumstances: a named young or inexperienced driver being at the wheel, for example. These sit on top again.
The trap with a high voluntary excess
Raising your voluntary excess is a legitimate way to bring the premium down. It stops being a good deal the moment the excess is more than you could actually lay your hands on.
The honest test is this: if you reversed into a bollard tomorrow and the repair came to £900, would you claim? If your total excess is £750, you’d pay £750 and lose your no claims discount to recover £150. Most people wouldn’t bother. So you’d pay for the repair yourself — while also having paid a year’s premium for cover you couldn’t practically use on that claim.
Set the voluntary excess at a number you could pay from savings this month. Not the number that makes the quote look best.
When you actually hand the money over
It depends on the claim, but usually the excess is either deducted from your settlement or paid directly to the repairer when you collect the car. If the car’s written off, it comes out of the payout.
It applies per claim, not per year. Two claims in a policy year means paying it twice.
The non-fault surprise
This one catches people out. If someone else hits you and it’s clearly their fault, you’d reasonably expect not to pay anything.
But if you claim on your own policy, you’ll typically still pay your excess up front. Your insurer then recovers it from the other driver’s insurer, and pays it back to you once liability is settled. That can take weeks. Sometimes months. If liability is disputed, longer.
There are ways around it — claiming directly against the third party’s insurer, or going through an accident management route rather than your own policy.
Glass is usually different
Windscreen and glass claims normally sit outside the main excess and have their own, lower one. A chip repair often costs less than a full replacement, sometimes nothing at all, and frequently doesn’t affect your no claims discount.
What excess doesn’t touch
If you injure someone else or damage their property, your excess doesn’t apply to what your insurer pays them. That’s third-party liability — the compulsory part of any UK motor policy. Your excess is about damage to your car.
Excess protection
Some insurers offer an add-on that reimburses your excess after a claim. Whether it’s worth it comes down to arithmetic: the annual cost against your total excess, multiplied by how likely you think a claim is. It’s not automatically good value and it’s not automatically bad — it just needs the sum doing.
Before your renewal
Find your total excess — compulsory plus voluntary, including any additional ones. Ask yourself whether you could pay it tomorrow. If the answer’s no, adjust it, and accept the premium will move.