The excess is the part of an insured loss that you pay yourself. It matters most when a repair is expensive enough to claim but not so large that the excess becomes irrelevant. A cheaper quote with a higher excess may be a poor fit for a driver who could not comfortably pay that amount after an accident.
The CCPC gives a simple example: with a €250 excess on a €1,000 covered loss, the driver pays €250 and the insurer pays the remaining €750, subject to policy terms. Some policies have different excesses for accidental damage, theft, young or inexperienced drivers, and windscreen claims. Read each line; do not assume one number applies to every event.
Compare the saving with the added exposure
Suppose Quote A costs €800 a year with a €250 excess. Quote B costs €720 with a €500 excess. The annual saving is €80, while the extra amount payable on a claim is €250. It takes just over three claim-free years for the accumulated premium saving to equal that extra exposure. One claim in the first year reverses the arithmetic.
This is not a prediction that a claim will happen. It is a way to decide whether the saving is worth carrying the risk. Set the excess at a level you could pay immediately, then compare quotes on equal cover. Also check whether an excess is deducted from a settlement or must be paid to the repairer, and whether more than one excess can apply to a single incident.
An excess does not make an otherwise uncovered event covered. Check exclusions and claim conditions separately. For a full renewal comparison, use the Irish car insurance renewal checklist.
