Free excess cover
Buy car insurance with us and we’ll refund your excess if you make a claim[1]
Free £250 excess cover, only with GoCompare
Claiming on your car insurance is stressful enough without the added cost of your excess. And we want to help with that.
There's no catch. If you need to claim, your free excess cover will refund up to £250 of your excess.
Don’t worry. We haven't hidden the cost in your quotes.
How it works
When you buy car insurance it’s usually sold with an excess. It’s what you have to pay towards the cost of a claim.
It's made up of two parts: compulsory and voluntary. Your insurer sets the compulsory excess. The voluntary excess, you choose to pay on top. Sometimes there's an additional excess for young or new drivers too.
Your free excess cover will refund up to £250 of your excess. Let's say your total excess is £300. You pay this to your insurer, then we refund up to £250 after your claim's settled.
What’s covered
We'll refund up to £250 of your excess for:
- Damage to your car, if you’re at fault and have comprehensive insurance
- Claims for fire or theft
- Uninsured driver claims
What’s not
When you won’t be able to use your free excess cover:
- Repairs to your own car, without comprehensive cover
- Windscreen repair and replacement
- Damage caused by a breakdown or misfuelling
- Claims from outside the UK
£4 million refunded to customers with free excess cover[2]
Compare now[2]Based on Go.Compare analysis of successful claims, August 2019 - June 2022.
How to get your free excess cover
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Compare and buy car insurance with us
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We’ll email your policy documents shortly after
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Check all your details are right, and you’re good!
Make a claim on your free excess cover
To get a refund on your excess, you need to claim it back online. Your claim will be handled by Inter Partner Assistance SA UK Branch, part of the AXA Assistance Group.
You need to wait until your car insurance claim has been settled. Ask your insurer for a settlement letter too.
You’ve got six months from when your car insurance claim gets settled to get your excess back.
What you'll need
You’ll need to select GoCompare from the 'Scheme name' drop-down list and have these documents to hand:
- Excess cover schedule of insurance
- Proof you’ve paid your excess
- Settlement letter from your insurer
- Certificate of motor insurance
What to expect
Making a claim is straightforward. You should be able to fill out the online form in about ten minutes.
Once you've submitted your claim, and it's been approved, expect to get your refund within five working days.
Need to make a claim?
Claim your excess refund back online via our claims portal
Need help with your claim? Call our dedicated team on 0330 123 3540. We're on the phone Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm
Frequently asked questions
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There’s no catch - if you ever need to make a claim, your free excess cover will cover some, or all, of the cost of your excess, up to £250.
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You've got up to £250. So if your total excess is £300, you’ll pay this to your insurer, and then we’ll refund you £250.
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When you buy car insurance through us, your excess cover will start on the same day.
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You can have one excess cover policy for every car insurance policy you buy through us.
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If your excess is covered by any other insurance then this policy would only pay out a proportionate share of the claim. All policies will together only pay out a maximum of the total excess - it's fraud to attempt to profit by claiming for your excess more than once.
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Your premiums won’t go up because you’ve claimed on your excess cover. But they probably will in the future because you’ve made a claim on your car insurance.
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If you cancel your car insurance, we’ll cancel your excess cover too. That’s because your excess cover runs alongside your car insurance. We’ll send you an email confirming this has happened.
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If you don’t want free excess cover anymore, just send us an email and we’ll cancel your policy for you.
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If you cancel your car insurance, we’ll cancel your excess cover too. That’s because your excess cover runs alongside your car insurance. We’ll send you an email confirming this has happened.
Sometimes we have to cancel policies for reasons we can’t always explain, but that’s very rare.
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You can claim as many times as you need to, as long as you don't exceed the £250 annual policy limit. Once you've made claims totalling the £250 limit the policy will end and won't pay out again.
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No. The excess cover only applies to the car you bought insurance for with GoCompare, so it won’t apply to any other cars you drive.
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If your car insurance policy covers these claims and an excess is applied, your excess cover policy can be used, as long as the claim isn’t solely for breakdown, windscreen repair/replacement or glass repair/replacement.
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It's not a problem. It just means you can claim more than once on your excess cover if you need to.
If your excess is £100, you could claim a maximum of three times. Twice for £100 and once for £50 (paying the other £50 excess on that claim yourself).
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No. The excess cover is completely free, so you don't need to provide your card or account details. All you need to do is quote and buy your car insurance through GoCompare and you will be eligible for the free excess cover.
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As long as you just change your car with your insurer and keep the same car insurance policy, your excess cover will still be valid. If you end your policy and take out a new one for the new car, your excess cover will end when the car insurance ends.
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No if you cancel your car insurance, your excess cover will also be cancelled. This also goes for if your insurer cancels or voids the policy.
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No. You’ll need to compare and buy car insurance with us again if you want excess cover for another year.
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No. Our free excess cover has a limit of up to £250 in the policy period.
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Yes. The policy covers the excess paid on your car insurance policy and this excess would still apply to additional named drivers – so they’d benefit from the excess cover.
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As long as the date of the incident was within the term of your car insurance policy your excess cover will still apply.
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Just get in touch with our customer service team via our contact page.
To change your address, email us your full address including postcode. If you’ve changed car, we need the make, model and registration number.
Terms and conditions
1. For the purposes of these terms and conditions, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
- 1.1. Act of God: means flood, drought, earthquake or other natural disaster, epidemic or pandemic, civil war, civil commotion or riots, war, armed conflict or nuclear, chemical or biological contamination;
- 1.2. Cover Period: means the lesser of:
(a) the duration of the Qualifying Car Insurance Policy; or
(b) twelve (12) months from and including inception of the Free Excess Cover; - 1.3 Eligible Customer: means any customer who is 17 years of age or older and resident in the Territories and who provides a valid email address when obtaining car insurance quotes via the GoCompare Website;
- 1.4. Excluded Event: means any claim under the Qualifying Car Insurance Policy in respect of an Act of God or a breakdown event or for windscreen or other window repair or replacement;
- 1.5. Free Excess Cover: means a free motor excess insurance underwritten by the Underwriter which shall provide excess protection of up to £250.00 during the Cover Period;
- 1.6. GoCompare: means Gocompare.com Limited (a company incorporated in England and Wales under company number 5799376 and whose registered office is at Imperial House, Imperial Way, Newport NP10 8UH);
- 1.7. GoCompare Reference Number: means the reference number attributed by GoCompare to any car insurance quote obtained via the GoCompare Website;
- 1.8. GoCompare Website: means www.gocompare.com;
- 1.9. Provider: means Atlanta Insurance Intermediaries Limited (a company incorporated in England and Wales under company registration number 00756681 whose registered office address is at Embankment West Tower, 101 Cathedral Approach, Salford, United Kingdom, M3 7FB);
- 1.10. Qualifying Car Insurance Policy: means an insurance policy providing comprehensive or third-party, fire and theft cover (but excluding an insurance policy providing third-party cover only) in respect of a private or commercial motorised car and whose excess is £0.01 or greater purchased by an Eligible Customer as a result of that customer obtaining car insurance quotes via the GoCompare Website and then purchasing a car insurance policy either via the GoCompare Website or by telephone with the insurer directly PROVIDED THAT where a car insurance policy is purchased by an Eligible Customer by telephone with an insurer directly, that customer shall provide the insurer with a valid GoCompare Reference Number before the car insurance policy is purchased;
- 1.11. Qualifying Period: means any period during which GoCompare shall promote this offer via the GoCompare Website;
- 1.12. Territories: means England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands; and
- 1.13. Underwriter: means Inter Partner Assistance S.A. UK Branch which is a Branch of Inter Partner Assistance S.A. (Financial Conduct Authority registration number 202664), which is a Belgian firm authorised by the National Bank of Belgium under number 0487, with a registered head office at Louizalaan 166, 1050 Brussels. Deemed authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority. Subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and limited regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority. Details of the Temporary Permissions Regime, which allows EEA-based firms to operate in the UK for a limited period while seeking full authorisation, are available on the Financial Conduct Authority’s website. Inter Partner Assistance S.A. is registered in England with its registered address at 106-118 Station Road, Redhill, RH1 1PR (UK branch registration number: BR000947). Inter Partner Assistance S.A. has a share capital of EUR 130,702,613. Inter Partner Assistance S.A. is part of the AXA Group.
The offer
2. Only Eligible Customers who purchase a Qualifying Car Insurance Policy at any time during the Qualifying Period shall be entitled to receive the Free Excess Cover.
Activation
3. Free Excess Cover will be automatically awarded to all Eligible Customers who GoCompare is able to verify have purchased a Qualifying Car Insurance Policy at any time during the Qualifying Period.
Claims
4. Eligible Customers who make a valid claim under the Free Excess Cover shall be entitled to a reimbursement of any excess paid to the insurer named on their Qualifying Car Insurance Policy up to a maximum of £250.00 during the Cover Period.
5. In order to make a valid claim under the Free Excess Cover, an Eligible Customer must:
- 5.1. be named as the insured on the Qualifying Car Insurance Policy;
- 5.2. first make a valid claim under the Qualifying Car Insurance Policy in respect of an insurable event taking place within the Territories;
- 5.3. have already paid and be able to provide proof of payment of any excess due to the insurer under the Qualifying Car Insurance Policy; and
- 5.4. provide the Underwriter with notice of his or her claim under the Free Excess Cover not more than six (6) months following the date on which any claim under the Qualifying Car Insurance Policy is settled.
- 6. Any claim under the Qualifying Car Insurance Policy in respect of an Excluded Event shall not constitute a valid claim under the Qualifying Car Insurance Policy for the purposes of this offer.
Verification
7. If GoCompare is unable to verify an Eligible Customer’s purchase of a Qualifying Car Insurance Policy, GoCompare reserve the right to revoke any Free Excess Cover which is issued.
Complaints
8. It is always GoCompare’s aim to provide the best possible service. However, any complaints about the way in which the Free Excess Cover was sold should be directed to GoCompare at feedback@gocompare.com. Any complaints in respect of the handling of any claim made under the Free Excess Cover should be directed to the Underwriter at quality.assurance@axa-assistance.co.uk.
Legal
9. By opting in to receive the Free Excess Cover when obtaining car insurance quotes via the GoCompare Website, you will be deemed to have accepted and agreed to be bound by these terms and conditions.
10. GoCompare reserves the right to withdraw, cancel, suspend or amend this offer at any time.
11. Personal data supplied in connection with this offer will only be processed by GoCompare in accordance with the terms of GoCompare’s privacy policy. Any personal data provided to the Provider or Underwriter will be processed in accordance with the Provider’s or Underwriter’s privacy policy (as applicable).
12. These terms and conditions and any dispute or claim arising out of them shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and the parties irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
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