Do you have to pay for courtesy vehicles?

Do you have to pay for courtesy vehicles in Australia depends on what type of courtesy vehicle it is and your insurance policy. For a repairer-provided courtesy car, which is a free loan car offered by some smash repairers while your car is being repaired after an accident, you generally do not have to pay daily rental charges, it is provided free as customer service to win your repair business. However, you do have to pay for fuel, tolls, and you are liable for the insurance excess if you crash it, typically $1,500 to $3,000, and you must return it clean and full of fuel or pay a cleaning or refuelling fee. For an insurer-provided hire car that is included as a benefit in your comprehensive car insurance, you do not pay daily rental if you are entitled under policy, your insurer pays the rental company like Hertz, Avis or Budget directly. For example, after theft you get hire car for up to 14 to 21 days paid by insurer, and after a not-at-fault accident where you can identify the other driver, insurer pays for hire car during repair and recovers cost from at-fault driver. If you are at fault and do not have optional hire car cover which costs $50 to $100 per year extra, you do have to pay for a courtesy or hire car yourself at $50 to $120 per day out of pocket. You also pay for excess reduction if you want to lower excess from $2,000 to $4,500 down to $300 to $500, which costs $20 to $35 per day.