What's the deal with car insurance and excess on rentals in Morocco?

Insurance is where the cheap headline rental rate quietly bites, so read this part carefully. By law every hire comes with basic third-party liability cover (covers damage you do to others). What it does not do is protect you for damage to, or theft of, the rental car itself beyond a high excess — the deductible — which you remain personally on the hook for. That excess is commonly anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 MAD or more, and it's typically held against your credit card.

You'll be offered upgrades at the desk — Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Theft Protection to lower or zero the excess. The basic ones still leave a chunk of excess; the 'super' or 'full' versions reduce it toward zero but cost more per day, sometimes a lot more, and the desk hard-sell can be uncomfortable. Decide your appetite for risk before you arrive so you're not pressured into a snap decision over the counter.

The savvy move many experienced travellers make is to buy a standalone car hire excess insurance policy from a third party before they fly — an annual or per-trip policy that reimburses your excess if you're charged for damage. It's far cheaper than the rental desk's equivalent, and it means you can decline the desk's pricey CDW upgrade with a clear conscience. You pay any damage upfront and claim it back from your own insurer.

Whatever cover you choose, the most important free protection is the walk-around. Before you drive off, inspect the car obsessively — every scratch, scuff, dent, wheel scrape and the windscreen — and photograph and video all of it with a timestamp, ideally with a staff member present. Make sure every existing mark is noted on the rental sheet. Disputes over pre-existing damage at drop-off are the classic rental sting, and your photos are your only real defence.

Also check what the policy specifically excludes — tyres, windscreen, undercarriage and 'off-road' damage are very often not covered even on the full package, which ties back to never leaving the tarmac. Read those exclusions, because that's exactly where Morocco's rough rural roads will test the car. If all of this feels like a lot of risk management for a holiday, it's a fair reason some guests skip the rental entirely and let a driver carry the liability.