Ring the emergency services first if anyone is hurt, and the rental company second — before you move the vehicle, before you agree anything with the other driver, and before anybody starts arranging a repair. Almost every Thai rental agreement requires immediate notification, and the company's insurer is the one who sends a surveyor to the scene. Skip that call and you have handed the rental company a reason to charge you for everything.
Crashing a vehicle that is not yours adds a third party to an already busy afternoon, and that third party is holding your deposit and, in some cases, your passport. This page is about handling them properly.
- Ambulance1669
- Tourist Police, English-speaking1155
- Hire car excess, published Thai termsRoughly ฿8,000–20,000
The order to do it in
- 1669 if anyone is injured. Nothing else outranks it.
- Do not move the vehicles unless you are in danger or an officer directs you.
- Photograph the scene — both vehicles in position, damage, plates, road surface, signs.
- Call the rental company on the number in your agreement. Tell them where you are and what has happened. Ask them what they want you to do next, and do it.
- Call the police, or 1155 for an English-speaking officer. You need a report.
- Wait for the surveyor. The rental company's insurer will send one; so will the other party's insurer if they have cover.
- Sign nothing you cannot read, and photograph everything you are shown.
- Get the police report reference and the claim number before anyone leaves.
Never settle privately on a hire vehicle. Accepting cash from the other driver, or paying them to make it go away, is settling a claim on somebody else's property. The rental company will not recognise it, the damage will still be charged to you, and from their side it looks like an attempt to conceal it.
What the rental company's protection actually is
The first thing to understand is that the collision damage waiver sold at a Thai rental desk is generally not insurance. Avis Thailand says so in terms on its own site: its protections are "not insurance" but "products which reduce your damage responsibility". That distinction matters, because what you have bought is a contractual cap on what the company can charge you — not a policy you can claim on.
| Published Thai terms | Excess you carry | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Avis standard CDW | Up to ฿8,000 or ฿15,000 depending on car type | Included |
| Avis Super CDW | Zero | Extra, per day |
| Budget standard LDW | ฿10,000–20,000 by vehicle category | Included in the rate |
| Budget Super LDW | Zero | ฿200–220 a day |
| Budget theft protection | Zero | ฿69–99 a day |
| Budget bundle: Super LDW + theft | Zero | ฿199 a day |
Those are two international brands' own published Thai terms at the time of checking, and local operators differ widely — read the agreement in front of you rather than this table. As a rough anchor, an excess of ฿8,000–20,000 is roughly £185–460, US$230–580 or €200–500.
The exclusions are where the money goes
This is the part that catches people who believe they bought their way to zero liability. Avis's published list of what its damage waiver does not cover is: tyres, wheels, windows, interior damage, lost car keys, lost licence plates, wrong fuel and towing fees. On Thai roads — potholes, gravel shoulders, flooded surfaces in the wet season — tyres and wheels are not an exotic risk. Nor is putting the wrong grade in the tank, which is the classic hire-car mistake here; see fuel in Thailand: which grade goes in your tank.
What rental insurance does not cover in Thailand and rental insurance excess in Thailand go through this properly. Compulsory third-party cover — por ror bor — is included in hire rates, but it covers injuries to people and never property, so it will not repair either car.
Rented scooters are a different, worse position
Everything above concerns established car hire, where there is a published product and a real insurer behind it. Motorbike hire in Thai tourist towns is not that. We could not obtain rental operators' motorbike insurance terms in any form worth relying on, which is itself the finding: assume nothing is covered until the shop shows you otherwise in writing.
Two further facts from the UK Foreign Office are worth having in mind before you crash rather than after. Hire motorcycles in tourist areas "are often unregistered and cannot be used legally on a public road" — a machine that cannot legally be on the road cannot legally be ridden by anyone, whatever licence you hold. And driving or riding without a valid licence "could invalidate your travel insurance and you'll be unable to claim if you have an accident or injury".
The licence point is the expensive one. A car licence does not cover a motorcycle in Thailand or on an international driving permit, whatever the size of the engine, and the shop handing you the key without looking changes nothing. If that describes you, a crash is not an insurance problem — it is an uninsured problem. Read what voids your motorbike cover in Thailand.
The deposit, and your passport
Expect the deposit to be held while the claim resolves, and expect that to take longer than your holiday. That is normal even where you were not at fault, because the money is released when liability is settled, not when you say goodbye. Push for the claim number and the police report reference, and keep a photographic record of the vehicle's condition — ideally including the handover photographs and video you took at pick-up, which is exactly what what to photograph before you drive away is for.
If the shop is holding your passport, that is a separate and more serious problem. Thai law does not require it, most embassies advise against it, and after a crash it becomes leverage. Passport as deposit for motorbike hire covers the alternatives; the time to solve it is at the counter, not at the roadside.
If the damage is only to the hire vehicle
A single-vehicle spill — a sandy bend, a wet manhole cover, a dropped bike in a car park — has no other party, no other insurer and no surveyor coming for anyone. It is you and the rental company. Two things follow. Report it anyway, immediately, because concealed damage found at return is the most expensive version of this. And be aware that Thai voluntary insurance classes 2+ and 3+ do not cover a single-vehicle accident at all — only class 1 does, and a rental scooter is almost never on class 1. What happens if you drop a rented scooter deals with this case specifically.
When the argument is about money, not the crash
Disputed charges, inflated repair quotes and deposits that do not come back are a rental problem rather than a safety one, and they have their own pages: motorbike rental damage claims in Thailand, the rental damage claim playbook and disputing a rental charge in Thailand. What decides those arguments is almost always the evidence you gathered in the first hour: the handover photographs, the scene photographs, the police report and the claim number.
Frequently asked questions
Who do I call first after crashing a hire vehicle?
1669 if anyone is injured. Otherwise the rental company, before you move anything and before you talk money with anyone. Their insurer sends the surveyor, and their agreement almost certainly requires immediate notification.
Do I need a police report for a rental claim?
Assume yes. Thai rental agreements and their insurers routinely require one, and without it a company is entitled to treat the damage as unexplained and charge it to you. Call 1155 if you need an English-speaking officer.
I bought the zero-excess product. Am I covered for everything?
No. On the published terms of the two international brands operating here, tyres, wheels, glass, interior damage, lost keys, lost plates, wrong fuel and towing all sit outside the damage waiver even at zero excess. That is where most of the money actually goes.
Can I use my travel insurance for the rental damage?
Generally not for the vehicle itself. Some policies, and some separately bought excess-reimbursement products, refund an excess you have already been charged — that is a different thing, paid by a different company, after the rental firm has taken the money. See car hire excess insurance bought before you travel.
The shop wants to keep my deposit until the repair is done. Is that normal?
Holding the deposit while a claim resolves is standard. Refusing to give you the repair quote, the claim number or a receipt is not. Ask for all three in writing, keep the correspondence, and read rental deposits in Thailand explained.
What if the other driver was clearly at fault?
Good — but the claim still runs between the two insurers, and the deposit is still held until it settles. Make sure the plate, the scene and your account are all documented, and get the police report. If someone hits you in Thailand covers the recovery side.
Should I tell the rental company if the damage is tiny?
Yes. Damage discovered at return that was not reported is the single most disputed situation in Thai vehicle hire, and it costs far more than the honest phone call would have.