Hire Car Excess Insurance
Discussion
Soon off to Italy and looking at car hire. In the past I have tended to use the hire company's own insurance upgrade to cover any damage excess, but the eye watering price of these upgrades has got me looking at independent excess cover.
The main thing I want to avoid is stress and buggeration, hence previously using their own insurance, but how much of a pain is it to be landed with the inevitable bill for a barely visible scratch and then having to claim the excess back from my own insurer. I have heard stories of hire firm and 3rd party insurers not communicating with each other and leaving the hirerer as piggy in the middle.
Any advice welcome. Looking to hire from a big firm such as Hertz or Sixt, not some under the arches outfit.
The main thing I want to avoid is stress and buggeration, hence previously using their own insurance, but how much of a pain is it to be landed with the inevitable bill for a barely visible scratch and then having to claim the excess back from my own insurer. I have heard stories of hire firm and 3rd party insurers not communicating with each other and leaving the hirerer as piggy in the middle.
Any advice welcome. Looking to hire from a big firm such as Hertz or Sixt, not some under the arches outfit.
I wonder if these cover the cost of the hire company giving the police your details? I have been charge three times by Avis,25 euros each time for alleged traffic fines but never ever received any details from the authorities. Just a charge from Avis for their processing of passing on my details with no evidence of any wrong doing and certainly no memory of me ever doing anything wrong.
Zaichik said:
I wonder if these cover the cost of the hire company giving the police your details? I have been charge three times by Avis,25 euros each time for alleged traffic fines but never ever received any details from the authorities. Just a charge from Avis for their processing of passing on my details with no evidence of any wrong doing and certainly no memory of me ever doing anything wrong.
Surely administration costs not insurance. FarmerJim said:
Soon off to Italy and looking at car hire. In the past I have tended to use the hire company's own insurance upgrade to cover any damage excess, but the eye watering price of these upgrades has got me looking at independent excess cover.
The main thing I want to avoid is stress and buggeration, hence previously using their own insurance, but how much of a pain is it to be landed with the inevitable bill for a barely visible scratch and then having to claim the excess back from my own insurer. I have heard stories of hire firm and 3rd party insurers not communicating with each other and leaving the hirerer as piggy in the middle.
Any advice welcome. Looking to hire from a big firm such as Hertz or Sixt, not some under the arches outfit.
Take out an annual policy for £40 (or just a one off for around £28 if you are sure you won't use it again in a year)The main thing I want to avoid is stress and buggeration, hence previously using their own insurance, but how much of a pain is it to be landed with the inevitable bill for a barely visible scratch and then having to claim the excess back from my own insurer. I have heard stories of hire firm and 3rd party insurers not communicating with each other and leaving the hirerer as piggy in the middle.
Any advice welcome. Looking to hire from a big firm such as Hertz or Sixt, not some under the arches outfit.
Be polite but firm at the far desk that you have your own insurance, they are getting used to this now, at long last.
Know your policy. I paid £40 at the car hire place for breakdown recovery for punctures etc. I need not have. The excess policy covered it.
Take a credit (not debit) card in the name of the hirer. This is vital. They will block between 700 and 1200 Euros on your card until you sign off the car return. It MUST be a credit card and it MUST be in the name of the car hirer / driver. Many many bad reviews for car co.s online are from people who slip up here. If they cant put the block on your CC they won't give you a car,at least not without taking out their insurance.
Walk around the car and take photos covering every panel, and the cills, and the roof. I have found that taking care at this stage probably let's them know not to waste your time with made up scratches on return.
I travel a lot, and hire cars overseas most times (often two or three times a year in Europe). I've been using goldcar and the likes for decades, and never once have I been challenged about fictitious damage, nor charged. I've never ever taken out their own insurance. I've also never damaged a hire car.
There is no need for any stress when you are armed with knowledge.
Great advice from griffith4ever above.
I’d add booking via Zest then you have a uk call centre as backup. Sixt in Faro have a terrible rep on tripadvisor whereas some of the smaller ‘under the arches’ companies are great. Goldcar as mentioned above get very variable reviews on the Faro section of TA but may be brilliant elsewhere - it’s very area dependent. I haven’t bothered with excess cover for years and have never been screwed - as above being just a little bit of a PITA spending 5 minutes on pickup querying existing damage, making sure they know you’re photographing everything and asking for damage to be marked on the paperwork may well be the reason
Do searches on the TA forum for the area and/or airport you’re visiting to work out who the crooks are, then buy an excess policy online if you feel the reviews warrant it - you’d have the damage put on your card by the hire co then you have to claim it back at a later date from your insurer. As above, photograph everything on pickup - tyres, windscreen, lower body etc.
Then drive it like you stole it
I’d add booking via Zest then you have a uk call centre as backup. Sixt in Faro have a terrible rep on tripadvisor whereas some of the smaller ‘under the arches’ companies are great. Goldcar as mentioned above get very variable reviews on the Faro section of TA but may be brilliant elsewhere - it’s very area dependent. I haven’t bothered with excess cover for years and have never been screwed - as above being just a little bit of a PITA spending 5 minutes on pickup querying existing damage, making sure they know you’re photographing everything and asking for damage to be marked on the paperwork may well be the reason
Do searches on the TA forum for the area and/or airport you’re visiting to work out who the crooks are, then buy an excess policy online if you feel the reviews warrant it - you’d have the damage put on your card by the hire co then you have to claim it back at a later date from your insurer. As above, photograph everything on pickup - tyres, windscreen, lower body etc.
Then drive it like you stole it
StupidDecisions said:
Used Eversure for years but never had to make a claim. Only thing is they specifically dont cover Green Motion but can't imagine a situation I would ever be renting from them. Maybe this is something they all do?
I priced up hiring a van from Green Motion in the UK. Then I googled. I can understand why they’re excluded from the insurance 
I have carhireexcess.co.uk cover and they exclude Green Motion too. I think the ALL exclude them :-)
My policy was £41 btw, for 366 days (dunno why not 365! but there you are).
As an interesting anecdotal: I just used Abby Car, Chania, Crete. The reviews on Tripadvisor are almost universally horrific.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g1...
They were so much cheaper than anyone else I decided to go ahead, partly in the knowledge "I know what I'm doing with cheap car hire co.s".
The latest review is from me (4/5 dots).
I then traweled through the reviews whilst away, on my sun lounger :-) They mostly fall into several camps (of VERY angry people)
- didn't take a CC in their own name
- didn't take their actual driving license (more than one assumed a photo was good enough)
- scratched the car but were somehow then horrified when charged 1050 euros and didn't take out any insurance at all
- chose a compact car and then found it would not take the luggage of 4 people (seriously, wtf? - dont' hire a compact car when there are mor than 2 people)
- one got caught driving their car onto a sand beach...
There are of course some genuine greivances on there but an aweful lot look self inflicted.
PLus, most people who have a good experience don't write reviews (hence I did to try and help balance things out a little)
My policy was £41 btw, for 366 days (dunno why not 365! but there you are).
As an interesting anecdotal: I just used Abby Car, Chania, Crete. The reviews on Tripadvisor are almost universally horrific.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g1...
They were so much cheaper than anyone else I decided to go ahead, partly in the knowledge "I know what I'm doing with cheap car hire co.s".
The latest review is from me (4/5 dots).
I then traweled through the reviews whilst away, on my sun lounger :-) They mostly fall into several camps (of VERY angry people)
- didn't take a CC in their own name
- didn't take their actual driving license (more than one assumed a photo was good enough)
- scratched the car but were somehow then horrified when charged 1050 euros and didn't take out any insurance at all
- chose a compact car and then found it would not take the luggage of 4 people (seriously, wtf? - dont' hire a compact car when there are mor than 2 people)
- one got caught driving their car onto a sand beach...
There are of course some genuine greivances on there but an aweful lot look self inflicted.
PLus, most people who have a good experience don't write reviews (hence I did to try and help balance things out a little)
I've used Allianz before and had to make a claim and they were very good
Hired a car in Faro from some ultra cheap (at the time) outfit and got a car that had a myriad of scratches on it. Naturally on return they sting me for the one scratch that wasn't on the check sheet and charged accordingly.
Got back and made a claim and had to send of various paperwork (keep EVERYTHING!!!!),was given a named advisor who kept me in the loop as it went through their process and paid out in full a couple of weeks later.
Couldn't fault them.
Hired a car in Faro from some ultra cheap (at the time) outfit and got a car that had a myriad of scratches on it. Naturally on return they sting me for the one scratch that wasn't on the check sheet and charged accordingly.
Got back and made a claim and had to send of various paperwork (keep EVERYTHING!!!!),was given a named advisor who kept me in the loop as it went through their process and paid out in full a couple of weeks later.
Couldn't fault them.
Had all this nonsense in majorca with recordgo.
I did all the paperwork in the airport and was directed to the carpark to collect the keys and car.
When i looked at the paperwork that i “signed for” in the terminal before even seeing the car, was me agreeing to the car’s condition report. Didn’t realise that in the terminal, but certainly did when i collected the keys.
As above, took extensive photos of the car whilst still in its collection bay. Went back and pointed out that there was loads more damage than the form said.
I did all the paperwork in the airport and was directed to the carpark to collect the keys and car.
When i looked at the paperwork that i “signed for” in the terminal before even seeing the car, was me agreeing to the car’s condition report. Didn’t realise that in the terminal, but certainly did when i collected the keys.
As above, took extensive photos of the car whilst still in its collection bay. Went back and pointed out that there was loads more damage than the form said.
As advised above, have a credit card in the hirer's name, but if it's intended to use an Amex card for the security deposit make sure that it will be accepted.
A friend of mine presented an Amex card to Gold Car in Alicante to cover the security deposit. GC refused to take Amex pointing to their T&Cs that stated that only Mastercard or Visa would be accepted. Friend didn't have MC or Visa card so GC said that they would only release the car if they bought GC's insurance at something like €800 for a fortnight. Funnily enough, GC happily accepted the Amex card for their insurance!
A friend of mine presented an Amex card to Gold Car in Alicante to cover the security deposit. GC refused to take Amex pointing to their T&Cs that stated that only Mastercard or Visa would be accepted. Friend didn't have MC or Visa card so GC said that they would only release the car if they bought GC's insurance at something like €800 for a fortnight. Funnily enough, GC happily accepted the Amex card for their insurance!
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