Car hire during insurance claim

Plates

Hi all,

I'm due to arrange car hire today as my wife had an accident last week. My policy allows up to €190 for car hire.

My insurance company contacted the car hire company they use and I got a call from them this morning. They were offering me a Toyota Yaris for 6 days - and said this was the standard deal for an insurance claim. I asked what the daily charge was and they said it was €28 per day. I knew this was over the odds as I'd looked on their website over the weekend and the rate for a Yaris was less than €10 per day (including insurance, charges, VAT etc.)

I called the insurance company back and they said the rates shouldn't be any different and that as the policy simply covered an amount up to €190 I was free to use any company if I could get a better deal.

I then called the car hire company back and told them and after some mumbling and stuttering they said they'd arrange something when I dropped in to them.

It all seems a bit underhanded to me - if the car hire company are charging the insurance company different rates (3 times higher) for insurance claim rentals. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

dudara

The deal is between the car hire company and your insurance company.

You'll probably get better answers in the Motors forum for this particular question

dudara

Plates

Thanks dudara - thought consumer affairs would be as good a place as any since it's effectively a consumer issue that just happens to involve a car.

kingofburt

I'm guessing that the rental firm was Enterprise, if so they have a particular business model that is different to most other rental firms. They specifically target corporate rentals and charge fixed corporate rates midweek as this is when their demand is highest, come weekends they have lots of stock sitting in yards so they rent them out for €10 per day (although they will try to sell excess very heavily to make more profits)

You might get an extra day or two from them but generally speaking you are renting from the insurance company with the rental company providing the car. Its worth remembering that with the awful weather the rental firms are proably just trying to get their stock out at the minute also, hence the low prices.

Plates

kingofburt wrote: »

You might get an extra day or two from them but generally speaking you are renting from the insurance company with the rental company providing the car.

I see where you're coming from - but the insurance company said I wan't obliged to even use Enterprise - that I could use any company and they would accept an invoice from them directly.

I reckon I'll try my chances at just getting the rates they have published on their website. Just because it's connected to an insurance claim I shouldn't have to pay extra.

Plates

Just picked up my hire car from Enterprise. I got an Opel Astra. After a lot of discussion in their office during which they reeled off standard stuff about corporate rates and blah blah blah - it turns out that if I wanted them to invoice my insurance company directly I would have been charged €30 per day for the car - whereas by paying for it myself and sending the invoice to the insurance company for reimbursement it was only €10 Euro a day.

I appreciate it's probably easier all round (well - for the insurance and car hire companies anyway) for fixed agreed rates - but you'd think I was asking for their first born child the way they reacted to me when I challenged them on it. A very poor customer experience all round.

Curlz24

Hi there,

Sorry to hear that your wife had an accident- I hope she is doing well.

If you have €190 max on your policy then I'm guessing that you are with FBD. At a guess I have a fair idea of what rental company you are using. The rates that insurance companies use with the rental companies are all set on agreed terms at the beginning of a contract. So therefore no matter what the season the customer will always get the basic reduced rate. For example the car class that you have been authorised for was valued at €95 plus vat per day last July. If you wanted to base this with your perception that the customer should get the retail going rate then you could have only got 2 days rental last July if your accident was to have occurred then. These are the agreed terms set between your insurance company and Enterprise. If you look up the details of your own insurance policy you will see that you are entitled to €190 max or for 1st party claims. You are entitled to get a like for like vehicle to your own but the amount of days that you are entitled to have the car would be reduced.If you waned to get the normal retail rates as posted on the internet you can but you would have to fulfill the requirements, pay for the rental yourself and then try to get FBD to reimburse you and then they probably wouldnt as you should have just gone through the normal protocol and procedure that they have set up with the rental car company.

This is not an attempt on the rental car company to do you out of anything. Its just at the moment the normal rates of rental cars has shot down due to the low demand after Christmas and the recession. Usually if the customer wanted to extend the rental and pay for the car themselves after the €190 max, the rental company will allow them to pay the basic low ins rate instead of the fluctuating retail rate.



:cool:

Plates

I phoned the insurance company and asked their advice - they told me they were happy for me to pay for it myself to avail of the better rate and that that they were also happy for me to send the invoice directly to them for reimbursement.

O.A.P

Plates wrote: »

I phoned the insurance company and asked their advice - they told me they were happy for me to pay for it myself to avail of the better rate and that that they were also happy for me to send the invoice directly to them for reimbursement.

Of course they did but I'd get that in writing first if I were you. Hope it works out for you though.