Car Rental Insurance

murph440

Myself and my girlfriend are heading off to Pau, France in september for two weeks. We are going to rent a car for the two weeks. I have received a quote of €370 from car3000hire.ie and the rental company has offered an insurance extra of €93.

Is it worth going for this as it says it reduces my excess should anything happen. However it doesn't say alot about what else it does. Has anybody any experience good or bad with taking this option when something happened?

I thought car rental companies had to have compulsory insurance on all rentals.

Any info/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers in advance

Henry Ford III

That's full coverage for the excess probably. CDW etc. is most likely included in the rate.

naughtysmurf

I would have thought the rental price was reasonable,

You can decline their extra insurance, you would probably just have third party cover then, leaving you exposed in the event of an accident or accidental damage.

It's a personal choice, take into account that you will be driving on the other side of the road and changing gear with the wrong hand

I used to work in the airport car rental business and doing customers (chose my words carefully) for damage to rental cars used to be common place, often different customers billed for the same damage to one vehicle directly to their credit cards after they had left the country

I always take out fully comp insurance for peace of mind and last two years car rental have been fine, no problems.

If driving in France would try and hire an automatic if possible, takes a few days to get used to shifting gear with right hand.

PaddyFagan

Right so - the basic deal is that yes the car hire company do include insurance but the default excess is probably a few thousand Euro. (they do this so the headline price is as low as possible) They then offer you additional insurance that brings the excess down probably to a hundred Euro or so - this is what the €93 is for....

You do have other options - like http://www.axacarhireexcess.ie/ - Google will throw up a bunch more - these will typically be cheaper, the axa site says €55 for a year. The only issue with these seperate insurance policies is that if you have a claim you may well have to settle with the car hire company first (in fact they may just debit your credit card) and then claim it back from AXA or whoever. Where as if you pay the €93 to the car hire company you just have to pay whatever the lower excess is....

So your options are: 1) just pay the €370 and know that if you have an accident you'll have to pay a few k... 2) Pay the car hire company the €93 extra and if you have an accident you'll have to pay a hundred or whatever 3) Use another insurer which is likely to be cheaper, but you may have some complications if you need to claim.

Paddy

Tito Ortiz

murph, i used this company a few weeks back and was trying to find the same info as you,and got very confused..

If you pay the 93 quid they will freeze 300 (in my case) for 1 week after you return the car and then release it. If you turn down the 93 they will need to freeze much more, a couple of grand off the top of my head..

CiniO

murph440 wrote: »

Myself and my girlfriend are heading off to Pau, France in september for two weeks. We are going to rent a car for the two weeks. I have received a quote of €370 from car3000hire.ie and the rental company has offered an insurance extra of €93.

Is it worth going for this as it says it reduces my excess should anything happen. However it doesn't say alot about what else it does. Has anybody any experience good or bad with taking this option when something happened?

I thought car rental companies had to have compulsory insurance on all rentals.

Any info/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers in advance

OP there's lot of misleading information in this thread.
I used carhire3000 twice over last 2 years and I know how it works.

First of all they are not a car rental company, but an agent that arranges a rental with local company at rental place.

That local company might have different rules about renting, but in general they provide CDW (collision damage waiver) and TP (theft protection) with some sort of excess.
Excess depends on company and class of car, but usually is between 300 and 1800 euros.

When booking a car with carhire3000 you will have to pay rental price at booking time, and receive a voucher. Then when you arrive, you show the voucher to the rental company, and they will give you a car. But before that they (rental company) will ask you to secure the value of excess by giving them your credit card details (they will lock that amount on your credit card). If car is returned OK, then it lock will be released.
To prevent this lock being applied, you would have to pay excess waiver to your rental company, which usually costs something like 15 - 25 euros a day. (for 2 weeks it would be crazy amount).

Carhire3000 offers you protection for only 93, but there are few disadvantages.
First - you will still have to provide credit card to be used as protection for excess for rental company and amount will be locked on it. In case something happens, rental company will charge you excess amount, and then provided you have all neccesery document (accident report, police report, etc) you can apply to carhire3000 for refund of excess money paid.
Second - it doesn't cover theft excess. Only accidental damage.

I looked around, and instead of buying above protection, i went with http://carhireexcess.ie/. They provide similar cover to the one offered by carhire3000, but it includes theft excess protection, and is cheaper (2.99 per day).

The same rule though applies, that you have to provide credit card details at rental, and being locked amount of excess. In case something happenes with the car, excess will be charged, and you can apply for refund to carhireexcess.ie provided you have all necessery documents.


If you still want to go with excess protection from carhire3000 these are they t&c about it.
It's available on their website.

TravelJigsaw Damage Excess Refund Product
When collecting the vehicle you will be required to leave a deposit to the value of any insurance excess which may be charged by our car rental partner if the car is damaged during the rental. The maximum excess will be shown in the terms & conditions during the booking process.

The TravelJigsaw damage excess waiver product, if purchased prior to collecting the vehicle, offers reimbursement for the damage excess portion of any charges paid to the supplier as a result of a claim on the Collision Damage Waiver whilst renting your vehicle.

The damage excess can be reclaimed through TravelJigsaw subject to our terms and conditions, provided you forward a copy of the following to TravelJigsaw.

• a copy of the supplier accident report form, (this should be completed before completing the rental).
• A police report if a 3rd party was involved in the incident
• a copy of your vehicle check in & check out documents which clearly show the new damage being charged for.
• evidence of payments deducted on your credit card.

These documents must be sent to our customer service department within 28 days of the rental finishing.


The TravelJigsaw Damage Excess Refund Product will not refund charges which are not covered by the car rental companies CDW policy.

The full details of the coverage including exclusions will be provided by the car rental company

Example of Common Exclusions from the Car Rental Companies CDW policies include;

• Damage caused to the windows, windscreen, glass, interior, personal belongings, wheels and/or tyres, the roof or undercarriage
• Where the driver is under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol
• Where the driver was not a named driver on the rental agreement
• Towing charges or damage caused by the rental vehicle being towed by an unauthorised third party
• Off road time / Immobilisation fees as a result of damage
• Where the vehicle has been driven negligently or without due car & attention, including driving off road & on untarmaced roads
• Damage to contents or people in the vehicle
• Theft of the vehicle
• Administration fees relating to damage

In the above circumstances, your liability to pay for the excess will not be waived and you may be liable for the full cost up to and exceeding the excess.
For further information regarding this product, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our team.

Anan1

murph440 wrote: »

Myself and my girlfriend are heading off to Pau, France in september for two weeks. We are going to rent a car for the two weeks. I have received a quote of €370 from car3000hire.ie and the rental company has offered an insurance extra of €93.

Is it worth going for this as it says it reduces my excess should anything happen. However it doesn't say alot about what else it does. Has anybody any experience good or bad with taking this option when something happened?

I thought car rental companies had to have compulsory insurance on all rentals.

Any info/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers in advance

I just dropped a car back to Alamo in Spain (booked through carhire3000) today. When I enquired about their CDW, it turned out that it was far less comprehensive, albeit a bit cheaper, than the CDW offered by Alamo.

kildaremum

I booked car hire through easycar.com for South of France for 10 days next week. I paid 55 euro for Zero Risk Option. It looked like we would not have to pay any excess with this zero risk option but I think now we will still have to give credit card deposit of approx 600 euro.

I took out an additional policy for a small amount last year and we did not have to leave any credit card deposit but I cant remember who we used.

Has anyone ever used this easycar.com

ImDave

I worked in a car rental company in Dublin Airport last summer, and I encountered countless numbers of people whom where under the illusion that having booked through a booking agent and selected insurance excess waiver, they would not have to pay another cent at collection. Unfortunately this is never really the case. As stated by another poster above, the renter still has to satisify the requirements of the car rental company, as that company is not legally allowed to deal with your own insurance provider/booking agent, therefore you must indemnify the rental company, and your insurance provider indemnifies you.

You will find however that rental agents are more than willing to go well under the advertised rate for the excess waiver insurance, and I know in Ireland that many will secure it for as little as €5 per day if renting for two weeks. That way the rental company won't carry out a pre-authorization/block on your credit card for the excess amount. (Note in the UK & Ireland this is commonly done merely as a scare tactic in order to push the customer into taking out the excess waiver - remember, all these guys work on commission and have strict targets to meet. It is not a nice business to work in I found.)

kildaremum

I have just found the doc's from last year - the company was carhire-excess-insurance.com - they are looking for £19 for the 10 days. If I take this out, along with the other zero risk option, will I then be covered for that credit card deposit