Car hire excess advice?

Stallingrad

Will be renting a car abroad soon and want to avoid the car hire companies extortionate Excess cover.

Does anyone have any advice or recommendations with regard to the various online Excess companies?

Cheers

k123456

there is info on the travel forum on this , but

try carhireexcess.com
or MSE
section 5
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/

i71jskz5xu42pb

Just remember that if you have your own excess insurance some car hire companies will want to block off the excess on your credit card. Depending on the car/company that can be a fairly big chunk.

Henry Ford III

Insure it for sure. It's cheap and easy. Google "car hire excess" and run a couple of quotes. It'll only take a few minutes.

Alanstrainor

I went with AIG this year, I found most annual quotes I was getting to be the same at ~60 a year or so.

Be prepared for the hard sell at the rental counter. Had that this year with firefly rentals, they pushed hard and gave all sorts of stories about people not getting money through 3rd party insurers etc. Just ignore them.

Stallingrad

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I went with AIG this year, I found most annual quotes I was getting to be the same at ~60 a year or so.

AIG look good, though I laughed when I saw their €75 excess, now where is the website for Car Hire Excess Protection Protection?

Ragnar Lothbrok

I just had a week over in the UK and used carehireexcess.com. Worked out at €2.99 per day for six days. Very easy to use website and very fast and straightforward process.

I didn't need to claim (fortunately) so I can't vouch for how good they would be in case of a claim, but I have no reason to doubt them.

Stallingrad

Went with AIG, €42, thanks for the assist people.

Alanstrainor

Stallingrad wrote: »

AIG look good, though I laughed when I saw their €75 excess, now where is the website for Car Hire Excess Protection Protection?

For the low low price of 25 euro Alan's ExcessExcess Insurance will cover your car hire excess excess.


* Policy excess of 60euro applies on claim.

Craftylee

Yeah defo get your own - but as Alanstrainor said above - once you get to the rental counter they will apply the hard sell in large doses. The usual horror stories and the such. Just remember they're on commission for that stuff and likely have sales targets for it as well.

rivegauche

Note that Car hire excess is not CDW or TP
Make 100% sure you have those purchased when buying online otherwise you'll be forced to buy them at extortionate rates once you arrive in the hire company office and then they'll throw the Airport charge on top and your internet intermediary will do nothing to help you.

The way they offer service is often nothing short of sharp practice.

Avoid rentalcars.com as an intermediary as they make everything as obscure as possible.

Cerco

rivegauche wrote: »

Note that Car hire excess is not CDW or TP

What is CDW.? I assume TP means “Third Party”

rivegauche

CDW collision damage waiver
TP Theft protection.

Stallingrad

rivegauche wrote: »

Avoid rentalcars.com as an intermediary as they make everything as obscure as possible.

I booked with rentalcars.com as I have used them without issue in the past. They include CDW and TP so with the additional excess I should be OK. He says nervously.

Car is with Europcar BTW.

rivegauche

Yes, rentalcars.com and carhire/europcar. Check that it is mentioned as included in the voucher you were mailed especially the area under "obligatory charges". If it is mentione dunder obligatory charges then that means it is yet to be paid and will be charged in the office. If you aren't certain then you should be able to cancel without penalty up to 48 hours in advance (I think) and then rebook elsewhere where you are certain that those charges are covered.

Stallingrad

rivegauche wrote: »

Yes, rentalcars.com and carhire/europcar. Check that it is mentioned as included in the voucher you were mailed especially the area under "obligatory charges". If it is mentione dunder obligatory charges then that means it is yet to be paid and will be charged in the office. If you aren't certain then you should be able to cancel without penalty up to 48 hours in advance (I think) and then rebook elsewhere where you are certain that those charges are covered.

cgcsb

It's amazing that in Europe, the continent of tight regulations, car hire are allowed extort money out of people at the desk. Is there no pan-European consumer agency preventing this from happening?

rivegauche

Stallingrad wrote: »

You seem safe. TPL, TP and CDW are mentioned explicitly and the airport surcharge. It is when they don't mentioned them explicitly that you get caught.
They'll still try their damnedest to sell car hire excess.

dr.fuzzenstein

cgcsb wrote: »

It's amazing that in Europe, the continent of tight regulations, car hire are allowed extort money out of people at the desk. Is there no pan-European consumer agency preventing this from happening?

It has also be known that people who didn't purchase all these "optional" extra insurances returned their car late at night, dropped the key in the letter box because there was no staff present at that hour and recieved a bill for damage "found" on the car that very neatly matched their excess.
I take a heap of pictures from every possible angle when I rent a car, on pickup and return.
When not purchasing extra insurance, I can only recommend that.

loki7777

I'm looking to rent a car at Bologna - from 6.9 till 14.9 - going through holidaycars.com and i see nice small cars for €150 - it shows insurance included:CDC,TP,TPL and when i click next i can see that i have to pay extra €5-10/a day to have that included or go uncovered. Can anyone help me a bit with that. And do I always need credit card or can i use Visa debit to hire a car?

Henry Ford III

Insure the excess yourself.