Cheap car rental - how to save on insurance?

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I'm an Irish non-resident and just returned a Skoda Octavia to Hertz in Dublin Airport. I had the car for 8.5 days, with two car seats and all insurance add-ons. It cost EUR 1050.

In future I could save on the car seats, but how can I save on insurance?

theteal

Plenty of places to get rental insurance. I usually get it from icarhireinsurance.co.uk, £42 for the year iirc

You will have to put a deposit on credit card at the counter if not taking the insurance from the car hire place. Sometimes a few hundred but others over a grand.

magicbastarder

did you buy out the excess? buying out the excess is usually more expensive than the car hire itself, in my experience.

L1011

Check what the actual price breakdown is. Car hire this time of year is pricey to begin with, so I'd expect it to be a decent element of the price anyway.

You will need to find an excess insurer from wherever you live as they rarely cover domestic rentals. You can usually get cover for up to a few thousand of excess for a few euros a day, whereas the equivalent is usually more like a tenner a day from the hire firm. However, this is not instant - if you need to claim you have to pay the hire firm and reclaim.

magicbastarder

i know car hire is much cheaper in spain, but we were there recently and buying out the excess would have worked out at five times the actual price of the car hire.

Wheety

Are you living here? Or do you just visit regularly?

If living here look at GoCar. Not good if you're renting for 8 days at a time though. More for single trips.

coylemj

Wheety wrote: »

If living here look at GoCar. Not good if you're renting for 8 days at a time though. More for single trips.

Single trips which start and end at the same location i.e. a loop. I couldn't see it as a substitute for a rental car.

n97 mini

Look at renting from non-Dublin locations. A family member hired a car in Galway last December for €9 per day.

coylemj

Breanna Some Hairline wrote: »

In future I could save on the car seats, but how can I save on insurance?

In Ireland, the rental charge includes third party and fully comprehensive insurance but with a large excess - the money you have to cover if you damage the car.

Say there's an excess of €750, that means that if you crash the car into a wall and cause €2,000 worth of damage to it, the fully comp. policy will pay €2,000 minus the excess of €750. So they will pay €1,250 and you pay €750. When you rent the car, the rental company will offer you a topup policy which will cover most of the excess so your potential exposure will be reduced to (say) €50. That policy is very expensive because most of the money you pay goes to the rental company and the counter clerk in commission.

If you stand your ground and refuse the additional insurance, they will block an amount of money equal to the excess on your credit card. You won't see this on your bill if there is no damage to the car, what effectively happens is that your credit limit will be reduced by that amount and they will unlock it when you return the car undamaged. If you are paying with a debit card, they will simply withdraw the amount (of the excess) from your debit card i.e. they will take the money as if there is a claim and then credit the money back to your account when you return the car undamaged.

But if you've booked a car from one of the 'too good to be true' rental companies in countries like Spain, you will find it almost impossible to get then to hand over the keys unless you pay for the insurance they are offering.

You can cover yourself from the financial loss of the excess by organising your own insurance cover so you will have peace of mind without getting ripped off at the rental desk. It's called car hire excess insurance and there are several providers who will quote you for a set period (start and end dates) or for a full year's coverage. Typical premium for 12 months coverage for car rental in most countries in Europe is €50.