Is this a bargain or a scam?

okidoki987

Was looking to hire a car for 3 days and came across these guys.
www.carjet.com

Prices look very cheap e.g. a Ford Fiesta with unlimited mileage with "limited" insurance for €4.69 a day in Ireland :eek:.
"Full" insurance is another €9.50 a day so total for 3 days all inclusive for €42.58 total, under €15 a day.
Carhireexcess could do the excess cover for €3 a day but at the cost of the car hire from carjet would probably pay their insurance anyway.
Others are well north of this.
Trustpilot reviews has it 80% great or excellent out of nearly 4000 reviews.

Am I missing something?

landmarkjohn

I used carjet in the UK recently, they are a broker. Worked fine. Mine was total £65 or so for two days for a Focus size car.

Probably find the supplier is a bit away from airport and will use shuttle bus but for that price...

bailey99

Let the buyer beware. Heed the old adage that if something seems too good to be true and all that............

bennyc

Should be fine, just get a separate car hire excess insurance to cover yourself and make sure that if you plan on dropping off or pickup outside of office hours they do not not require a full insurance, I got caught with doyouspain.com once like that but other than that you should be ok. Compare with Ryanair car hire, I llke using them as they have a decent call centre that will deal with the local company for you.

v10

I've used carjet many times for carhire in Spain, no issues bar the usual carhire stuff, i.e. fuel charge, extra insurance (they'll offer extra insurance or make you pay high deposit if you refuse ~€500 or so)

suave.4u

v10 wrote: »

I've used carjet many times for carhire in Spain, no issues bar the usual carhire stuff, i.e. fuel charge, extra insurance (they'll offer extra insurance or make you pay high deposit if you refuse ~€500 or so)

Once the OP purchases "Full" insurance , then is there any extra insurance ?
wondering..

ted1

What’s their fuel policy ?
Full to full? Pay up front.
What hours are they open ?

beardybrewer

Make sure to get the car insurance elsewhere.

https://carhireexcess.ie/ is actually AIG
https://www.rentalcover.com/

Marhay70

Make sure to take photos of the car, including wheels and glass. I had a nightmare experience with a similar cheapo outfit in the UK, they tried to charge me £800 for a new wheel even though it had been damaged when I took the car and had even been noted in the defects list. They froze €1000 on my card for six weeks despite being told it was illegal.
Since then, I have always used one of the better known outfits, usually Enterprise who I find very good.

Charlie-Bravo

I've just booked in the last few days for a trip I'll be taking in the next few months. From what I can see I'm getting a Ford Focus car from Enterprise through carjet. It's so much cheaper so we'll see if there's any catch. I did the extra on insurance excess for £8. Rental for £18 per day.

I've already been emailed a voucher for the hire.

^^Thanks, I will take photos too to cover myself.

I won't be able to report back until the trip is done!

redcup342

okidoki987 wrote: »

Was looking to hire a car for 3 days and came across these guys.
www.carjet.com

Prices look very cheap e.g. a Ford Fiesta with unlimited mileage with "limited" insurance for €4.69 a day in Ireland :eek:.
"Full" insurance is another €9.50 a day so total for 3 days all inclusive for €42.58 total, under €15 a day.
Carhireexcess could do the excess cover for €3 a day but at the cost of the car hire from carjet would probably pay their insurance anyway.
Others are well north of this.
Trustpilot reviews has it 80% great or excellent out of nearly 4000 reviews.

Am I missing something?

That's normal, Ireland is crazy cheap for car rental, I usually pay around 5-8 euros a day. Expect for really busy periods like Christmas and New Years.

v10

Marhay70 wrote: »

Make sure to take photos of the car, including wheels and glass. I had a nightmare experience with a similar cheapo outfit in the UK, they tried to charge me £800 for a new wheel even though it had been damaged when I took the car and had even been noted in the defects list. They froze €1000 on my card for six weeks despite being told it was illegal.
Since then, I have always used one of the better known outfits, usually Enterprise who I find very good.

I second this. I had a similar episode with a different carhire company in Spain. They claimed there was damage to the car and took around €700 from my credit card. I asked for photos of the damage and they ignored me and all following emails. Luckily my credit card company refunded me when I complained (they also tried getting info from rental company and got no response). At the time I also had external insurance with carhireexcess.ie but they said I wasn't covered with them because there was no police or incident report even though I stated there was no incident.

To sum up, I would say there is no problem with these cheap companies but make sure to take their full insurance offering (often more expensive than the carhire)

Genghis

Was pricing a holiday car on Ryanair 2 days ago. Repeated search with carpet. Not any cheaper, think in fact they were more expensive for the same car /provider. FWIW, looking at South of France, late June / early July.

Del2005

suave.4u wrote: »

Once the OP purchases "Full" insurance , then is there any extra insurance ?
wondering..

The insurance is from the broker, carjet this time I got a deal with Booking.com that included insurance before, so the rental company will still stick their excess on the credit/debit card because you refused their more expensive insurance.

rob316

I have car hire excess annual policy for about 40 quid. My last car rental in Spain for ten days was 19 euro. They were absolutely fuming at the rental desk when I didn't buy there insurance!

okidoki987

suave.4u wrote: »

Once the OP purchases "Full" insurance , then is there any extra insurance ?
wondering..

No, "full" insurance will cover everything.

okidoki987

ted1 wrote: »

What’s their fuel policy ?
Full to full? Pay up front.
What hours are they open ?

Full to full, cc deposit will cover anything.
Assume it depends on where they get the car but hours are fine as I can
organise to collect/return when they are open easy enough.

Bob Harris

Genghis wrote: »

Was pricing a holiday car on Ryanair 2 days ago. Repeated search with carpet. Not any cheaper, think in fact they were more expensive for the same car /provider. FWIW, looking at South of France, late June / early July.

You'd want to watch those, they could pull the rug out from under you.

okidoki987

beardybrewer wrote: »

Make sure to get the car insurance elsewhere.

https://carhireexcess.ie/ is actually AIG
https://www.rentalcover.com/

Car Hire excess is €3 a day and rentalcover is €9.20.

okidoki987

v10 wrote: »

I second this. I had a similar episode with a different carhire company in Spain. They claimed there was damage to the car and took around €700 from my credit card. I asked for photos of the damage and they ignored me and all following emails. Luckily my credit card company refunded me when I complained (they also tried getting info from rental company and got no response). At the time I also had external insurance with carhireexcess.ie but they said I wasn't covered with them because there was no police or incident report even though I stated there was no incident.

To sum up, I would say there is no problem with these cheap companies but make sure to take their full insurance offering (often more expensive than the carhire)

I hired a car in Spain last year, took out carhireexcess cover for the 2 weeks.
Again rental desk wasn't happy I wouldn't take up their insurance but I just kept telling them I didn't need double insurance.
Took pictures and a video before collecting.
Ended up only using it about 5 times and returned the morning we were going home to the airport.
Girl came out to exam the car and came back in and told me there was a scratch on the underside of the front bumper in front of the
drivers side.
Went through all the videos and pictures we had taken but none showed the underside of the car so had no comeback.
She went back into the office, turned on the computer, 2 minutes later,
said "€200" to repair it including VAT, no choice, had to pay it by cc.

When I got home, claimed it on the carhireexcess policy.
Sent them off the pictures and video I had taken before rental and explained what happened.
It took approx 2 months and a few reminder emails before I got my money back from carhireexcess.
Still think it was there before I got the car but wasn't able to prove it.

redcup342

Just for people to know, I got this one, had it for a few years:
https://www.insurance4carhire.com/products/worldwide-car-hire-excess-insurance

Used it in October, rented a car with Sixt in Sri Lanka.

Guys were so happy, "you will pay big money, you didn't take our insurance .. hahaha"

In the end they billed me 220 euros for a scratch on the rear bumper also they had the car up on a ramp and found some stone chips on the otherside (whatever)

Billed my card, sent all the relevant stuff into Insurance4Carhire and had the money in my account 5 days later for the amount I was billed on my card + the currency exchange fee.

Very good service, pays for itself really, I was always a bit anxious when renting as I thought the Excess Hire company would be a balls to deal with but the whole process went smoothly and I didn't have to worry

Weirdly enough their insurance with zero excess would have cost 200 euros for 7 days anyways, also there was another guy there going ballistic because he HAD full insurance but they said because he had not contacted the insurance when his damage occured he was not covered, so he had insurance that he took with the rental company but I'm assuming he had to pay on top anyways ! :rolleyes:

Anyways, take the very basic bones with the car rental company and get your own yearly excess policy, totally worth it.

Checkout how they do they return, 3 guys going around with flashlights on a ramp.

Del2005

okidoki987 wrote: »

No, "full" insurance will cover everything.

If you get it from the rental company their "full insurance" isn't full as very few rental company policies cover tyres or glass, the excess policies do.

redcup342

Del2005 wrote: »

If you get it from the rental company their "full insurance" isn't full as very few rental company policies cover tyres or glass, the excess policies do.

Yep, or Lost Keys, Misfueling, Breakdown cover, Replacement car is manytimes seperate also.

okidoki987

Heard so many stories since last year of people getting stung with charges when they hadn't used the rental cars own insurance with most saying they couldn't see the damage or it didn't look new damage.
It now amounts to "if you don't use our insurance, we will charge you the same amount as damage when you return the car".
With so many complaints about car hire companies and bad reviews of
"cheaper" car hire companies, wonder how long before these excess policy companies start putting up their prices or stop doing it altogether?

redcup342

okidoki987 wrote: »

Heard so many stories since last year of people getting stung with charges when they hadn't used the rental cars own insurance with most saying they couldn't see the damage or it didn't look new damage.
It now amounts to "if you don't use our insurance, we will charge you the same amount as damage when you return the car".
With so many complaints about car hire companies and bad reviews of
"cheaper" car hire companies, wonder how long before these excess policy companies start putting up their prices or stop doing it altogether?

In fairness it's pretty rare, I must have done over 100 rentals over a 5 year period in the US, Netherlands, Germany, UK, Ireland, Sri Lanka, Spain, Portugal, France, Poland, Macedonia, Thailand, Curacao (That's all the countries I can remember) with loads of different rental companies.

Out of all of those only had 2 instances where they claimed there was damage on returning,

One was in Ireland with Budget at Dublin Airport, There was a scratch on the wing mirror was a Nissan Juke so kind of a weird shape and didnt really match the Damage sheet very well, I told them, ok look maybe you go back and check your records for previous damage, I was flying back to Holland so didn't really have time to wait around for them to check.

In fairness to them a lady emailed me the next day and said they had checked previous records and they had already recorded the damage and there would be no charge.

That and the Sri Lanka incident I mentioned above were the only ones.

A few times I went to inspect the car and there was damage that wasnt marked, they added it with no problems, I usually do a walk around with a video on my phone and pay special attention to the wheels if they are alloys (they usually miss marking kerbed alloys for some reason)

All in all I'd say the rip offs are pretty rare, if you treat a rental like your own car you won't have issues, I usually park in underground car parks as leaving it on the street leaves it more like to be damaged.

That and I avoid any rental company that says you have to bring back the car empty (almost impossible)

frash

Genghis wrote: »

Was pricing a holiday car on Ryanair 2 days ago. Repeated search with carpet. Not any cheaper, think in fact they were more expensive for the same car /provider. FWIW, looking at South of France, late June / early July.

I was pricing on RyanAir for care hire too for similar dates in a similar area.

I need a 7 seater so was coming in around €1100 for 18 days

Ended up getting it for €765 with nationalcar.com
Oddly nationalcar.ie & nationalcar.fr were the guts of a 1000 dearer!!

okidoki987

okidoki987 wrote: »

I hired a car in Spain last year, took out carhireexcess cover for the 2 weeks.
Again rental desk wasn't happy I wouldn't take up their insurance but I just kept telling them I didn't need double insurance.
Took pictures and a video before collecting.
Ended up only using it about 5 times and returned the morning we were going home to the airport.
Girl came out to exam the car and came back in and told me there was a scratch on the underside of the front bumper in front of the
drivers side.
Went through all the videos and pictures we had taken but none showed the underside of the car so had no comeback.
She went back into the office, turned on the computer, 2 minutes later,
said "€200" to repair it including VAT, no choice, had to pay it by cc.

When I got home, claimed it on the carhireexcess policy.
Sent them off the pictures and video I had taken before rental and explained what happened.
It took approx 2 months and a few reminder emails before I got my money back from carhireexcess.
Still think it was there before I got the car but wasn't able to prove it.

what rental car company was that with?

jimmycrackcorm

v10 wrote: »

I second this. I had a similar episode with a different carhire company in Spain. They claimed there was damage to the car and took around €700 from my credit card. I asked for photos of the damage and they ignored me and all following emails. Luckily my credit card company refunded me when I complained (they also tried getting info from rental company and got no response). At the time I also had external insurance with carhireexcess.ie but they said I wasn't covered with them because there was no police or incident report even though I stated there was no incident.

To sum up, I would say there is no problem with these cheap companies but make sure to take their full insurance offering (often more expensive than the carhire)

That's a bit worrying about carhireexcess as I use them and assume they will just cover any excess charges by the hire company.
I don't recall seeing any documentation saying you have to provide an incident report.

jimmycrackcorm

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

That's a bit worrying about carhireexcess as I use them and assume they will just cover any excess charges by the hire company.
I don't recall seeing any documentation saying you have to provide an incident report.

Went to carehireexcess and got the policy doc

says

d) Police Report if the incident by law required the Police to attend.

seems bs if it was a there was no accident with another party which is the only case where policy would be needed...

policy doc

https://www.carhireexcess.ie/common/1332_CarHireExcess_ie_Dual_Policy_doc.pdf

====================

Step 2 – Check your policy and notify the claim
Read this policy and your policy schedule first so that you are satisfied that you are covered for the claim you want to make. If you are not sure whether you can
claim, please talk to the claims administrator who will be happy to help you.
All claims must be notified to our claims administrator, their details are below. You should do this within 31 days of the end of the rental agreement in which the
incident happened. Please Email: carhireexcess@ie.sedgwick.com or write to: Sedgwick Claims , Merrion Hall, Strand Road, Sandymount, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Telephone: 0818 286 529.
Please tell them the policy reference number which is shown in your policy schedule.
You can download the claim form by visiting www.Carhireexcess.ie or the claims administrator will send you a claim form, which you should fill in and send back
to them as soon as possible.

We will need copies of these documents:
a) Your Carhireexcess.com/Carhireexcess.ie policy schedule.
b) The rental agreement.
c) Your Charge Receipt (if separate from the rental agreement).
d) Police Report if the incident by law required the Police to attend.
e) Photographs of the damage to the rental vehicle (and images of the vehicle before the incident if available.
f) The accident report from the car rental company or agency.
g) Invoices/Receipts/other documents confirming the amount you have paid in respect of damage for which the car rental company or agency holds you
responsible.
h) Your credit card statement showing payment of the damages claimed.
You may be required, on request, to provide a copy of your passport, driving licence and proof of residency.