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Car hire excess insurance

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  • 30-10-2023 5:19pm
    #1
    VG31
    Registered Users Posts: 3,392 ✭✭✭


    I'm quite inexperienced with car hire. I've only rented a car once before.

    One thing that's always confused me is the extra insurance. Buying the full zero excess insurance (SCDW waiver) directly from the car hire company is normally very expensive, €30 a day was I price I saw recently for example. However if I purchase zero excess insurance from a company such as https://www.carhireexcess.ie/ it only costs €3-4 per day. That seems to cover virtually everything.

    So I'm just wondering if there's any difference in this case? Is there any disadvantage to purchasing the much cheaper insurance from insurers like this?

    Thanks.



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    #2
    coylemj
    Registered Users Posts: 25,335 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    €3-4 per day is still expensive. Ballpark rates from the bigger insurers would be €50 for an annual policy. You can also buy a 7 day policy but that would be priced at about €25 which is probably the rate you're quoting above. That's for a policy covering most of Europe.

    Note that if you have your own excess policy, it will make no difference to the car rental company - they will still try the hard sell when you get to the rental desk in the airport. If you damage the rental car, you pay the rental company for the damage, up to their excess limit and you claim from your policy when you get home.

    I had an annual policy with AIG and picked up a small dent with a rental in the Canaries just before Covid. It was very minor - about €300 and they reimbursed me every cent. But the red tape was a pain - be sure to get receipts for everything and a copy of the accident report.



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    #3
    Del2005
    Registered Users Posts: 18,875 ✭✭✭✭Del2005


    The only issue with getting your own car hire excess is if something happens the hire company will bill you to the excess and you then have to claim back from your insurer. The rental companies will still try to sell you their insurance and will block the full excess from what ever card you present, it's not really an issue if you use a credit card but if you use a debit card then it's blocked your money for several days till they release it. If you are thigh for money this could be a problem.

    I used a car hire excess policy before to claim for a puncture where I had to get a new tyre, most hire companies policies exclude tyres and glass!, and got the money back fairly soon after submitting the claim.



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