car hire in florida extras insurance add ons

markpaul1

hi
I am looking to hire a car in florida with national and even though i have
Inclusive Rate Items
which include:
Loss Damage Waiver Full Included
Supplemental Liability Insurance Included
Concession Fee Recov Chrg 9.8 Pct Included
Florida Surcharge 2.00/day Included
Tire/battery Fee .02/day Included
License Recoupment Fee .46/day Included
Sales Tax (6.50%) $17.76
Guaranteed Base Rate Included
Unlimited Miles

They have the following extras do i need them
Carefree Personal Protection ($7.99/Day)
Personal Accident Insurance/personel ($5.99/Day)
Roadside Plus ($4.99/Day)

Thanks

Heva2015

No...you dont NEED them...the only thing I would do it to add on prepaid fuel or they will charge you for it on arrival and it tends to be more expensive. Watch them when picking your car up cos they will tell you that you need roadsafe and add it on for you.

eslick

have to agree with Heva dont pay for them but do get the prepaid fuel. Also never used national but expect you can get it cheaper through one of the brokers. Try fifteen02.com or usrentcar both have free upgrades at the moment.

balt

I always take the car back with a full tank never any problems.

eslick

balt wrote: »

I always take the car back with a full tank never any problems.

I worked it out with a petrol price comparison site in the US for us its actually cheaper to prepay for the fuel than it was to add it to the cost of the hire. Current cheapest rate of $3.88 a gallon in a 22 gallon tank costs $85 to fill up which works out at around £42 but to get to prepay it only costs around £25 extra.

http://www.miamigasprices.com/ is the site I found, petrol is up to $4.47 at some stations and we think we have it bad with the increases, 4/5 years ago I remember paying $0.70 a gallon.

simonaskham

Hi

I am looking at car hire from Fort Lauderdale Airport FLL,
Pickup: 16:00 23rd Aug 2008
Return: 08:00 1st Sept

I am thinking of doing seperate insurance cover and not bothering with the extra from the car hire compaines.

For £109 I get the below for a year do you think this is a good option? It costs about the same for 10 days as it does for the year:

USA-Canada CDW/SLI from www.insurance4carhire.com

Take out annual Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI) before you travel and avoid costly insurance charges of as much as US $30 per day, sold at the car rental counter.

• Covers the rented vehicle for CDW/LDW (Collision Damage Waiver/Loss Damage Waiver = damage, theft and loss of use) up to US$ 100,000
• Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI) covering third party up to US $1 million
• Lock-out provision to cover up to US $60.00 for a locksmith
• Covers the Policy Holder, who must be the person hiring the car, and all additional drivers named on car rental agreement

Conditions Applicable
• Not valid for USA and Canadian residents to use in their country of residence.
• Not valid for exotic cars (above US $100,000 value) or antique vehicles more than 20 years old
• Not valid for commercial vehicles, camper vans, mobile homes or vans with more than 8 seats
• Restricted to those aged between 21 and 74 years old
• Rental limited to 31 continuous days on any one rental agreement - you can hire the car as often as you wish in the annual cover period.

Not recommended for use in conjunction with fly-drive programmes in the USA and Canada.

I am still looking at all of the below from Martins main Car Hire section traying to work it all out!


There’s a bewildering array of types of insurance.

• Collision damage waiver (CDW). This is the basic cover and it reduces your liability in the event of an accident. Without it, you could be forced to pay for the replacement cost of the vehicle.
• Theft waiver (TW). The equivalent of CDW but protects against theft. Also known as theft protection.
• Super collision damage waiver (SCDW). Reduces your liability to zero and covers tyres, roofs and windscreens.
• Personal insurance (PI). Pays out if you kill or injure yourself or a passenger, usually covered on regular travel insurance.
• Personal effects cover (PEC). Pays out if your property is stolen from a vehicle, usually covered on travel insurance.

simonaskham

Avis basic car with their insurance: 738.81 USD

Avis basic car with Insurance4carhire.com: Insur: $216 + Hire: $321 USD = $537

I know Avis are not the cheapest but this is an example of the costs with their insurance:

Thank you for choosing Avis!

Your Credit Card is not required to confirm this reservation.

The following information was calculated based on the information shown below that you provided to us. Changes in rental or return location, car type, dates or times may change this rate.

For any questions regarding reservations, please call 1-800-331-1212.

Your driver's license may be subject to verification from the state of issuance.

Other restrictions may apply. Contact your local representative for details.


Your Base Rate is for : 8 day(s) 16 hour(s) / unlimited mileage 223.51 USD

Car Information
Subcompact Class
Chevrolet Aveo or similar
Seats 4
Holds 1 large, 1 small Suitcases Rate Rules
Minimum 7 Day(s) and 1 hour(s) rental. Maximum 26 Day(s).


Pricing
Base Rate:

223.51
Taxes & Surcharges
Total Surcharges:
• $2.03 per day (Florida Surcharge & Waste Tire/Battery Fee)
• $2.75 per day/max 7 days (Customer Facility Charge)
• $0.40 per day (Vehicle License Fee)
• 10% (Concession Recovery Fee)

79.77
Total Tax ( 6.000% )
Mileage 18.20
Unlimited

Approximate Subtotal:

321.48 USD
Optional Coverages
Optional coverages are subject to tax in certain locations. This tax is not reflected in the Estimated Total.
Loss Damage Waiver ( 24.99 USD per day ) 224.91 Personal Accident Insurance ( 4.00 USD per day ) 36.00 Personal Effects Protection ( 2.95 USD per day ) 26.55 Additional Liability Insurance ( 14.43 USD per day ) 129.87

Optional Coverages Subtotal:

417.33 USD

Estimated Total:
738.81 USD
Note: Coupon discounts, Child Seat charges, and Fuel Service Option charges are NOT included in the estimated total, but will be calculated and applied at the time of rental.
If changes were made to the Optional Coverages selections above, clicking the Recalculate button will recalculate your Estimated Total.



Cancel


Example with no insurance:

Thank you for choosing Avis!

Your Credit Card is not required to confirm this reservation.

The following information was calculated based on the information shown below that you provided to us. Changes in rental or return location, car type, dates or times may change this rate.

For any questions regarding reservations, please call 1-800-331-1212.

Your driver's license may be subject to verification from the state of issuance.

Other restrictions may apply. Contact your local representative for details.


Your Base Rate is for : 8 day(s) 16 hour(s) / unlimited mileage 223.51 USD

Car Information
Subcompact Class
Chevrolet Aveo or similar
Seats 4
Holds 1 large, 1 small Suitcases Rate Rules
Minimum 7 Day(s) and 1 hour(s) rental. Maximum 26 Day(s).


Pricing
Base Rate:

223.51
Taxes & Surcharges
Total Surcharges:
• $2.03 per day (Florida Surcharge & Waste Tire/Battery Fee)
• $2.75 per day/max 7 days (Customer Facility Charge)
• $0.40 per day (Vehicle License Fee)
• 10% (Concession Recovery Fee)

79.77
Total Tax ( 6.000% )
Mileage 18.20
Unlimited

Approximate Subtotal:

321.48 USD
Optional Coverages
Optional coverages are subject to tax in certain locations. This tax is not reflected in the Estimated Total.
Loss Damage Waiver ( 24.99 USD per day ) -- Personal Accident Insurance ( 4.00 USD per day ) -- Personal Effects Protection ( 2.95 USD per day ) -- Additional Liability Insurance ( 14.43 USD per day ) --

Optional Coverages Subtotal:

--

Estimated Total:
321.48 USD
Note: Coupon discounts, Child Seat charges, and Fuel Service Option charges are NOT included in the estimated total, but will be calculated and applied at the time of rental.
If changes were made to the Optional Coverages selections above, clicking the Recalculate button will recalculate your Estimated Total.

eslick

simonaskham wrote: »

Avis basic car with their insurance: 738.81 USD

Avis basic car with Insurance4carhire.com: Insur: $216 + Hire: $321 USD = $537

simonaskham wrote: »

might be missing something here but for your 9 days from the same location you can get a bigger car cheaper, with all of the insurances and if you wanted dont want to go with budget there are other cheaper ones available in this or smaller or even bigger classes of cars.


Group C2, Ford Focus or similar with Budget

Features :- AM/FM Stereo, Tilt Steering Wheel, Power Windows and door locks, Seating 5, Luggage Capacity 1 large, 2 small, 2 carry on.
*** EXTENSION OF SPECIAL OFFER *** Book this car and get a free upgrade to an Intermediate 2 door (applies to vehicles collected up to 24th December 2009 but excludes pickups during 25th December 2008 - 1st January 2009 and 3rd - 17th April 2009)

£134 GBP

simonaskham

Hi Eslick

I know cheaper options are available I just used the avis example to show the insurance costs. I wouldnt have thought that the cost you found for £134 has the full insurance cover, i think it would just be the basic:

Collision damage waiver (CDW). This is the basic cover and it reduces your liability in the event of an accident. Without it, you could be forced to pay for the replacement cost of the vehicle.

eslick

simonaskham wrote: »

Hi Eslick

I know cheaper options are available I just used the avis example to show the insurance costs. I wouldnt have thought that the cost you found for £134 has the full insurance cover, i think it would just be the basic:

Collision damage waiver (CDW). This is the basic cover and it reduces your liability in the event of an accident. Without it, you could be forced to pay for the replacement cost of the vehicle.

Hi The costs include all of the insurances with no excess to pay, we have used the same company,Fifteen02 (excellent customer service) for years and I recently emailed them after reading about the excesses on insurances after reading about concerns going through the companies themselves and not the brokers. One of the problems is that many companies use different terms for CDW and the other insurances and when you read them you get more confused.


Below is what they came back with.

Brokers prices are far more competitive and include all insurances. I remember one year we booked a fly drive and even with the "free" car it was cheaper to rent one through the brokers and forget about the "free" one

"Yes, insurance options, I wish it were simple.

We use predominently three compainies in the USA (Budget, Alamo and Dollar) plus Avis at some locations that are not covereed by Budget (Budget and Avis are owned by the same company). There is no excess on any of the companies we use in USA. Unfortunately, I am not able to comment on insurance covers for compaines that we do not use e.g. Hertz, Thrifty, Endeavour etc

Without exception, the insurance cover is identical and covers the cost of each vehicle up to $USD75,000 in the event of an accident or theft plus other damages of up to $1,000,000 to cover injury to persons or property."

simonaskham

Thanks Eslick I shall take a look at one of these "Budget, Alamo and Dollar" I have used budget before.

Yeah I have had the same:

I remember one year we booked a fly drive and even with the "free" car it was cheaper to rent one through the brokers and forget about the "free" one