Car hire - refundable excess worth it or not? 26 January 2005 at 1:39PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Overseas Holidays & Travel Planning 71 replies 206.7K views

paul_heymans

please avoid this rent a car company, they are only thiefs!

will-in-estoril

paul_heymans wrote: »

please avoid this rent a car company, they are only thiefs!

You really ought to substantiate comments you make, particularly when you are criticising a company, otherwise your post has less value.

trevayne

paul_heymans wrote: »

please avoid this rent a car company, they are only thiefs!

Looking at the various options, Holiday Autos seem to come out high on the list.

WHY do you say they are thiefs?

If any one else has good ideas then please post

Mr_Smith_3

Donnie wrote: »

I bought a policy from http://www.insurance4carhire.com/ for £49 plus 5% insurance tax.
The policy is for up to 31 days per trip, not 31 days per year. You can have an unlimited amount of trips. Covers tyres and windscreens too.
Just making a claim after parking too close to a kerb.
I'll let you know how swiftly they pay up.

BTW, apart from the exclusions mentioned above for the Holiday Autos insurance, one doesn't appear to be covered for theft.

I bought a policy from https://www.icarhireinsurance.com/ for £39.99 which is also multi-trip, windscreen and tyres too. The same deal, but cheaper

hexhome

carhire-excess-insurance.com are the cheapest that I've found for a daily rate that includes tyres windscreen and underbody.

I am a very happy auto-europe customer. I have tried others including the much lauded Holiday Autos but was very put off by 'local additions'. In the case of Holiday Autos, this amounted to over 20% of the hire cost.

rose28454

Dont ever use Enterprise. About 4 years ago we hired a car in Durham to drive my family home from our sons graduation and hubby drove into a congestion area and the car was damaged by a rising bollard. We had paid for CDW and when we went to get replacement car we were reassured that the insurance would cover all damage. However they immediately debited an extra £100.00 excess and kept the £400 deposit when we returned the other car. There then ensued a 12 month fight with them as they took us to court for £7000 in damages. Just before the court date we had a call from a solicitor who said they were dropping the case. He told me off the record that they had no chance of winning and were just trying it on. I then spent 6 more months getting the £500 deposit back and had to go through the Credit Card company and write to Enterprises's MD to get it.
So dont use them and always use Quidco to book to get a little cashback.

ellay864

I've used Holiday Autos for the last 3 years - Algarve, Cyprus, Majorca. Have always found them easily the best on price and even better when the various excesses were factored in. We've also always gone for the top whack protection and had the excess waiver, twice there were offers on and we got that for free. The only thing to watch out for is how the local company they use operates. In Majorca last year it was Goldcars Spain and they managed to talk my OH into paying an additional excess there which he hadn't appreciated was included in our HA cover. It was really busy, the guys on the desk kept 'forgetting' their English and I guess they try this on all the time. When we got home I contacted HA and they refunded the extra payment as a goodwill gesture even though we had agreed to buying this extra cover. I'd use them again no worries, I'd just make sure when I'm dealing with the local agent that I stand my ground on the extras

dominykas

We'll everybody I had a fortunate to found the really good car rental company in Lithuania. I had a little bit of renting experience before I used services from avis and hertz companies but the contract conditions and extra fees was killing me. So i decided why not to try local companies service, so my choice was company called carsrent. First I had doubts about their abilities, because of language barrier and other not so important issues. But I was really surprised by the quality of the service and how flexible they work. Car was as they explained it should be and they marked all the pluses and minuses of their cars and advised which should be most suitable for me. So if anyone wants to rent car which is worth your money and receive a wonderful service use their service. . I used their services for 5 times and now they are giving me a bargain price.
P.S. their email [EMAIL="info@carsrent.lt"][email protected][/EMAIL]

MasterChief_3

I am all for keeping this thread alive. I read through all 50 postings and I found it extremely useful! :T

I am hiring a car with Hertz in Geneva this February and I was offered Super CDW cover by them on the internet. I switched from Europcar since last year they charged me 50 SFR for picking up my vehicle late. Did I forget to mention that I flew EasyJet, their airline partner who brings them so much business and it was them who made me late?!!!!

Anyhow, Hertz wanted to charge me €12.98 / day to reduce my excess of €1,200 to nil. This still left all the usual exclusions on the car rental contract, so my tyres, roof, windscreen, and undercarriage would not be covered. Who do they think I am - a sucka?!

Consequently, this made me review some external suppliers for insuring my excess and I found some great options...for instance I can buy an annual policy from icarhireinsurance.com for less than £40. what a bargain!!!

For a problem that has long existed in the car rental world, people are starting to wake up and smell the coffee. Why buy from the rental car companies and get s%*&*ed?!!!

Have a lovely journey wherever you may go!

cameronlippiatt

the answer is .............. rhino car hire!!!!
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