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

2402paul

davidcamm wrote: »

Try A free pre paid credit card, they accept anyone...

I would reccommend this for everyone, then after the holiday destroy the card and get a new one, then there are no surprise charges months down the line for fines and damages, flat tyres etc...

That might not work...

When i used to work at the airport, as soon as i swiped a card, it would confirm the details on screen what type of card, name etc, but it would also tell me it was a pre-paid card, which is just the same as using cash/debit card - meaning you weren't allowed to purchase the additional insurance to waiver the excess and we had to take the FULL excess as a deposit up front and hold it until it was checked for any additional damage on return.

tiasmith123

You all have mentioned few of the things in car hiring which can be taken into consideration..

jaxdon

Has anyone used Economy Car Hire. I am looking at a 10 day hire for £46 including additional driver and no excess insurance. They charge £2 per day extra for the glass, tyres etc.. This is also one with the full tank policy..not sure how much they will charge at the airport for a full tank on a renault clio. Is this a good deal? Anyone with any other hints or tips? Many thanks in advance.

GCMBOY

It is worth the excess in my opinion as you could get charged over £500 in the event of an accident - so it is very high and worth protecting for what is a few pound really.

Source of info: http://www.spainmadesimple.com/insurance/car/

Also - Auto Europe are a comparison search engine giving you the lowest price by comparing all the main car hire companies.

Heard bad things about Goldcar just so you are aware.

smudger_76

Be careful when using Del Paso Car hire at Malaga Airport. They charge a per day rate plus the cost of a full tank of fuel. You have to return the car empty of fuel, how you do this is beyond me, otherwise there is no refund.

AgnesaMM

My family and me always rent a car from Naniko. It's quite new company, so they have new cars, cheerful staff and prices are really low.

MargaretSwafford

try to search in site, may you can get a good info

AndyJL_2

Booked a car for use in Australia via rentalcars.com. Was informed that damage waiver was included in the rental costs so not to take out additional cover when collecting the car.

Unfortunately I hit a kangaroo (which was the reason I was keen to have a damage waiver!) and damaged the front bumper of the car. The excess was eye watering (nearly £2000) which I was forced to pay on my credit card and then claim back from rentalcars.com.

It is now 7 weeks since I made this payment and I am still awaiting my refund. Every time I contact rentalcars.com I am informed that there is some reason why my refund cannot be processed. The usual excuse is that they are waiting for some information from Thrifty, who supplied the car. rentalcars.com have been singing this particular tune for the last 4 weeks now and I am still no further forward in my claim. I am about to refer this to the insurance ombudsman.

My advice - choose another hire car internet company and take out your own damage waiver insurance as rentalcars.com have been a joke throughout.

Hope this post helps someone from suffering a similar fate as £2000 is a lot of money to anyone. It certainly has caused my family a lot of distress.

richardw

How's the kangaroo?

Mrsm_2

Thank you AndyJL for your advice,

I've just paid to hire a car thro' rental cars for our trip to Oz at Easter. We're been hassled by rental cars.com to take their waiver insurance, but I elected to get a separate policy at a third of the price recommended by the MSE.

We were quite shocked however when the rental car.com guy said about £2500 will be taken off our credit card as a deposit because we are taking out separate waiver insurance.

Is this standard in Oz?