Do I need to purchase Car rental insurance?

pmcloughlin

I am trying to hire a car and they have said its a £1200 excess!! I can buy it down to £100 for £10 a day. Do I need to do this or will credit cards cover this insurance?

real1314

I don't think your credit cards will cover it, you can get "Excess" insurance, see here:-

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire

Scroll down to: "The cheapest 'excess cost' car hire insurance"

alisong1

I think that if you have an American Express and pay with it, they should cover it.

dzug1

UK issued credit cards do NOT cover car rental insurance/excess. I doubt if American Express is an exception - certainly not their standard cards anyway.

jamesbrownontheroad

pmcloughlin wrote: »

I am trying to hire a car and they have said its a £1200 excess!! I can buy it down to £100 for £10 a day. Do I need to do this or will credit cards cover this insurance?

All rental cars in the UK must, by law, be rented with insurance. However the sting for the customer is in the excess. You can choose to reduce this to zero at the counter or when you book by buying excess reduction from the rental company, but it's generally not good value.

You should consider a third party excess insurance. They insure you, not the car. If you have an accident, the rental company will take the excess from your credit card and you then retrospectively claim it from your excess insurance company. There are various companies offering this service. I generally use DailyExcess.com, but have been advised by the company that later in 2011 they will amend their annual policy to cover rentals closer to home (right now it only covers vehicles rented a certain number of hundred miles away from your home address). This will be useful for me, as I don't own a car but regularly use both Streetcar and City Car Club, and their excess reduction rates are not cheap.

Max_1066

As mentioned above it would make sense to obtain a separate car hire excess policy. This also covers you for other things such as tyres and glass which the standard CDW doesn't cover.

Regarding AMEX I recall something about car hire excess cover on their Gold Card although I could be wrong.

MasterChief_3

jamesbrownontheroad wrote: »

I generally use DailyExcess.com, but have been advised by the company that later in 2011 they will amend their annual policy to cover rentals closer to home (right now it only covers vehicles rented a certain number of hundred miles away from your home address). This will be useful for me, as I don't own a car but regularly use both Streetcar and City Car Club, and their excess reduction rates are not cheap.

This is interesting :beer:...there is a company which covers these elements at this time. iCarhireinsurance.com covers both in-country rentals (without any distance restrictions) and provides cover for car club excess as well, so any car sharing club member can benefit from having one annual policy and hiring all different types of vehicles. They also sell van hire excess insurance on the same site so it is the place to go. I have used the moneymaxim site someone pointed out before, and icarhireinsurance came out on top of the list as having the most comprehensive policy and cheapest price. :T:money:

sunflowersuffolk

Hi I'm just trying to book 10 day rental from Perth airprt Australia and so confused about excesses and extras you could be stung for. I don't want the risk, and not sure what to do.

Someone sugggested Economy Car Hire and for 4 Nissa Tiida Auto comes to £409 unlimited mileage and 2 drivers with no excess. They use Red Spot at Perth who seem to be a good company.

In their t & cs they say does not cover damage to
Tyre and wheel damage, interior damage, damage to the roof, damage to the underside of the vehicle, damage to the glass parts of vehicle (including the windscreen), wing mirrors, loss or damage to the car key, locks, aerials,

They offer top up insurance when you collect car to cover this, but price not shown. Probably cheaper to take out separate policy mmyself but can you get this just for windscreen tyres etc.

Any advice, as I dont want to be liable for windscreen tyres etc either.

Or should I get car hire with excess. may be lower cost, and buy back separate cover for all extras.
Please help, thanks

xycom1

alisong1 wrote: »

I think that if you have an American Express and pay with it, they should cover it.

dzug1 wrote: »

UK issued credit cards do NOT cover car rental insurance/excess. I doubt if American Express is an exception - certainly not their standard cards anyway.

Max_1066 wrote: »

As mentioned above it would make sense to obtain a separate car hire excess policy. This also covers you for other things such as tyres and glass which the standard CDW doesn't cover.

Regarding AMEX I recall something about car hire excess cover on their Gold Card although I could be wrong.

Only the Amex Platinum charge card (with £300 annual fee) comes with car rental insurance. The Centurion card (invitation only) probably does too.