Warning about excessively difficult Auto Europe ‘Zero Excess’ Car Insurance condition

cpx2

My partner and I often use this site, so we thought that when we had the opportunity we should contribute information, giving something back. (Also, if anyone has advice this would be welcome.)
Auto Europe are currently refusing to pay us an excess insurance claim on their Zero Excess deal (which is displayed prominently on their website) and our experience may be useful as a warning to others; we would certainly have liked to have been warned.
As in all these cases, there is a lot of detail, but we will try and keep this to the bare minimum. Essentially, Auto Europe seem to be saying now that their policy has far stricter conditions than other policies, though this was not clear to us from its website. So, it is worth anyone thinking of using the Zero Excess policy being aware that they may not be as well covered as they expect - that it is not really 'zero' at all.
We recently used MSE’s “top car hire comparison sites” link to find a deal for car rental in France – selecting Auto Europe (using Europcar). We had noticed a section on Excess Car Insurance in the MSE - travel/cheap-car-hire#tips, which alerted us to the possibility of alternative suppliers. We debated using the companies from the MSE link, but decided that as this meant having three parties to deal with, it was too much. However, we saw that Auto Europe offered a policy and it seemed to be reasonable, so (unfortunately) we selected it.
During the rental, the paint on the car was slightly scratched while parking – we were being very careful but the car was unfamiliar (not the car we had asked for, but we had been warned that this might happen) and, as often happens in Med countries, there was not a great deal of leeway. We reported the scratches when we returned the car and (interestingly) when we asked the Europcar person what we needed to do, she said nothing as we had excess insurance.
We submitted the claim to Auto Europe and were surprised when they said that they “are unable to process the excess refund request as the damage was caused while entering a "parking facility" and further could be considered to be, in part, driver negligence”. We have called their customer services asking them to explain this, particularly the suggestion of negligence, and they have been unable to do so. We have been advised to write, which we are doing now. As far as we can see there is no real basis for the rejection, but suspect that as is often the case in these matters, that may make little difference.
Leaving aside the basis issues, what this illustrates is that Auto Europe will try not to pay out in these situations, whereas other companies seem to do so without causing any problems.
We were really surprised as we expected this to be obviously covered. We regularly hire cars in Spain, always paying the zero excess option; when we have been given a car with scratches and asked them to record it, they have always said there is no real point in doing this as we are covered by the zero excess. To double check the situation, we firstly asked Europcar whether we would have been covered and they said yes. We also asked a couple of the insurers from the MSE recommended site (Money Maxim) and they said that they would have covered it – in fact, they seemed a little surprised we asked, implying it was standard. So it looks like Auto Europe are giving much less cover than the others – and not making this clear, certainly not to us. Given all the hassle this is creating and no doubt will continue to create, we wish we had gone with Europcar or a Money Maxim insurer.

trets77

Most "in house" policies do not cover damage to windscreen , tyres or underside of the car.

My advice is always use a reputable 3rd party for excess insurance.IMO the car hire company are far less likely to try it on with them over a huge bill for a small repair.

I personally always use https://www.insurance4carhire.com . Had one claim to date, and the cheque arrived within a week. Calling them up got me a better price than on the web for a annual policy.

MasterChief_3

That's amazing trets77. Thank you so much for the referral to this car hire excess broker.

You mention their domain url...can't get anything better than that!

You mention how long it takes them to process a claim...can't seem to see how this is important as what you have quoted is a rare time frame.

You even mention how their latest promotion works given they are £10 more expensive than other car hire excess providers...so you want us to search the internet for a great deal, but get us to call them instead so they can match the offer found somewhere else? Why all the hassle?

What cpx2 has clearly outlined is the foggy relationship between a car rental broker and a car rental company. AUTO EUROPE is a car rental broker. EUROPCAR and the unknown car rental company in France which cpx2 sourced via AUTO EUROPE are car rental companies. All three companies offer their own car car hire excess insurance. So this is already very confusing for the novice car rental customer!

AUTO EUROPE sell car hire excess to their customers for a premium or sometimes included within the price of the vehicle and offer a "zero excess car rental". Who their insurer is is still a question as I can't find anywhere how they are insuring the car hire excess insurance. If the zero excess was part of the car rental contract, then the claim should be made with the car rental company, not AUTO EUROPE. If you purchased the car hire excess from AUTO EUROPE, then you are doing the right thing in approaching AUTO EUROPE for your refund of the Excess the car hire company is not giving back.

No matter what third party car hire excess insurance product you buy online or over the telephone, the car rental company will still require you to leave behind a pre-authorised credit card so they can block the amount of the excess if there is damage when you return the car rental. The fact that AUTO EUROPE are now debating how this happened is shocking. They should just reimburse you if it is their policy. To alleviate matters, they should have a word with the CAR RENTAL COMPANY you chose through their service for treating you this way and they should review how this product works and why people buy it in the first place.

My advice to you is to write this into The GUARDIAN Consumer champion team and get your story heard. Or write to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as they just released a paper on car rental and car rental insurance.

eddddy

Hi cpx2

Based on Auto Europe's comments about driver negligence, it sounds like their policy is hardly any use at all.

I just did a google search, and found a quote from an old article in the Guardian about this:

At Sixt, "negligence" means accidents caused by serious offences such as speeding or drink driving.


But double-check any policy you might take out: other firms can be more vague in their definition of what is negligent. In some cases, accidents or knocks caused simply by misjudging the car's width (when parking, for example) can count as negligence.

Here's the full link: http://www.independent.co.uk/money/insurance/why-hiring-a-car-abroad-can-drive-you-up-the-wall-478051.html

If Auto Europe are excluding any type of driver negligence, I can see very few circumstances where they will actually pay out.

If you have an accident in a rental car and it's your fault - by definition you have been negligent. If it's somebody else's fault, they have been negligent - and they (or their insurers) have to pay the rental company's damages.

So this only leaves situations like when the car is damaged whilst parked, by an unknown person, that can be claimed for.

It all sounds very worrying to me...

cpx2

Hi,

Thank you very much for all your comments, for your support and for your suggestions.

So far we have not heard anything back from Auto Europe and are considering what should be our next step.

We’ll keep you posted

@trets77 thanks for the recommendation. We will be following you and using a reputable 3rd party for excess insurance next time.

@eddddy, thanks for the link, we checked it out and found something similar at the Guardian - search for 'avis-hertz-car-hire-excess-insurance' in money 19-Aug-2011. Should have found these before we booked.

cpx2

smallblueplanet

Not that it helps this time but if you google for 'car-hire excess insurance' you will find many options to choose from, some will be cheaper than the one named above. Hope you get your car hire hassle sorted. It's a real downer on a good holiday when you've done your research, think you're covered but then find you're not.

cpx2

Hi, an update.

Auto-Europe replied saying that their rejection of the claim stood as "... one of the clauses stated in the terms & conditions does state any damages related to parking will not be covered."

We assume that they are referring to this clause as there is no other clause in which parking is mentioned:
"Exclusions: ... When the damage is caused by the driver not taking due care, attention, is reckless or negligent. (This includes - but is not limited to - adding wrong fuel, not following the rules of the road, damages incurred while parking or in a parking facility, burned clutch, using the hand brake incorrectly etc)"

We saw this clause when we signed up and then (and now) think it does does not state what they claim. On our reading, it states that any damages related to *negligent* parking will not be covered. It would be an odd interpretation of this that "any damages related to parking will not be covered" as it would imply that any such damages were automatically negligent. And this certainly does not accord with the definition of negligence in common language or law. We have raised this point with them.

For people thinking of buying Auto-Europe's policy is is probably worth knowing that they think that "any damages related to parking will not be covered", so if you have an accident of any kind whatsoever, whether it is your fault or not, while parking or in a parking facility, then (as things stand) they will not cover you.

zagfles

"Zero excess" or "Super CDW" as it's sometime called from the car hire company, is invariably a rip-off even if it does pay out. I'd second insurance4carhire, never had to claim but know people who have and they do seem to have a good reputation.

Not covering you for negligence is unbelievable, almost every accident is someone's "negligence"!

cubegame

And as a hint for the future....NEVER EVER EVER EVER report minor damage....cover it up with mud if you need to and if they discover it insist it was there when you collected the car and say the person who handed the car over didn't do an inspection pre-rental.

Just remember that hire car employees who handle returns are invariably disinterested and will not be bothered to argue especially if they are not speaking their own language.

If they want to argue or sign anything, simply walk away and get on your plane.

cpx2

Hi, an update.

One of things that made the situation more irritating was that when we returned the car, the Europcar representative assured us that we would not need to do anything as we were covered by Auto Europe's insurance - she did this despite our repeated questions. Hence we were surprised when we found they had charged us.

We raised a complaint with Europcar about this (and, incidentaly, we noticed in the contract that they say they will explain to the client the costs for any damages when the car is returned). Their customer services line was helpful and they promised to investigate. Initially, they told us they would need to consult their European partners. Then we received a mail saying that they were unable to "obtain the documentation from Europcar France for the damage" and so they were refunding the money. Needless to say, we were very pleased, doubly so as it was so unexpected. For us, at least, this reflects extremely well on Europcar's customer services.

As of today, we have received no response from Auto Europe - the difference in service could not be more stark.