USA car Hire

haveibeendone

Just booked flights to Atlanta for the 9th to 26th April and was looking for advice on car hire. If somebody could help with CDW excess and cheap deals.

I cant find any rental company sites that actually tell you the amount of the excess for a particular car or the cost of the option to avoid paying any excess.

On the Opodo site there is a note that Hertz USA does not charge any CDW excess but just a bit later there is an option to pay £5 odd per day to avoid the excess??? But that is a 3rd party insurance scheme.

I did want to avoid, if possible, the 3rd party insurance schemes were if the car is damaged I have to pay the excess to the rental company and then try to reclaim it later when back home.

Thanks

zagfles

haveibeendone wrote: »

Just booked flights to Atlanta for the 9th to 26th April and was looking for advice on car hire. If somebody could help with CDW excess and cheap deals.

I cant find any rental company sites that actually tell you the amount of the excess for a particular car or the cost of the option to avoid paying any excess.

On the Opodo site there is a note that Hertz USA does not charge any CDW excess but just a bit later there is an option to pay £5 odd per day to avoid the excess??? But that is a 3rd party insurance scheme.

I did want to avoid, if possible, the 3rd party insurance schemes were if the car is damaged I have to pay the excess to the rental company and then try to reclaim it later when back home.

Thanks

This is a rip-off a lot of car hire companies pull. Massive excess (maybe £1000) which they don't make clear when you book. Then at the desk when you pick it up you're told about the excess and offered a "super CDW" for some rip-off price like £200. And given a choice of either paying the £200 or them putting a £1000 reserve on your card, or sometimes even charging £1000 and refunding it on return.

Some companies claim there's no excess at all, but then at the desk you find out tyres, windscreen, roof and underside aren't covered, but they have a "policy" that will cover them for some silly price.

You're far better off going with a reputable third party insurance like insurance4carhire

In some US states you'll need additional third party liability - because the compulsory third party cover the car hire must provide is limited to some low amount like $50,000, which may not be enough.Check you're covered for this whoever you go with.

Murphy_The_Cat

UsRentacar advertises that they have no excess on their car rentals

haveibeendone

Thanks for the replies. Looking at USrentacar now.

zagfles

haveibeendone wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Looking at USrentacar now.

Check they cover everything, no exclusions like windscreens, tyres, underside etc.

eslick

zagfles wrote: »

Check they cover everything, no exclusions like windscreens, tyres, underside etc.

The insurance does not cover the tyres, windscreen or under carriage on the vehicle. Please note that no car rental companies will insure against these areas on the vehicle.

http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/faqans.aspx?pk=167