Car Hire "Insurances"

Grover2000

Just to get things a little more clarified if possible to this great and useful thread.

Does the normal hire insurance cover for damage to alloy wheels (scraping them accidentally against a pavement), bumper scrapes and shopping trolley scratches or does the extra insurance (Questor etc) cover this type of damage?

I ask this question as this is the most common type of damage a hire will see other than accidents.

Any help on the matter is greatly appreciated

Grover

pompeyrich

Grover2000 wrote: »

Just to get things a little more clarified if possible to this great and useful thread.

Does the normal hire insurance cover for damage to alloy wheels (scraping them accidentally against a pavement), bumper scrapes and shopping trolley scratches or does the extra insurance (Questor etc) cover this type of damage?

I ask this question as this is the most common type of damage a hire will see other than accidents.

Any help on the matter is greatly appreciated

Grover

You need to understand how car hire insurance works, cover for damage to the rental car is covered but the policy excludes the first €xxx of any claim. This varies from companty to company and can range from €100-1,000 for each incident.

You can either self insure and hope nothing happens, or buy a "super cover" policy from the rental company for €10-20 a day or a policy from Questor or similar, before you leave the UK for a similar amount for a week.

1 scenario, 3 possible outcomes folllow, your excess amount is €500, some one clips your car in a car park and drives off causing €500 of damage.

1, You haven't taken super cover or a Questor type policy, the rental co. takes €500 from your credit card.

2, you have "super cover" from the rental co. you fill in an incident report, sign it and that's that.

3, You have a Questor type policy, the rental co. takes the €500 from your credit card and you claim it back from Questor, or whoever on your return. You need to read the policy to see if you need to report the incident to the local police and get a report etc., so more hassle but cheaper. Questor type policies also, usually, inclde tyres and glass damage, so are good value but as I said a bit more hassle.

Hope that clears things up, if not just ask away.

troubled_buyer

Hi,

I need a hire car for Alicante in July but am having trouble getting my head around insurances.

I was going to use 'Centauro' but they had a CDW with no excess but a refundable deposit. This deposit seemed to cover damage upto 3000 euros but the customer was then liable for any amount of that figure, if the damage was greater than that they claimed the money from the customer - this scares me as I worry for a large loss that I could be stung with as the car is only covered with a third party type insurance.

Any comments on the above would help.

Also, I was looking at SIXT, through an agent, and they worded the insurance as 'Fully comprehensive insurance (LDW)', is better than CDW?

Please any help would be helpful as once I look at the details for holiday car insurance I started to get worried. I just want a cost effective car hire for a family holiday in Spain that won't break the bank or have me liable for 1000's of euro's.

zagfles

troubled_buyer wrote: »

Hi,

I need a hire car for Alicante in July but am having trouble getting my head around insurances.

I was going to use 'Centauro' but they had a CDW with no excess but a refundable deposit. This deposit seemed to cover damage upto 3000 euros but the customer was then liable for any amount of that figure, if the damage was greater than that they claimed the money from the customer - this scares me as I worry for a large loss that I could be stung with as the car is only covered with a third party type insurance.

Any comments on the above would help.

Also, I was looking at SIXT, through an agent, and they worded the insurance as 'Fully comprehensive insurance (LDW)', is better than CDW?

Please any help would be helpful as once I look at the details for holiday car insurance I started to get worried. I just want a cost effective car hire for a family holiday in Spain that won't break the bank or have me liable for 1000's of euro's.

How can they have CDW with no excess but then charge you for damage? Or do they exclude stuff like glass, tyres etc? If so have a look at the excess policies mentioned they usually cover this sort of thing. AIUI LDW is the same as CDW.

troubled_buyer

The Centauro rental conditions:
http://carhire.centauro.net/paginas/Reserva/Condiciones/Condiciones-gb.pdf

The Centauro condition state no excess:
[FONT=Calibri,Calibri][FONT=Calibri,Calibri]Our prices include compulsory insurance and in addition entail no type of excess .

But they include a deposit:
If you decide not to take the additional SCDW insurance, then we will hold the amount of 400-600 euros on your credit card as a guarantee to cover any possible damages made to the vehicle and not covered under the compulsory insurance.

But seem to have a limit on the cover/claim:
This exempts the customer from the economic and civil liability for damage caused to the vehicle, when the damage does not exceed the amount of 3000 €.
In this case, the client would held responsible for a minimum amount, the cost of the excess, which is stated in the contract. The lessee will cover the costs / losses not covered by the CDW.
For this cover to be applied , an accident form including all the details and / or collision is required.

What worries me is hiring a car and if it gets damaged beyond 3000 euro (crash/damage/vandalism) I get stung with a massive bill.

Am I right in thinking that hire cars are insured on a third party type insurance?

If so can you take extra cover to cover any accident or loss whilst driving the car?
[/FONT][/FONT]

zagfles

troubled_buyer wrote: »

The Centauro rental conditions:
http://carhire.centauro.net/paginas/Reserva/Condiciones/Condiciones-gb.pdf

It's the usual "no excess" but exclusions instead, which you can of course buy an additional insurance for. But the clause that worries me most there is

5. What is not covered by any insurance
_ Damage to a third party or to the hire vehicle due to negligence or
inappropriate driving.

What?? Most accidents are due to someone's negligence I'd have thought. And they won't cover you for third party? So if you didn't see a motorbike and injured/killed the rider you could be liable for a vast amount??? Can't be right, surely? Suppose it depends on the definition of negligence,but (eg) turning out of a side road and not seeing a motorbike I'd call negligent...

inmypocketnottheirs

Just buy insurance4carhire through Quidco and you do not need any additional insurance. Peace of mind.

aaj123

Opening up an old thread by I had a query for which I thought this would be better than opening a new thread.

It seems to be most people's opinion that a third party insurance like Questor / Icarehire, etc is a very good option as opposed to purchasing expensive Super CDW cover from hire car companies. And indeed, reading through their key facts document / policy wording, it does seem so.

What I do not understand however is how this sort of insurance works for the insurance company themselves. Now that they have indemnified the policy holder completely, I see two major problems for them:
1. The policy holder is completely indemnified of any losses and hence may not have enough incentive to really take care (which they otherwise normally would). For example, taking care not to brush against pavements, etc. Why would they bother to take really good care if they know that any losses are fully absorbed by the insurance company?

2. A bigger issue I see is is what now stops the car hire firm from making any sort of fictitious charge post return of the vehicle. The hirer is not going to bother disputing the claim as he will just pass it on the insurance company (why should he really bother to dispute knowing that he has nothing to lose in the whole process). And how will the insurance company now verify if the claim is genuine or just a fictitious charge put in by the hire company? For example, they could claim there was big dent which cost £1500 to repair. Would they just pay this amount without any means of verifying if it is genuine?

These are the sort of questions which make me still think of third party insurances as 'too good to be true'. But then I am still pleasantly surprised by the good reviews I have seen by people purchasing these third part insurance policies. What exactly am I missing?

PeacefulWaters

1. People who seek out such insurance are naturally cautious and premiums reflect this while still generating a profit. There's the additional incentive to be careful - who wants to have to deal with the paperwork?

2. When collecting and returning a hire car I always take around 20 date stamped photographs and retain them on my phone for six months just in case the hire company try it on. If a claim is made documentation does have to be obtained to prove the damage.

aaj123

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

2. When collecting and returning a hire car I always take around 20 date stamped photographs and retain them on my phone for six months just in case.

So you mean to say third party insurers are entitled to question a claim charged to my credit card by the hire firm and ask me questions about it?

And another question:

Do damage charges made by hire companies affect the premium that I would be quoted on usual car insurance policy renewal back at home?