Car hire in Spain - fully comprehensive insurance

PolishBigSpender

Hello all,

I'm going to Spain on holiday in two months, and well, I cannot find a clear answer to this question. In the UK, I've always used a small independent car hire company that offers the possibility of insuring everything - so when I collect the car, I merely pay the rental fee and that's that. I don't have to hand over a credit card or any such nonsense. Normally, I drive everywhere else on holiday, so I'm not an expert on car hire policies.

Does such a thing exist in Spain? I don't want to deal with complicated insurance arrangements and blocks on my credit card - I want to simply turn up, pay them for car hire and go away. I don't want them to issue me with stupid bills, I don't want them to arbitarily charge my credit card with several hundred Euro - I just want a hassle free hire situation.

Can anyone help?

SW17

Not sure about any that you will not have to hand over a credit card for, but there are some local companies with fully inclusive pricing. Where in Spain are you going?

NiftyDigits

You can even do it with the large companies, as long as you take their Super CDW/Theft Waiver.
Even with the quite awful Goldcar, together with their Relax Cover and Full/Full policy if you want it..

Here you are, BigSpender: GoldCar Zero or of course you can select the choices that you want individually.

Good luck with that..

ic

I've rented with autoreisen in the canaries, and they have fully inclusive pricing. I paid £70 for a fiesta for one week, all insurance included, no pre-purchase of fuel, pick up half full, return half empty, no deposit or excess to pay. The car had a few knocks and wasn't new, but I saved a fortune and didn't have to worry about it getting dinged.

lijaloo

Most include CDW as standard but that doesn't include damage to wheels, windscreen and under the body of the car. The hire company will charge an extra daily fee to cover wheels windscreen etc. Have a look here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire for the various options. We are hiring a car for 33 days in Jan/Feb and decided to buy insurance as suggested. It worked out cheaper to buy an annual policy (less than £40) than take out the policy offered by the hire company. OK we have to leave credit card details but at least we won't be paying the £100 plus the car hire company was asking for.

PolishBigSpender

Thank you all!

I'm not worried about the cost of the extra insurance, I just don't trust the car hire companies in Spain not to mess around with the 'blocked' amount on the card. UK credit card companies are rather easier to deal with than Polish companies, particularly as the law in the UK is more favourable to the consumer. I've had issues before with credit card companies refusing to do anything about disputed charges, so I'd rather avoid the trouble.

NiftyDigits - I've read the bad reviews about Goldcar, but do you know of any other companies offering this service? Goldcar's offer of just over 200 Euro for a week with full insurance and a tank of petrol - it seems pretty good to me. I will almost certainly use the whole amount - I'm planning a trip to Gibraltar, Granada and possibly Seville - there's absolutely no way that the car would be returned with anything more than a drop of petrol in it.

I'm going to Malaga, so if anyone has any good recommendations - I'd love to hear it! I'd be very happy with a rate coming in around 200 Euro/week for something not quite tiny - as long as it's something that will handle 130km/h on the motorway, I'm fine.

The absolute crucial thing for me is the credit card - I do not want to give anyone free reign to charge my credit card, and I don't want to leave cash there. I don't care if it costs 60 Euro instead of 30 Euro for insurance - 30 Euro lost is far better than a credit card block of 600-1000 Euro.

Running_On_Empty

We've used Cargest in Malaga for years and never had any problems. They pick you up at the airport, and you get on their mini bus a very short drive to their office. They have never let us down. They speak English. If you register with them you get a 5% discount. We would not use anyone else and we have tried many at Malaga.

Running_On_Empty

To add: It's Cargest.com

NiftyDigits

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

Thank you all!

I'm not worried about the cost of the extra insurance, I just don't trust the car hire companies in Spain not to mess around with the 'blocked' amount on the card. UK credit card companies are rather easier to deal with than Polish companies, particularly as the law in the UK is more favourable to the consumer. I've had issues before with credit card companies refusing to do anything about disputed charges, so I'd rather avoid the trouble.

NiftyDigits - I've read the bad reviews about Goldcar, but do you know of any other companies offering this service? Goldcar's offer of just over 200 Euro for a week with full insurance and a tank of petrol - it seems pretty good to me. I will almost certainly use the whole amount - I'm planning a trip to Gibraltar, Granada and possibly Seville - there's absolutely no way that the car would be returned with anything more than a drop of petrol in it.

I'm going to Malaga, so if anyone has any good recommendations - I'd love to hear it! I'd be very happy with a rate coming in around 200 Euro/week for something not quite tiny - as long as it's something that will handle 130km/h on the motorway, I'm fine.

The absolute crucial thing for me is the credit card - I do not want to give anyone free reign to charge my credit card, and I don't want to leave cash there. I don't care if it costs 60 Euro instead of 30 Euro for insurance - 30 Euro lost is far better than a credit card block of 600-1000 Euro.

Goldcar would be fine as long as you take their Relax Cover. That's where almost all of the complaints stem. If you don't take the cover, they find problems. That and people not happy with their fuel policy.
But if you play their game, you won't have an issue. Though I wouldn't give them a penny of my money.

Personally, I go with International companies, such a Hertz. No funny business with the authorisations and everything is finalised before you leave anyway. But I always book direct with Hertz and use my Promo code. I've booked often from Hertz Malaga airport. GoldCar always has the longest queue.... Almost none of them book direct with Goldcar, so they are pulled in by these apparently cheap deals. Once they get there, they are hit with the hard sell.

So book direct and take their cover or utilise a half decent company in the first place. Look for promo codes if you can.

SW17

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

Thank you all!

I'm not worried about the cost of the extra insurance, I just don't trust the car hire companies in Spain not to mess around with the 'blocked' amount on the card. UK credit card companies are rather easier to deal with than Polish companies, particularly as the law in the UK is more favourable to the consumer. I've had issues before with credit card companies refusing to do anything about disputed charges, so I'd rather avoid the trouble.
........

The absolute crucial thing for me is the credit card - I do not want to give anyone free reign to charge my credit card, and I don't want to leave cash there. I don't care if it costs 60 Euro instead of 30 Euro for insurance - 30 Euro lost is far better than a credit card block of 600-1000 Euro.

You may of course choose to go with one of the big names, but for another local company to consider, I have used Helle Hollis several times in Malaga (though haven't been there for 3-4 years). Never had any problems with them doing anything funny with my credit card, if you buy their zero excess waiver insurance (not extortionate IIRC) the only thing they put on is a fuel deposit, which they refund if you bring the car back full (or refund each quarter tank remaining if you don't). Don't know if they will be within your budget.

NiftyDigits

Don't want to put the kibosh on any of the other companies, but there is something to be said for being able to drop the car off and to pick it up at the airport.
Goldcar, Record, Hertz, Sixt etc are just beneath the baggage collection hall. I've missed out a few names...as I don't remember them all.