car hire insurance i am confused

carolydore

is there any way of stopping them holding money on my credit card


we are hiring in spain, I get confused with all the insurances


when I hire a car they always say CDW is included in the price then when I get to the airport the carhire say I am not covered and need there insurance, I take it as I don't want to get stung!


I have heard so many bad stories about car hire rippoffs


can someone explain it to me what I need to do


Thanks

christaitfife

Hello... Car hire is purposefully confusing to make you buy their products.

Collision Damage Waver (Cdw) is not strictly insurance. It is a product that states how much excess you may need to pay if involved in an accident. This is included in almost every hire agreement as standard - but usually with. A high excess. When you get to the rental counter they will try to sell you a product to reduce that excess, or remove it. It can be expensive, and there are other options.

Most rental companies will take a deposit, some only authorise your card. The deposit method if normally favourable as the authorisation puts a 'fence' around an amount, and although it is still in your account you are unable to use it. It normally take longer to remove an authorisation than refund a deposit. Most companies insist on one of these.

christaitfife

You got to love Mse and those people who have figured out how to use the bold function!

Firstly, collision Damage Waver is named such because it is a waver of full in the event of accident. It is called Cdw and not insurance as they are legally not allowed to call it insurance as it is not. Rental car companies are not financial institutions and cannot sell such products. Every rental car is insured by the Rental Company's insurance provider, a third party insurer or a waver is signed stating insurance has been provided. When I worked for a well known rental car company I had to sit through a near two hour class on this very subject.

I will try to avoid being as rude as you have just been, but you are wrong.

In terms of the terrible advice offered regarding deposits. I stated that rental companies either take a deposit or a validation. I stated that deposits are generally refunded quicker than validations removed. Can you please let me know:
1. Where is the advice
2. What was so terrible
3. What was wrong

If you wish to use your bold type to annoy another person with false claims, please Pm me and I will happily advise you of my rental experience and will happily put you insomuch with my old employers to educate you further.

NiftyDigits

christaitfife wrote: »

Hello... Car hire is purposefully confusing to make you buy their products.

Collision Damage Waver (Cdw) is not strictly insurance. It is a product that states how much excess you may need to pay if involved in an accident. This is included in almost every hire agreement as standard - but usually with. A high excess. When you get to the rental counter they will try to sell you a product to reduce that excess, or remove it. It can be expensive, and there are other options.

Most rental companies will take a deposit, some only authorise your card. The deposit method if normally favourable as the authorisation puts a 'fence' around an amount, and although it is still in your account you are unable to use it. It normally take longer to remove an authorisation than refund a deposit. Most companies insist on one of these.

Terrible advice. If they take a deposit in a foreign currency and your card charges for conversion, you lose a hefty chunk of your money.
Authorisation costs nothing.

CDW is insurance(and is usually included in quotes booked from the UK), but with a large excess. If you require a full excess waiver, you will require Super CDW/LDW/TPW(whichever acronyms are in use at the time) bought directly from the hirer, not a broker.
This will remove their need to take a large deposit or authorisation hold on your card. But it is relatively expensive.

The general advice here is have a standalone policy to cover the excess and to accept an authorisation hold on your CC. It's best overall, as it usually includes windscreens, keys, problems with the undercarriage etc.
Be aware that less scrupulous hirers actually take a deposit, putting you in the position that I described earlier. So don't just book the cheapest and hope for the best.

In the case of an accident, make sure that you get an invoice for the damage from the hirer on the spot. Don't let them fob you off. Then you can include it in your claim to your car hire excess insurer.
So they will still apply for an authorisation or take a deposit and take the amount from your card in the event of an accident, but you can claim it back from your car hire excess insurance.

Examples here:
http://www.carhireexcess.co.uk/
http://www.direct-carexcess.co.uk/
http://www.insurance4carhire.com/

Alternatively, take the insurance from the car hire company direct(not via a third party). You'll pay more but then you won't need to leave a large deposit/authorisation.

Clear?

NiftyDigits

christaitfife wrote: »

You got to love Mse and those people who have figured out how to use the bold function!

Firstly, collision Damage Waver is named such because it is a waver of full in the event of accident. It is called Cdw and not insurance as they are legally not allowed to call it insurance as it is not. Rental car companies are not financial institutions and cannot sell such products. Every rental car is insured by the Rental Company's insurance provider, a third party insurer or a waver is signed stating insurance has been provided. When I worked for a well known rental car company I had to sit through a near two hour class on this very subject.

I will try to avoid being as rude as you have just been, but you are wrong.

In terms of the terrible advice offered regarding deposits. I stated that rental companies either take a deposit or a validation. I stated that deposits are generally refunded quicker than validations removed. Can you please let me know:
1. Where is the advice
2. What was so terrible
3. What was wrong

If you wish to use your bold type to annoy another person with false claims, please Pm me and I will happily advise you of my rental experience and will happily put you insomuch with my old employers to educate you further.

To be fair to you, 'technically' it cannot be called insurance, but to all intents and purposes, it insures the person hiring the car against having to pay for the full cost of the car in the event of an accident. CDW infers an excess to be paid. Super CDW, no excess. But yes, they are waivers.

So, let's keep it simple for the OP.


Let's look at what you actually wrote:

The deposit method if(sic) normally favourable as the authorisation puts a 'fence' around an amount, and although it is still in your account you are unable to use it

That is terrible advice.

Let us assume that most car hire will be for holidays abroad. That means that in almost every case, the deposit will be taken in a foreign currency. Since not everyone will have fee free plastic, they can be charged up to 3% on the conversion. So, listening to your advice, they have just lost 25.5€ on an 850€ deposit. Then, when it comes to refunding the deposit, they are hit with another 3% conversion charge.
At this point they are cursing you...personally.

Worse still, what if this happened in between billing dates? That the 850€ charge appeared on one statement and the refund appeared on another. You'd have to cough up the 850€ ...only to have a credit on your next statement. So overall costly and potentially inconvenient.

An authorisation on the other hand carries no loss on foreign exchange. In fact no charge to your account at all.

So, your advice on this forum devoted to saving money was poor, to say the least.
Your argument as to whether CDW is insurance or not has no bearing on the financial aspect.

No need for PMs. My Inbox is full. We can discuss it here.

NiftyDigits

So my advice to the OP is to hire with a reputable company(I cannot include Goldcar in this description), such as Hertz, booking direct.(they currently have 20% off if you book by the 30th of September for trips up to mid March)
No hard sell and scare tactics with Hertz. Plus you'll get Full to Full fuel as standard. Again, I cannot say the same about Goldcar, who unless you pay a premium, will charge you a hefty amount for a tank of fuel. Don't allow yourself to be tricked by low headline prices.
Couple the Hertz rental with the Excess cover shown above.

mgdavid

one might suppose that someone who claims to have experience of working in the industry would know it's waiver not waver... it does rather knock the old credibility ;-)

christaitfife

@mgdavid - I'm glad you spotted that - I put that mistake in there to see if anyone noticed. Gold.star to you. (it has, of course, nothing to do with my sloppy spelling )

AND when I said that the deposit method was preferable, I was meaning (my experience is) that it was more widely used. You normally don't get the choice in the rental office.

In the spirit of friendship... :beer:

Op - use a reputable company as has been said. If you use a broker, check with the hire company to see what exactly has been booked for you. Don't be tempted to upgrade at the desk either - know what size of car to need and stick to it.

Renting a car is easy - just don't be tempted at the desk. Know what you need and stick with it. Remember the person renting the car to you is a salesman - nothing more and nothing less.

Oh... And make sure every spec of damage is recorded prior to leaving the sales office. Be thorough and picky... dont trust the rental agent to do it for you.

NiftyDigits

It's not always possible to check at the sales office, but don't take anyone's word for damage that you haven't checked yourself. You may need to go out to the parking area in order to check it.
Again, reputable companies will seek to reassure you. Less reputable ones will try to pressure you.
I don't agree wholeheartedly with not upgrading at the desk. Do it if the price is right...and again only with reputable companies.
We've upgraded at a reasonable price at the desk. but perhaps don't do it unless you feel confident that everything is a ok.
In fact we actually asked about the upgrade, as we decided we wanted something a bit more sexy once on the ground.

Cambridgeandbeyond

Hi
I'm off to Boston in November and have hired a car for one day for a short out of state trip. It's years since I've hired a car and the insurance seems to get more complicated.

The car hire agreement includes CDW, third party liability and liability insurance supplement.

Does anyone know whether I should take out additional insurance? I would preferably want to buy a separate product whilst still in the UK. Whilst it's been years, I vividly recall the desk sales pitches and the extortionate fees!

Thanks in advance.

NiftyDigits

Cambridgeandbeyond wrote: »

Hi
I'm off to Boston in November and have hired a car for one day for a short out of state trip. It's years since I've hired a car and the insurance seems to get more complicated.

The car hire agreement includes CDW, third party liability and liability insurance supplement.

Does anyone know whether I should take out additional insurance? I would preferably want to buy a separate product whilst still in the UK. Whilst it's been years, I vividly recall the desk sales pitches and the extortionate fees!

Thanks in advance.

You seem to be covered, but you can ask if there is any excess to pay in the event of an incident.