please explain car hire insurance...

kezzygirl

Hi, this is probably really silly and I am sure has probably been answered elsewhere, but this is the first time I have been in this situation so want to clarify a few things before parting with my cash.

Hubby and I are having 2 nights in dublin from 23-26 November. I have looked at car hire, and a lot of it states that they would need a credit card with $1500 euros on it to ringfence/ 'secure' an excess if we were to have an accident. We do not have that type of money, but then I read about an 'excess' insurance policy, please correct me if I have misunderstood:

I can hire a car for the three days for about £36. If I were to get this excess insurance from a different company for the three days, I will pay approx £36 for the insurance, so car hire + excess insurance = £72 approx.

My question is, will the car hire company still have to ringfence the £1500 euros on a credit card? Or will the fact I have purchased excess insurance cover us in the even of an accident?

Apologies, we have never hired a car before and don't want to get stung! thanks for your help

NiftyDigits

In order to avoid the 'ringfence', you'll need to purchase the excess insurance directly from the hirer, not a broker or a third party. In other words if you rent from AVIS, you'll need to buy it from AVIS.
If you buy the insurance from a 3rd party(£36 is ridiculously expensive for 3rd party insurance), the hirer 'ringfences' the excess and takes any money for damage from your CC. You then make a claim to the 3rd party insurance company.
To avoid this, buy the Super CDW insurance from the hirer.

kezzygirl

thankyou

kezzygirl

Hi, I tried to book the excess insurance, but the company still stated that they require a credit card with sufficient limit to cover excess. where am i going wrong? we go in three weeks and really need to book it. thanks

zagfles

What company? You are booking direct with a car hire company not a broker aren't you?

macca1974

The way that this has always worked when I've hired a car is that you go through a broker who then puts you with a local car hire company. The car hire company will mention the excess waiver of €1,500 that is needed to be blocked off on a credit card. What will then happen is that the broker will offer some relatively reasonably priced "third party" insurance that they say covers that €1,500 if anything happens.

You then get to the airport believing that you have covered everything and the car hire company inform you that they still need to block off the €1,500. Ah no, you say we have this insurance from the people that we booked the car through. The car hire company then say that is fine and you can claim on that, but what you will be claiming back is the €1,500. They will then say, if you want it to be completely without risk you need to buy our overpriced waiver insurance at the desk before you pick the car up.

You then have the choice of blocking off the €1,500 and hoping that the third party pays out or taking the car hire companies overpriced waiver insurance (which usually for a few days costs an extra €60-70 Euro's.

They then tell you that they have filled up the tank of petrol and need to take €90 off you for that, but thats a different matter.

Personally, for a short trip at least, I usually take out the cover that the car hire firm offers rather than the third party insurance as it seems to provide more certainty (and I don't want the hassle of the €1,500 potentially being taken and then having to fight back for it). The problem is of course that you don't know how much it is going to cost until you get there. They also don't seem to inspect the car before / after you've used it if you take out their cover, but if you don't will go over it with a magnifying glass.

I don't travel to Ireland but do short business trips to Spain / Portugal fairly often and if the "headline price" is €30-€40, I always assume that it is going to cost an additional €100-€140 on top of that for the extras that the car companies gouge out of you.

kezzygirl

Ok, I went to autoeurope website, chose a car, which is provided by sixt.

I chose the refundable excess with super cover, it states 'the comapny will block a minimum of the equivalent excess amount on the credit card in the primary drivers name'

so it appears that they will still ringfance the excess amount, which i will then have to claim back, should we require it. (hopefully not!!)

NiftyDigits

kezzygirl wrote: »

Ok, I went to autoeurope website, chose a car, which is provided by sixt.

I chose the refundable excess with super cover, it states 'the comapny will block a minimum of the equivalent excess amount on the credit card in the primary drivers name'

so it appears that they will still ringfance the excess amount, which i will then have to claim back, should we require it. (hopefully not!!)

Remember?

In order to avoid the 'ringfence', you'll need to purchase the excess insurance directly from the hirer, not a broker or a third party. In other words if you rent from AVIS, you'll need to buy it from AVIS.

So if the hirer is SIXT, you have to buy the insurance from SIXT.

It seems even that clear explanation was too much for you to follow. You just wasted your money on the AutoEurope insurance. The choice was either independent standalone insurance or insurance from SIXT. In the end you bought standalone insurance from AutoEurope at a likely inflated price.

kezzygirl

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Remember?

In order to avoid the 'ringfence', you'll need to purchase the excess insurance directly from the hirer, not a broker or a third party. In other words if you rent from AVIS, you'll need to buy it from AVIS.

So if the hirer is SIXT, you have to buy the insurance from SIXT.

It seems even that clear explanation was too much for you to follow. You just wasted your money on the AutoEurope insurance. The choice was either independent standalone insurance or insurance from SIXT. In the end you bought standalone insurance from AutoEurope at a likely inflated price.

Is there any need to be rude? excuse me, but I am tired from having worked all day. It was £36 for the car hire plus the super excess cover. Worked out cheaper than getting it through sixt direct or hertz etc, as I have just checked.

zagfles

kezzygirl wrote: »

Is there any need to be rude? excuse me, but I am tired from having worked all day. It was £36 for the car hire plus the super excess cover. Worked out cheaper than getting it through sixt direct or hertz etc, as I have just checked.

It will be cheaper. But as Nifty says Sixt will block your card for the amount of the excess, so you need to have sufficient credit limit on your card. That's because if there's a claim, Sixt charge your card, you then claim on the autoeurope insurance, who will hopefully pay your claim before you have to pay the credit card off.

If you want to avoid this, you have to buy the excess insurance (super CDW) from Sixt but this is likely to be expensive.

NiftyDigits

kezzygirl wrote: »

Is there any need to be rude? excuse me, but I am tired from having worked all day. It was £36 for the car hire plus the super excess cover. Worked out cheaper than getting it through sixt direct or hertz etc, as I have just checked.

It was assumed that you wanted to avoid the 'ringfence' in the first place.

Not a problem booking the car with AutoEurope, but if you wanted to remove the 'ringfence', you buy the 'iwaiver' direct from SIXT.


Otherwise you could have spent £1.89 per day for Car Hire Excess Insurance
How much did you pay?