damage refund insurance

wood1e2

I know CDW is included in the price. I only got confused on that point when I thought my taking the CDW that covered all excesses...but it doesn't that is just the first element of the car hire rip off.

Double cover!! As surely collision damage is insurance, and that insurance for the insurance excess is just selling another product to make money!

It all smacks of Sub Prime CDO insurance which was about 10 larger than the actual sub prime CDO market!! products for making money hidden behind the ideal it is an actual product.

NiftyDigits

wood1e2 wrote: »

I know CDW is included in the price. I only got confused on that point when I thought my taking the CDW that covered all excesses...but it doesn't that is just the first element of the car hire rip off.

Double cover!! As surely collision damage is insurance, and that insurance for the insurance excess is just selling another product to make money!

It all smacks of Sub Prime CDO insurance which was about 10 larger than the actual sub prime CDO market!! products for making money hidden behind the ideal it is an actual product.

Seriously...you are banging on a bit.
Since there is no option to decline CDW, it is all a bit of a non issue....and since it is easy as pie and inexpensive to purchase standalone car hire excess insurance, the problem should be all but solved. If you don't have the equivalent of 1300€ in credit that can be ringfenced on a CC, that is a separate issue of your own.
The fact that you don't understand that CDW is not an insurance at all is just another issue in your wholly unjustified rant.
CDW is a waiver. They have simply waived your responsibility for all but 1300€ in the case of an incident.
Now you can pay for them to waiver all of your responsibilty or you can buy standalone insurance that will refund your costs in the event of an incident.

Please stop with the claims of 'rip off''. As soon as we read that here, we can be sure that it won't be....and in this case, it isn't. It's just your lack of understanding.

codger

I've heard that an insurance brokerage called Questor has a good reputation when it comes to top-up insurance.

Does anyone know of others of similar repute? I'd like to compare and contrast but it's not easy with outfits I've never heard of -- no point in going for the lowest quote and then discovering too late that it's not all it seemed.

Thanks.

eDicky

wood1e2 wrote: »

It is all a nonsense really, I am sure there is a place in the market for a car hire company to do away with all this complexity, and charge a single fee to include all elements.

I mean really does their insurance have a Eur1300 excess on a scratch, does their insurance really require them to take the full EUR1300 just to cover a scratch?

I sympathise and I think you are quite justified in feeling so perplexed at having discovered how the car hire industry operates this underhand but legal way of gouging extra money from hirers on top of the attractive 'all inclusive' rates that they advertise. But the system is entrenched, and it would probably be near impossible to set up a firm with a more ethical and transparent pricing that includes all elements - there would be too many obstacles and it would be unable to compete on (apparent) price, so any investors would be put off.

A major part of car hire firms' revenue comes from the extra cover that they hard sell at inflated prices at the pick-up desk, which most inexperienced hirers feel that they have to buy. Those that decline are much more likely to have some minor damage 'found' on their returned car, so the firm then gets its extra income from the inflated CDW excess charge. Even a supposedly reputable firm such as Budget can find and blame some microscopic damage on a hirer who did not cause it, I have experience of this.

On the other hand, earlier this year I rented a car in Thailand for a trip upcountry, and for the first time in many years of renting there the price included insurance, which I was told fully covered everything. Sure enough, when I returned the car with a damaged front end after hitting a large dog at high speed, they just said never mind, and even apologised to me for the way Thai people don't take proper care and control of their dogs! So, if they can give a clear simple deal in Asian countries like this, why should it not be so in the West..? If you can set something up, I'll be your first customer...

codger

Re my earlier query on this thread: mea culpa, I completely missed the reference to excess cover on this MSE page:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire#insurancetrick

Re wood1e2's query, the MSE page helpfully links to 4 providers who are offering discounts to MSErs: Leisure Guard; Reduce My Excess; Direct Car Excess; and Questor.

The difference in price between a single trip policy and an annual multi trip policy is minimal. We've therefore just purchased an annual UK/Europe policy for £32 after discount.

Note that LeisureGuard and Direct Car Excess are actually Questor trading under different names, so we've simply purchased from Questor as all three quotes turned out to be within pennies of each other.

PeacefulWaters

If you have a few Avios lying around at Avios.com I think they sell this cover for around 12,000 points.

Worth checking.

EssexExile

eDicky wrote: »

On the other hand, earlier this year I rented a car in Thailand for a trip upcountry, and for the first time in many years of renting there the price included insurance, which I was told fully covered everything. Sure enough, when I returned the car with a damaged front end after hitting a large dog at high speed, they just said never mind

That's the way it's always worked for me in States, pay the all inclusive price & don't worry about anything.

I didn't know car hire was so difficult & complicated until I joined this site, but I've only been doing it 40 years.

wood1e2

Neither did I....and I don't hire a car that often.

But I am shocked at the excess element, every insurance policy has it! But really EURO 1300!! Or more!!

To me they are just looking to make money on 'overnight' on the back of customers money...

Maybe they have to pay exactly that in excess, but I doubt it as they will push their insurance brokers hard to lower premiums as a way of improving their profitability.

EssexExile

I'm not quite sure what you're going on about now. Every insurance policy doesn't have an excess, if the CDW does have an excess the hire company will block that amount on your card but they don't actually take it until you bring the car back broken.

wood1e2

Don't worry about it.

I was just commenting on the high level of access and that Carhire companies are just making money out of it. As i can't believe they actually get charged such high access by their insurance companies.