Car Hire CDW tips/help please

caf4926

I have read here
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire#insurancetrick

What I am unsure about is if the insurance offered is sufficient?

I have a trip planned to the USA soon and want to be sure I'm OK if I decline the Hire company cover.

I do understand I may need to leave a large deposit

Any experience or tips most welcome.

Quentin

If you mean the cdw "trick" mentioned in that article, then that is well researched and usually a cheaper way to buy cdw.

Jlo31

caf4926 wrote: »

I have read here
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire#insurancetrick

What I am unsure about is if the insurance offered is sufficient?

I have a trip planned to the USA soon and want to be sure I'm OK if I decline the Hire company cover.

I do understand I may need to leave a large deposit

Any experience or tips most welcome.

Hi,

Have you booked a Holday through one of big operators eg thomas cook and are are taking their 'free car'? Without the insurances or are you booking directly through a us rental site? These are the 2 options where you may consider buying sepertae CDW and extended third party Coverage cover beneficial.

If you have bought through a UK site eg Alamo Brits/auto Europe then these extras are normally included and currently CDW is 0.

Basically if you take the hire car without the CDW you are on the hook for the whole value of the car if damaged. If you pay for the CDW then the rental company absolve you of all financial responsibility. If you buy an insurance CDW then it's the insurance company that will be reasonable but I'm guessing if there was an accident there would be a lot more paper filling in/hastle involved.

Now this is the important bit. If you take the car without insurances then you will be on minimum third party cover which in some states is as low as $10000 dollars! That's not a lot to cover someone else property damage and injury. It's very important that you have extended liability insurance which increases that to $1000000. Now most insurance excess policies may cover you up to $50000 for Collision damage waiver but I've only seen one that has the extended liability cover. http://www.insurance4carhire.com/usa-canada-car-hire-excess-insurance

Personally I would just book a rental from Alamo uk/ hertz uk/ Avis uk, auto Europe and just have the peace of mind everything is covered.

Hope this helps.

ThinkingOutLoud_2

As Quentin says this is well proven way to cut the cost of car hire excess protection.

Jlo31 is confusing you.
There is the insurance which you buy from your car hire provider (if not included) - namely CDW / LDW and adequate Liability ckver for your destination.

BUT The CDW/LDW comes with an excess that you must pay in the event of any claims. Just like regular car insurance here in the U.K.

As the excess, which varies from one rental provider to the other, is usually between £500 and £2,000 per vehicle (it can be even more on high-value vehicles), you probably don't want to be exposed to that scale of excess OR

The car hire company will usually offer a way to reduce the excess and this can costs say £20 a day.

The link posted gives you a way to cover this high excess for much less. Most sites have little videos or examples explaining how it works. It does mean you need a credit card and to pay and claim the excess. But it typically works very smoothly

If you hire more than once a year, as with multi trip travel insurance - an annual as opposed to a single trip CAr Hire Excess policy may make sense.

Jlo31

The OP is going to Florida. Everything I've written is correct and is specific to the US.

I don't see how it's confusing at all??

ThinkingOutLoud_2

Jlo31 wrote: »

The OP is going to Florida. Everything I've written is correct and is specific to the US.

I don't see how it's confusing at all??

I think Quentin and I think he is referring to the "CDW trick". This I not whether you need. DW cover but whether you buy the CDW excess cover they will offer / push at you when at the rental desk.

See 2 mins 10 seconds into Martin's video.

Of course he needs CDW and would be wise to buy SLI - but as you say it is likely this is already bundled in. That still leaves him facing the CDW excess "Trick".

Jlo31

Ahh right yes cheers. Maybe I was confusing things a little.

I'm just up today's with the America hire car stuff myself as I'm of to Florida for the first this summer to.

I've booked with dollar via auto Europe and that includes CDW with 0 excess and sli third party coverage etc so the OP may find he does not need the insurance if the excess is 0. Last year we visited Italy and I need indeed buy a insurance policy prior to my visit to cover the excess rather than the buy it at the counter..,as you said it's far cheaper...I think the excess then was €800....thankfully did not need to use the policy:)

Cheers

James

ThinkingOutLoud_2

Jlo31 wrote: »

I've booked with dollar via auto Europe

Hey James.

No worries. Have a fabulous holiday.

You make a useful point to which is since when Martin originally advised, many car hire comparison platforms have responded by adding the CDW excess cover as an option in the original booking.

This is most certainly convenient. I guess as with all such add-ons - sometimes separate policy may be cheaper. This may be especially so if you hire cars during the year where an annual policy would work out best.

srisport

Hi,

Sorry to jump in but I'm about to travel to america for 3 weeks (San-Francisco) and plan on hiring a Ford mustang through Alamo for 4-7 days during part of our trip.

Im booking through CarRental8.com and according to the booking the following things will be covered as standard with my booking:

Unlimited Mileage
Theft Protection
Taxes and Fees
SLI
LDW/CDW

I take it i still need to take out third party excess insurance from places like Moneymaxim or leisure guard car etc...
I also can't find anywhere which tells me about the deposit amount i have to hand over when collecting the car, does anybody know off hand what this is likely to be?

Also

How do people rate Alamo as a company to deal with? any bad/good experiences or are they just like every other company out there.

The only other time I've experienced care hire was in Spain last year with Firefly and overall everything went smoothly....

Help and advise appreciated.

Regards.

Quentin

You normally don't "pay" a deposit, but they will take an authorisation from your credit card and "reserve" part of your available credit to cover any uninsured excesses etc.


So if you have a small limit on the card you use prepare to be maxed out during your trip, and have alternative card(s) just in case

ThinkingOutLoud_2

srisport wrote: »

Hi,
I also can't find anywhere which tells me about the deposit amount i have to hand over when collecting the car, does anybody know off hand what this is likely to be?
.

As Quentin said they authorise an amount but don't actually debit it. This gives them a guarantee they can get that sum if you damage the car.

I think you needed to know how much...
It depends per rental company and country - typically £500-£1000 in most places.
So for Alamo - you could call them to ask.