European Car Hire Insurance Coverage Question

IrishGypsy

Hello all,

I've tried hunting around here (and Google), but I can't be 100% sure that when I pick up the car in Tenerife on Saturday that I've essentially got the equivalent of 'fully comp' (a separate excess refund policy is also in place).

Here's what my car hire policy document says I have:

Inclusions
Unlimited Mileage
Collision Damage Waiver (CDW)
Theft Protection (TP)
Third Party Liability (TPL)
VAT/Tax
Premium location fee
First Additional Driver
Baby seats

Could I be missing anything that means if we were involved in an accident, that - as long as we weren't breaking the law - both parties would be covered? I have a recorded phone call where the brokers who we booked it through (Vehicle-Rent) stating both parties would be covered. But I'd like to go away on our holiday with 100% certainty.

Any help/advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

richardw

What are the Exclusions?
Which firm are you picking up from?
What time is your flight scheduled to arrive?

IrishGypsy

richardw wrote: »

What are the Exclusions?
Which firm are you picking up from?
What time is your flight scheduled to arrive?

1). Exclusions and mandatory surcharges

• Out of hours fee (if applicable): 20 EUR. Please note that out of hours pick-up requires flight information.
• Delivery and collection: on request.

2). Car Hire Company: Top Car Canary
3). 19:55 (although I'm confused as to why the arrival matters with regards to level of insurance coverage).

pompeyrich

IrishGypsy wrote: »

1). Exclusions and mandatory surcharges

• Out of hours fee (if applicable): 20 EUR. Please note that out of hours pick-up requires flight information.
• Delivery and collection: on request.

2). Car Hire Company: Top Car Canary
3). 19:55 (although I'm confused as to why the arrival matters with regards to level of insurance coverage).

I assume Richardw was trying to find ANY additional payments that may have come as a surprise to you, such as out of hours fees.

You list seems pretty comprehensive to me, is the "separate excess refund policy" with the car hire company or someone else? If with someone else and you had a prang/broken window and the other points mentioned on the T&Cs page, your credit card would be charged whatever the excess is, could be €1,000+ you then have to claim that back from your insurance provider.

WAYT

IrishGypsy wrote: »

Hello all,

I've tried hunting around here (and Google), but I can't be 100% sure that when I pick up the car in Tenerife on Saturday that I've essentially got the equivalent of 'fully comp' (a separate excess refund policy is also in place).

Here's what my car hire policy document says I have:

Inclusions
Unlimited Mileage
Collision Damage Waiver (CDW)
Theft Protection (TP)
Third Party Liability (TPL)
VAT/Tax
Premium location fee
First Additional Driver
Baby seats

Could I be missing anything that means if we were involved in an accident, that - as long as we weren't breaking the law - both parties would be covered? I have a recorded phone call where the brokers who we booked it through (Vehicle-Rent) stating both parties would be covered. But I'd like to go away on our holiday with 100% certainty.

Any help/advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

http://top-car-hire.com/en/legal/hire-conditions/

Interestingly, they have a good reputation. German company it seems.

Even their SCDW is quite reasonably priced at 5€ per day up to a maximum of 75€.

Overall, seems a safe choice.

AlexMac

You seem to be doing right by researching reviews on the local operator BEFORE you travel; good signals above, and although my annual multi-trip excess protection from insurance4carhire.com‎ at £40 p.a is cheaper that the 75 Euro one-off above, it's sometimes easier to take the Company's own, as then they'll not stiff you with charges which you have to recover from the independent insurer.

For more, see post #5 at
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5693089

and its link to some helpful general advice on Tripadvisor (where there are also tens of thousands of hard luck stories of scams and frauds because people didn't do what you are doing!)

IrishGypsy

Just an update on that car hire ( I was reminded of this as I'm booking car hire for our next family holiday abroad). I can't recommend this company enough. The SCDW fee of five Euros a day was a bargain as they didn't want to take any credit card deposit details, they just told me to leave the car back as any scratches or issues were covered. And, thankfully, it worked as expected as someone scratched the back of the car as it was parked (in an allocated space) on the road when we went to the beach.

I don't think their SCDW covered breakdown, but - thankfully - we didn't need it. So, yea, was very impressed with Top Car Canary's service and prices. The car was really good too. I was pleasantly surprised.