Car rental & insurance - hoping to avoid being scammed again!

bumblepop1984

Hiya! I have a question about car hire insurance...
(I did post this in another thread but it seems like that hasn't been active for a while)

In 2019 we got massively stung by being told at the rental counter in San Diego we needed to buy extra insurance or we couldn't take the car - ended up paying an extra £800 or so...really want to avoid that happening again! 

We're going on a one-way road trip - San Francisco->Seattle in August for our honeymoon. We've booked car rental from qeeq.com and we have AXA insurance that came with the rental. I've pasted below some of the info from our rental documents and the AXA insurance... what i'd like to know is... 
1) Am i missing any insurance
2) Can the people at the rental counter tell us we must take out extra insurance with them?
3) Do we need the standalone excess insurance mentioned in the moneysavingexpert article 'How to book cheap car hire' (part 6 of the article) or is that what my AXA insurance is? (i can't post a link to the article as the forum wouldn't allow me to, but its the first post that comes up when you search the article title on this site)
4) Should i just get this standalone insurance extra anyway for extra protection?! 

Thank you!
Helen


---Car Rental Insurance Info: ---

Hertz rental Included:

• Collision Damage Waiver
• Theft Waiver
• Third Party Liability Protection
• Windows, Mirrors, Chassis and Tyres Coverage *
• Personal Accident Insurance *
• Towing & Roadside Assistance Costs *
• Loss of Leased Items & Pick-up Delay Insurance *
• Clean Up Fee and Misfuelling Charge *
• Vehicle Rental
• One Way Fee
• Rate Distance Unlimited
• Airport Concession Recovery
• Facility Fee
• Vehicle License Recovery Fee
• State Tourism Assessment
• Taxs And Surcharges
• *Covered by a master policy insured by AXA TP Insurance

• Note: There is 0 excess liability on your rental.

Insurance Package Inclusion

• Collision Damage Waiver - Excess: 0

In the case of damage to the bodywork of the rental car, it limits your financial loss to an excess, the maximum amount that you will have to pay. It usually does not cover the engine, windscreens, tyres, undercarriage, wheels, indicators, interior and towing charges, etc.

• Theft Waiver - Excess: 0

It covers part of the replacing cost if the rental car is stolen or repairing cost if the car is damaged through an attempted theft during rental. It does not cover anything inside the car, such as luggage or GPS. It only limits your financial loss to an excess, sometimes known as the deductible - the maximum amount that you have to pay in the case of theft or attempted theft.

• Third Party Liability Protection

It pays out if you are deemed responsible for damage to third party's property, injury and even death. It does not cover any damage to you or the rental car and it excludes theft of the car. The cover may be invalidated if it does meet terms and conditions of the rental agreement or the relevant local laws.

• Windows, Mirrors, Chassis and Tyres Coverage

• Personal Accident Insurance

It includes medical, ambulance and death benefits for you and your passengers in the case of accident during rental.

• Towing & Roadside Assistance Costs

• Loss of Leased Items & Pick-up Delay Insurance

• Clean Up Fee and Misfuelling Charge

Note:

• The excess(if applicable) is the maximum amount you will be held liable for in the case of damage or theft of the vehicle.

• Extended protection products/excess waiver products are available for purchase at the time of pickup. Renters may purchase them in their interests. QEEQ will not endorse any of these products.


---AXA Insurance Info:---

Session1 - Personal Accident US$20,000 -> Permanent Total Disablement, Loss of Limbs, Loss of Sight

Session2 - Rental Vehicle Excess

US$6000 =
The Motor Insurance Policy Excess incurred in the event that:
(1) Direct loss of the rental vehicle (incl. windows, glass, tyres, chassis), whilst the rental Vehicle is driven by the Insured Person;
(2) the rental Vehicle is involved in an Accident that required road rescue fee, towing fee, labor cost, lock or key replacement fee;
(3) the rental Vehicle is stolen;
(4) the rental Vehicle is damaged due to natural disasters during the Journey.

US$800 =
Loss of leased items or travel documents
Loss of rental expenses due to travel documents
Parking and replacement fees due to traffic accident
Delay of pick up due to flight delay or cancellation

US$150 =
Clean up fee
Charges due to misfuelling

Applicable =
Automatic extension of the coverage period

bumblepop1984

Bumping this in hope of a reply please!

sammynunes

Hire car rip-offs are VERY rare in the USA compared to Europe as they don't use the same business model (ie. rent at a loss and then try and make a profit by squeezing the naive customers).

A few chancers have tried it on over the years with us in the USA....spotting a tired customer and thinking they can make a quick buck but they normally back down very quickly with a few firm no's.

If you are still worried then I would suggest that you book directly with a car hire company rather than an agent. It seems that car hire excess IS creeping into agent-lead packages for the US...perhaps because the agents/car hire companies are trying to get the headline prices down as they are shockingly high at the moment.


BTW, if you driving the Pacific Coast Highway, you're going in the wrong direction.

Sandtree

The question will be what the limit on third party liability is and if you are comfortable with it (given how vast payout are in the US)?

In the UK personal car insurance has to provide unlimited cover for injury but in the US the legal requirements are much lower... California only requires a single party limit of $15,000 and $30,000 per accident if multiple injuried parties. In a relatively recent case I was involved in two witnesses to a fatal RTC were paid $5m each to give you a sense of the scale. Once your insurance limit is exhausted any further monies awarded to the third party are your personal liability. 

Sodium68

Try a company called "discount Florida car hire"  they do car hire all over the USA not just Florida.
We use them all the time and always try and book with Alamo because you can register and put all your details in before you go and then when you arrive you can use the self service machine (so no hard sell from their employees) then go and pick your car from a row of vehicles all in the same class.

phizzer7

hiya did you get a reply to this that was helpful? or what was your experience of QEEQ only we are off to California in a month and have used QEEQ and wonder if its worth taking the AXA excess insurance as previously when we've hired if you don't take their excess insurance they put a hold on your credit card for say $2000. so you end up double indemnified/covered. how did it go please?

jimi_man

Personally, as we hire cars a fair amount on holidays, we paid for an annual excess policy (recommended on MSE) so you refuse all insurance at the counter and just give your credit card details for the excess. Should they charge you then you claim it back through the excess policy. I think it was £50 for the year which covers worldwide. Having hired cars so far this year in New York, Athens, Barcelona, Iceland and shortly Thailand it’s definitely paid for itself. 

joebob

Who did you book the annual excess policy with ?

jimi_man

joebob said:

Who did you book the annual excess policy with ?

Not sure if that is directed at me? We did ours through the MSE site - there are three listed and we used Reduce my Excess which is actually Eversure anyway. 

Not had to claim on it so I can’t say how good it is. It was £50.60.