Car hire excess insurance at the desk

brad26

Can anyone just confirm if what I’m thinking is correct please.

It’s been a little while since I’ve hired a car. I think I’m right in thinking that the agents on site always want you to get their own all singing all dancing super cover so that you don’t need to worry about paying out any kind of excess. 

I always used to sort out my own excess insurance in the uk and would just let them hold about £3000 pound or so on my credit card. 

This time around however I don’t really have the room on my card to let them do this so think I will just pay through the nose for their own super insurance at the desk when I arrive.

Having looked on the internet comparison sites I can see a lot of the providers are offering this sort of insurance at the point of hiring. 

Would I be right in thinking this is pretty much the same thing as arranging my own uk based excess insurance and it’s not the actual car hire company’s super insurance and so they will still want to hold that £3000 on my credit card ???? 

It’s not exactly made very clear on the comparison sites. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks 

MikeJXE

If you are talking about overseas car hire, last time I went to Spain with my own car hire insurance the company still wanted a deposit on my credit card so you may as well pay their overpriced insurance 

DullGreyGuy

It varies, if its all booked/paid for via the car hire company you are normally buying their insurance and so the deposit taken on your card is much smaller and to cover late return or wrong amount of fuel etc.

If you buy from a middleman they may sell you a separate car hire excess policy rather than the cover from the hire company in which case the hire company will try and sell you the add on and hold the full excess on your card same as if you'd bought the insurance independently 

eDicky

Unless you purchase a hire firm's own extra insurance giving a zero excess when you collect the car or book direct with the firm, they will need to take or pre-authorise from your card an amount to cover the normal excess.

I've never known an excess to be as much as £3k, never more than half that.

brianposter

If the problem is your credit limit you could try paying your card into credit.

born_again

brianposter said:

If the problem is your credit limit you could try paying your card into credit.

Which these days is against the T/C

brianposter

born_again said:

brianposter said:

If the problem is your credit limit you could try paying your card into credit.

Which these days is against the T/C

But can be readily achieved and is quite often necessary when hiring a car.

brad26

Thanks for all the answers everybody. Pretty much confirms what I was already thinking. It was when I was with Goldcar quite a few years ago I had to have the £3000 hold on the card. I know a lot of people hate them but I’ve always found them to be really good in my own experience, they don’t have any availability for my dates though. 

ellenvan

Try Zest car rental - most of the providers have low excess nothing I have seen recently more than £1,000.
We have found them excellent for sorting out minor problems too.

DullGreyGuy

brianposter said:

born_again said:

brianposter said:

If the problem is your credit limit you could try paying your card into credit.

Which these days is against the T/C

But can be readily achieved and is quite often necessary when hiring a car.

It's always been against the T&Cs however banks are now better at policing it and will often bounce the payment to prevent you putting it in credit. 

brianposter

DullGreyGuy said:  It's always been against the T&Cs however banks are now better at policing it and will often bounce the payment to prevent you putting it in credit. 

One does have to go about it in a roundabout way.