Hire car excess insurance

Mildly_Miffed

We're off on our travels soon, and will be hiring a car in Japan - two rentals, total of eight days.

Any suggestions for good or bad excess insurers, without having to trawl a wall of google results? 

Brie

I was about to ask the same question but about a trip to Canada.  Just in case anyone has location specific recommendations!!!

Bigwheels1111

Half way down the page, I’m not saying mse recommend them but they are on its page.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/

I used a different one, but away from home and can’t access my desktop.

Take out cover, get to car take a million pictures, body, tyres, glass, wipers, tyre tread, look underneath for dents.
Seat condition and interior pics. Pay with credit card. Make sure you know the fuel policy, full on return, keep pictures of fill up for time and distance driving back from filling station.Keep receipts.
If they can bill you they will. Be ready for war.
Thats just the way it is.

DullGreyGuy

Bigwheels1111 said:

Take out cover, get to car take a million pictures, body, tyres, glass, wipers, tyre tread, look underneath for dents.
Seat condition and interior pics. Pay with credit card. Make sure you know the fuel policy, full on return, keep pictures of fill up for time and distance driving back from filling station.Keep receipts.
If they can bill you they will. Be ready for war.
Thats just the way it is.

Or hire from one of the well known international companies. In all my years of hiring have never had a single issue with the likes of Hertz or Enterprise, the one time I had an issue was when booking with an unknown local outfit that turned out to be cheap upfront for a reason. 

jimjames

I used Eversure for my recent hire, good price at £12 for 6 days cover. Not sure how responsive they would be for a claim but their policy setup was very smooth.

Brie

DullGreyGuy said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

Take out cover, get to car take a million pictures, body, tyres, glass, wipers, tyre tread, look underneath for dents.
Seat condition and interior pics. Pay with credit card. Make sure you know the fuel policy, full on return, keep pictures of fill up for time and distance driving back from filling station.Keep receipts.
If they can bill you they will. Be ready for war.
Thats just the way it is.

Or hire from one of the well known international companies. In all my years of hiring have never had a single issue with the likes of Hertz or Enterprise, the one time I had an issue was when booking with an unknown local outfit that turned out to be cheap upfront for a reason. 

Bro2 rented a car from Enterprise and discovered that the boot was completely full of automotive kit.  He went to the nearest branch to get them to unload this so he could use the boot as he intended and ended up with a charge for $3000 due to a scratch inside the boot.  Went to court and everything.  Apparently in Canada many Enterprise branches are franchises, not run by the company and there seems to be a bonus system for finding scratches or other minor damage.  Of course he should have checked inside the boot when picking it up, not just the exterior bodywork.  

DullGreyGuy

Brie said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

Take out cover, get to car take a million pictures, body, tyres, glass, wipers, tyre tread, look underneath for dents.
Seat condition and interior pics. Pay with credit card. Make sure you know the fuel policy, full on return, keep pictures of fill up for time and distance driving back from filling station.Keep receipts.
If they can bill you they will. Be ready for war.
Thats just the way it is.

Or hire from one of the well known international companies. In all my years of hiring have never had a single issue with the likes of Hertz or Enterprise, the one time I had an issue was when booking with an unknown local outfit that turned out to be cheap upfront for a reason. 

Bro2 rented a car from Enterprise and discovered that the boot was completely full of automotive kit.  He went to the nearest branch to get them to unload this so he could use the boot as he intended and ended up with a charge for $3000 due to a scratch inside the boot.  Went to court and everything.  Apparently in Canada many Enterprise branches are franchises, not run by the company and there seems to be a bonus system for finding scratches or other minor damage.  Of course he should have checked inside the boot when picking it up, not just the exterior bodywork.  

Begs the question why he didnt open the boot at handover to ensure there wasnt damage, if the spare tyre was listed on the handover form that it actually was there and inflated etc. 

Mildly_Miffed

DullGreyGuy said:

Or hire from one of the well known international companies.

Not always quite that simple - we wanted a one-way hire that nobody would do, so we're ending up with a one-way then train then circular hire. That's with one of the country's biggest national rental outfits, but the number of outfits fell markedly with any one-way.

Anyway, for a tenner from Leisureguard for each of the two five-day rentals, I'm happy. Thanks!