Thrifty Car Rental Alicante - Smart Cover mis sold

dinky_donk

I can see on this forum many issues regarding Thrifty and car rental insurance over the years. Is there a legal consumer group regarding mis sold car rentals insurance that can be approached with customers being treated unfairly? 

MyRealNameToo

There's no specialist group but it will also be complicated by if you are talking of hiring a vehicle in the UK or overseas. Most consumer groups focus on protecting those purchasing in the UK and not overseas whereas I suspect most people hire cars overseas

dinky_donk

Thank you for this, so is there nothing to protect those being mis sold an insurance in respect of car hire. Our situation was that we had hired a car in Alicante -Thrifty and also a Zurich full insurance, both via booking.com. On our return we were charged a fee that the adviser did not advise us of at the time of us signing the agreement. We disputed the charge and Thrifty came back stating it was for car insurance of which we had already provided evidence of to the adviser at the time of collection. We disputed it again and they have now come back stating it was a charge for an additional driver, so they have changed their reasons for the charge. For us we have been treated unfairly and mis sold when we already provided evidence we had our own insurance and did not need their insurance nor additional driver cover as it was only my husband who will drive overseas. 

BFBW

You didn't have a full insurance. You had a third party Car Hire Excess Insurance policy. That has nothing to do with the car hire firm. They don't even need to know that you have it. They usually block an amount on your credit card to cover potential damages beyond the CDW that is normally included in rentals booked via U.K. websites. Nothing more to discuss.
If they didn't block an amount of around 1000 euros via your CC, that was because you paid for the Smart Cover, which eliminates the need for a CC excess deposit. 
If they blocked the amount on your CC, then they cannot charge you for Smart Cover.
Maximum amount for an Additional Driver is 120 euros.
Some clarification of the details may be helpful.

dinky_donk

Thank you for your response.  I will explain further. The insurance policy with Zurich was a full protection insurance and we declined Thrifty's additional insurance, which I believe may be relative to an excess waiver as Zurich refers to this in their paperwork. The Thrifty adviser in Alicante was disgruntled and stated that as we had declined their insurance they would hold 1500 euros against our credit card and an additional 150 euros if the car was not returned full. The adviser wrote these figures on our copy of the agreement and once we signed the agreement he subsequently requested my husband to initialise on his carbonised copy against the 1500 euros which is shown twice on the form, to acknowledge this holding. We did not receive a copy of this and was only realised when this issue came to light. Therefore as we understood it and as you also state we should not have been charged the smart cover insurance as we agreed to the holding/block against our credit card.  The copy of the agreement we have has no initials on so I requested a copy of the agreement they had on file of which they provided and it was initialised in 8 places and against the smart cover insurance. We provided them with a copy of our agreement which does not show this.  When we initially disputed this with Thrifty they advised the charge was for their insurance cover and once we received their copy of the agreement, we further disputed the additional initials, they then changed their explanation stating it was for an additional driver cover. The additional driver cover was not discussed at all and was not required as it was only my husband driving the car. I do not drive overseas. We took videos of the car on pick up and on drop off to cover ourselves. We did not feel that we needed to video the conversation with the adviser and the signing of the agreement. This is why I enquired if there is any legal consumer group or protection around mis sold rental car insurance. 

Caz3121

was the booking in your husbands name with his card? Did they take licence details for both of you?

BFBW

dinky_donk said:

Thank you for your response.  I will explain further. The insurance policy with Zurich was a full protection insurance and we declined Thrifty's additional insurance, which I believe may be relative to an excess waiver as Zurich refers to this in their paperwork. The Thrifty adviser in Alicante was disgruntled and stated that as we had declined their insurance they would hold 1500 euros against our credit card and an additional 150 euros if the car was not returned full. The adviser wrote these figures on our copy of the agreement and once we signed the agreement he subsequently requested my husband to initialise on his carbonised copy against the 1500 euros which is shown twice on the form, to acknowledge this holding. We did not receive a copy of this and was only realised when this issue came to light. Therefore as we understood it and as you also state we should not have been charged the smart cover insurance as we agreed to the holding/block against our credit card.  The copy of the agreement we have has no initials on so I requested a copy of the agreement they had on file of which they provided and it was initialised in 8 places and against the smart cover insurance. We provided them with a copy of our agreement which does not show this.  When we initially disputed this with Thrifty they advised the charge was for their insurance cover and once we received their copy of the agreement, we further disputed the additional initials, they then changed their explanation stating it was for an additional driver cover. The additional driver cover was not discussed at all and was not required as it was only my husband driving the car. I do not drive overseas. We took videos of the car on pick up and on drop off to cover ourselves. We did not feel that we needed to video the conversation with the adviser and the signing of the agreement. This is why I enquired if there is any legal consumer group or protection around mis sold rental car insurance. 

This appears to be a simple Section 75 claim via your CC provider.. Smart Cover can be used in conjunction with your Third Party Car Hire Excess policy. It eliminates the need for the 1500 euro hold. So if they held the 1500 euros, then it cannot be for Smart Cover. If the charge is for more than 120 euros, then it cannot be for an extra driver.

Make a Section 75 claim with your evidence and their T&C here: https://cms-dt.com/images/thrifty/documents/es/ESEN_Thrifty_Rental_terms_and_RQR_240325.pdf

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/section75-protect-your-purchases/

dinky_donk

In response to Caz3121 - thank you - the booking and insurance was my husband's sole name and they only requested his driving licence details. 

BFBW thank you for your response, we tried to claim as a charge back from our Credit Card but they advised that with our claim as being mis sold they were unable to assist with this and that we should seek legal advice. The amount we were charged was £74 of which I understand £100 is the minimum to apply for of a Section 75. On checking our VISA when we returned home, there was a holding of approx. £200 but they then took £74. It just seems to be a complete error/mis sell on their part as we insisted on no additional insurance but agreed to the holding of 1500 euros of which they did not adhere to but somehow the form was changed to reflect us taking this insurance and when we challenged them they changed their explanation that we had requested and paid for an additional driver of which we had no requirement.  I feel that unless we had videoed the transaction we have no way of evidencing this.  This is a lesson learnt for us but raises the issue of how many other people they are doing this to. 

eskbanker

You could try this service?

https://www.ecrcs.com/

BFBW

dinky_donk said:

In response to Caz3121 - thank you - the booking and insurance was my husband's sole name and they only requested his driving licence details. 

BFBW thank you for your response, we tried to claim as a charge back from our Credit Card but they advised that with our claim as being mis sold they were unable to assist with this and that we should seek legal advice. The amount we were charged was £74 of which I understand £100 is the minimum to apply for of a Section 75. On checking our VISA when we returned home, there was a holding of approx. £200 but they then took £74. It just seems to be a complete error/mis sell on their part as we insisted on no additional insurance but agreed to the holding of 1500 euros of which they did not adhere to but somehow the form was changed to reflect us taking this insurance and when we challenged them they changed their explanation that we had requested and paid for an additional driver of which we had no requirement.  I feel that unless we had videoed the transaction we have no way of evidencing this.  This is a lesson learnt for us but raises the issue of how many other people they are doing this to. 

Ask them for the name of the additional driver and when they suggest it was you, inform them that you don't have a driving licence. 
But the fact that there was a holding of £200, rather than 1500 euros, indicates that it was for their Smart Cover or some other nonsense. Their reviews indicate regular scamming.
In the meantime...https://www.defensordelpueblo.es/en/who-we-are/how-we-can-help-you/

dinky_donk

Thank you BFBW, yes the Thrifty reviews do indicate many scams. Thank you and  eskbanker, I really appreciate both your help and I will look into both avenues.