[Closed] Hiring a car for dummies - what insurance do i actually need?

When I have hired a car abroad on holiday I have always taken out my own excess cover policy through companies such as insurance 4 car hire. The cost was quite reasonable to cover the hire firms excess charge of 1500 to 1800 euros, was significantly cheaper than taking the hire firms 'comprehensive' policy.

I use 3rd party car hire insurance. I think it cost me £45 for the year and covers most of the things not covered by the basic insurance that is required by law.

A couple of things to look at from your perspective:

1. Which country is home? Probably better to buy it there, as I'm not sure buying it in the UK would work for you.

2. There may be limits to the number of days hire are covered in a single block - a bit like annual travel policies only covering single trips up to e.g. 30 days in length

Look into it locally would be my advice.

Thanks for the help so far.  I live in Ireland but heading to Scotland.

Any suggestions on excess insurance for a single trip, rather than annual? Home being England, hire in Portugal.

(Sorry for thread hijack!)

Any suggestions on excess insurance for a single trip,

an annual policy costs about the same as two or three days premium through the hire co. So just get an annual policy for a trip that’s more than a few days

Is there anything else I should be looking into.

Whatever price you get online... call up the company and grill them as to what you actually will pay on the day. It’s very difficult to compare deals as each company advertises a headline price and neglects to mention other costs - damage waivers being one but companies will have other weird cost like charging you a (made up) amount for fuel, charging you per mile over a certain daily limit and so on. Each co will have its own set of bullshit extras that you usually don’t know about until they hand you the keys.

So find out what you’re paying on top of the headline price then go back to the other quotes- some of them will suddenly look a lot more attractive

the least-stress option are company’s that give you the car with a full tank (at no cost) and expect it back full and only charge you for refuelling if you don’t. Trying to work out how to get the needle back to 2/3 of a tank on return or bring given the car on vapours as that’s how the past customer returned  it just a pain

Should I be looking at a car hire excess policy?

Probably, if your over riding desire is for the cheapest rental and you can't afford say £500-1000 if you have a dunt. If you are cash rich and a careful driver who doesn't damage their own car often you may decide to simply take the huge excess on the chin.   Beware though that if you do have damage the rental company will likely take the entire excess from your card (even for something like a cracked windscreen or potentially a puncture) until its repaired and a final cost is knowns.  You need to claim it back from your insurer which reportedly can take quite a few weeks.

Is it normal to have this through your existing car insurance policy?

Almost certainly not.

Are all renters own insurance policies overpriced?

Yes.  Although if being out of pocket for a £1k and having to do a bit of quibbling back and forth is going to be a PITA for then paying an extra £100 upfront might seem like value to some for peace of mind.

  Is there anything else I should be looking into.

The things maccruisskeen mentions.  Also beware they will expect to see your actual driving license.  Some insist on an actual credit (not just debit) card in the name on the license, and the last one to trip me up wanted proof of ID (utility bills).  There is usually an extra charge for additional drivers.  They may try to rent you sat nav even though its fitted in the car.  They will often suggest upgrading.  Basically anything they can do to squeeze some extra cash from you at the desk - they are commission based and break even on the rental everything else is the profit.  Beware not all those advertising as being "at the airport" are actually there - often the cheapest are a 15 minute shuttle bus ride, which only runs 3x an hour - so that's a great start, and an early finish to your holiday!

<p>Having hired a car recenty my overwhelming advice is to do your research. I ended up renting from Enterprise and yes, it cost more but it was worth it after reading the horror stories about Easirent. Too many sharks out there, sometime it's better to pay a bit more and know you're not going to get ripped off in other ways.</p>

A top company may cost a wee bit more but it does protect you a bit from being ripped off.  I use enterprise a lot and sometimes arnold clark.  I never use cheapo firms.  too many horror stories

Just be aware that time runs at a different speed at airport car hire desks.

Rachel

Thanks again for the help, much appreciated.  Got a car sorted through Arnold Clark - like others I am very wary of easirent etc having been stung a few years back for not owning a credit card.  I've looked into excess policy and €49 seems good for 1 year through www.aig.ie.

"an annual policy costs about the same as two or three days premium through the hire co. So just get an annual policy for a trip that’s more than a few days"

Thanks. Insurance4CarHire was mentioned before - are they the go to option? Any other suggestions?

Cheers,

Duane.

If you do use insurance4carhire, and I see no reason why not as despite not needing to claim they seemed ok for the 2 years I used them, make sure to go through either TCB or Quidco if you use them. 25% cashback at the mo.

As an aside, I always found Enterprise really could to deal with over about 15 rentals.

Look at Zest as they throw excess insurance in for free.

could try Questor for insurance cover

As above, get your own Excess insurance (if you're likely to rent a car a few times in a year annual policies are a real bargain).

However, I got caught out by a Sixt rental in January (collection from a French airport).  It included NO cover at all - so the excess insurance (which covers the excess of up to a c1000 euro) would not have helped.  They wanted a huge sum to add it at the airport (whereas it wasn't much if prebooked).  I didn't realise it was even possible to book a hire car with just third party cover.

I don't know how you tell on the fueling thing - I'd assumed they all ran the tanks full to full these days since it's easy but we picked up a van in La Palma that was running on fumes.