Excess Insurance - Annual Policy

[clinkham]

Other than a prompt acknowledgement of reciept of my claim, no sign of a payout yet. Hopefully will hear something before the creditcard bill becomes due in a week or two.
I notice from previous posts plenty of people report taking out this insurance, but no one other myself seems to have made a claim. The measure of the quality of insurance is what happens if you need to claim. We shall see!

Oh! Ye of little faith! Just checked the bank balance and found that Insurance4carhire have paid out on my claim. Very prompt and hassle free.
Very impressive and grateful particularly as the payout has gone straight into the credit card account a week before the payment is due.

@ copper: agree,photos are a good idea. They will reduce the possibility of hassle at the end rental for the renter and also protect Insurance4carhire from bogus claims from the carhire firm ie claiming for old damage from previous rentals.

 

[Tess88]

excess cover with 'negligance'?

Hi, I was just about to book excess cover with Hipercar - and then they said - this covers all but 'negligence' - I don't intend to be so! but don't know what this means ... does other car excess companies cover this - I really don't want to dive into too much small print - or the holiday becomes work! Any tips?

Several people on this forum have commented on the additional insurance that is 'offered' when you arrive to collect your car. Even though the quoted price gives you some cover you don't appear to be covered for loss of keys, tyres etc. & so you are liable to an excess if you don't take it. This insurance is often several euros a day depending on the company.

A few members have already reported that you can buy your own 'Car Hire Excess Policy' for £49 per year whereby the Car Hire company charges you & you claim back against this policy.

If you travel & hire a car several times a year, an annual policy must be worth it.

We now have more information on our main web site, so do have a look at Insurance4CarHire

 

[clinkham]

If you look back through this thread, you will see that insurance4carhire has been the subject of very positive reviews.

Whilst I think the cost has risen slightly, the cover is for 12 months. Good value if you are renting more than once in the year.

The policy covers most of the eventualities that the rental companies want to charge extra for.

Click through from this site and you can sign up online and get near instant cover.

Note that if you have any damage not covered by the included car rental insurance, the cost will be charged to your credit card. You then make a claim against insurance4carhire, supplying details (possibly photos) invoices and reciepts etc.

As I said in an earlier post in this thread, my claim was paid before the arrival of the monthly credit card bill.

Very reassuring policy to have with your holiday paperwork.

 

[pescador2009]

"From today's MDB"
There have been signs that new tourism legislation will cover the operations of car hire companies in the Balearics for the first time. It cannot come quickly enough. Complaints about “rip-off” practices have been one of the most frequent subjects of Letter to the Editor in the Bulletin. Too often, however, they are written in general terms and a “more in sorrow than anger” spirit.
Not so a letter from Alister Bottomley of Pollensa this week: “My daughter was married here in the north of the island and 104 people came from the UK to celebrate the event. 28 people rented cars and all of them were under the illusion that they had already arranged a totally comprehensive insurance only to be confronted with the scare tactics surrounding extras which were not covered.
The extra amounts were between 200 and 700 euros depending upon class of car and days of hire and left everyone with a feeling they had been ripped-off completely. I enclose a typical sheet which lists all the uncovered items such as clutch, engine, tow truck, lost rental days while the vehicle is being repaired amongst many others. This is an absolutely disgraceful practice and is doing our island’s reputation irreparable harm and must be stopped.”

Interesting letter from Mr A Bottomley.
If new legislation does go through, it can't be too quick for visitors to PP. With the distance from Palma and the cost of taxis (though not too unreasonable) many, many of us rent cars for the duration of our holidays or even for a few days whilst we are in PP and most will have been 'stung' for 'extra' insurance, particularly in the last few years.

 

[cumberland8]

This really is a huge problem throughout Spain,last year my Uncle bought annual Insurance4carhire before coming out & despite showing documentation showing the cover the car hire company refused to accept it & would not let him take a car out until he forked out a further 270 euros for their insurance.
This apparently is being tried all the time on customers ,the excuse given is it is not sufficient coverage.
Before anyone asks, it wasn't Record for once.

 

[clinkham]

Don't want to appear to be an apologist for the car hire industry...but.... I must mention the excellent service from Hiper-rentacar in the Port last week.
No mention of the extra insurance on collection - the price quoted via the internet booking was what I paid. There was a detailed inspection of the car at the start of the rental. A paper creditcard slip for the value for a tank of petrol was taken at the start of the rental and was torn up at the end when I returned the car with a full tank.

Transit to and from the airport via resorthopper or similar, followed by 'in resort' car rental from Hiper is the stress free way to do it.

I was covered by insurance4carhire (via PP.com )in case of any non-insured excesses.

 

[Millipet]

Car hire from airport

Just collected hire car from Record. Beware all you over 70's! Even though we have annual extra insurance with Insurance for car hire, we were told at the Record desk that because we were over 70 we had to take their excess insurance at around 5 euros per day otherwise we could not have the car. With a queue behind us we reluctantly had to play up. Has anyone else had this experience? Will be following it up when we get home

 

[Mark]

It does say that in the terms and conditions about aged over 70.

5 euros per day looks a reasonable price as on the website it says 140 Euros for 7-10 days hire for 'comfort plus waiver'

 

[Millipet]

Excess insurance

Mark, sorry I made a mistake. Extra insurance was 77 euros for 10 days so over 7 euros per day.

 

[Millipet]

Mark, sorry


I made a mistake. Extra insurance was 77 euros for 10 days so over 7 euros per day.

 

[Millipet]

Excess insurance

Mark, sorry I made a mistake. Extra insurance was 77 euros for 10 days so over 7 euros per day.

 

[ginap]

Hi

I have taken out excess insurance for the 2 weeks we are visiting PP in July. It cost £30.00 and the car hire has cost us £282.75 including an additional driver, so all together just over £300.00 for 2 weeks.
This will hopefully mean that collecting the car will be totally hassle free and no worries about the excess.

 

[Lorenzo]

Which company are you hiring from Ginap? It will be good to know how it all goes.]

 

[Disorderly]

I've had the excess insurance for years and never have had any bad experiences. Mind you, not used Goldcar for a long time! Current favourite is Sixxt.

 

[MAG]

I have an annual policy with insurance4carhire. This time, and for the first time, Record charged to my credit card the hire fee and a deposit to them. Before the deposit element was held in reserve on your card. On returning the vehicle they refunded £696 of the £801 originally charged.
Couple of issues.
1) make sure you have an available credit balance on your card
2) i have been charged a barclaycard fee of £23 on the first transaction and then £22 when they refunded me the deposit.

These 2 additional transaction fees somewhat added to the overall hire fee. Not happy. Not happened ever before. Have e mailed Record ...... No reply.

this is a bully boy way to make you take there insurance !!!

Any thoughts ?

 

[overthehill]

Hi Mag,
We are booked with Record (through DoYouSpain) next week and were considering same annual insurance you had. Did Record give a reason for actually charging rather than holding the deposit and why they only refunded £696? Was this the deposit amount and the rest the hire charge? Did you go through an agent or book in airport? Beginning to get jittery!
Thanks

 

[MAG]

Record have not bothered to reply to my e mail so far. Shame as i have hired numerous cars from them for 10 years. The difference in the 2 amounts covers the hires cost and then the 2 handling fees from barclaycard based on the transaction fees. So whilst I accept Record do not get that full amount, Barclaycard are also winning.

Issue is that Record never used to charge the full deposit to your credit card. They held it and hence no massive transaction fee when charged and no transaction fee when refunded.

Record not explaining this change. Shame as it was only 3 weeks ago i also hired from them !

This will make car hire very expensive but maybe still cheaper than taking their additional insurance.

 

[roig cat]

Centauro are also using bullying techniques. They are now saying that if you break down you have to pay for your own road side assistance/ tow truck unless you buy their insurance excess cover. Having said that, even with full cover that includes express service, the quote was still much cheaper than one from Sixt.

 

[overthehill]

Thank you MAG for posting about this charge, without your info we would have been in for an unpleasant surprise!

OH has just phoned Record to clarify their position. It IS NOW DEFINITELY the policy to charge credit cards, not just block excess fee as before if you do not take their insurance. They will not accept debit cards.

So as MAG said if you have other insurance:

>be prepared with credit limit over that of your excess
>depending on your card provider, there may be transaction charges- percentages differ
>look into other card providers (see Money savings expert for advice) well in advance as some do not charge transaction fees - unfortunately we are too close to apply for this visit.
>if you can do online banking whilst away, pay amount off as soon as it appears in your cc account to avoid lots of interest charges

It will still work out less than using their insurance or going with the other more expensive car providers.

 

[Tiggy]

I now take the local car rental company s insurance and throw the keys back at the end of the stay free in the knowledge they cannot bill me for anything.
On a recent trip to Petra I returned to the car and found a truck driver had scraped the side of the car and wing mirror - my companion was horrified , me I just got in a drove off and didn't let it bother me what the hell I had their insurance.OK I paid over the odds but it was worth peace of mind and just got on the more important things in life.The rental cost with all the bells and whistles was still cheaper as Roig Cat commented than one of the international rental companies.