Of late, the newspapers have been full of horror stories about car hire companies fleecing their clients for hundreds, sometimes thousands of pounds, seemingly for no reason whatsoever.
But here is one key thing that you can – and should do – the next time you hire a car.
Take out separate insurance with one of the internet-based companies that offers full cover for collision damage and local excess fees, then all your hire car heartache will go away.
Stay with me on this one because, although it might sound like an advert for the insurance industry, it’s not. And the best part is, it could save you hundreds of pounds in the long run.
I use Protectyourbubble.com, but there are lots of other companies that offer virtually identical cover. You can buy cover for individual events or for a year.
Twelve months in Europe costs me £42.48 and covers me for £5000 of excess, £5000 of windscreen and tyres, £10,000 of personal accident and so on – but it’s the zero excess, the tyres and the windscreen cover that’s crucial because this is where the hire companies try and, more often than not, succeed in taking your money.
How so? Because when you go to collect your car at the rental desk, you will often be aggressively encouraged to take out extra insurance that covers you for “everything".
And in a lot of cases, you will then be informed that if any damage occurs to the car while you’re hiring it and you haven’t taken out the extra cover, then a hefty excess charge will be incurred. Sometimes this will be for hundreds of pounds, sometimes thousands.
And at that point you will be informed that to take out extra cover to make the excess go away, it will cost you X number of euros per day. Sometimes this will be as little as 10, sometimes as much as 30 Euros... per day.
But you’re on holiday, yes, and you don’t want to walk into a nightmare scenario where you get hit with a bill for £2000 to cover the excess just because some lunatic rubbed his Renault 5 into the side of you outside the local supermarket.
So through gritted teeth you say yes to the additional insurance – and end up agreeing to pay a lot more than you thought to hire the car, just for the peace of mind. And that’s the mind game that the hire car companies play to relieve you of your hard earned holiday money.
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Good expression about car
Check the Reviews
Good ratings for the ease of signing up.
Dreadful reviews when it comes to making a claim.
Appears that you need to pay up to the hire company and then reclaim of the insurer.
Most claim reviews are to do with mobile phones where it seems as if the insurer will do its best to delay or avoid the claim.
Do some homework before signing up.
From insider experience
I am not going to go into detail about the company or all practices here, but some were shocking and made me angry. Everything was profit driven, from trying to sell upgrades (to insurance hires and retail hires) to persistent attempts to sell excess protection. This reduced the Excess by £500, but still left it at more than just pocket money. Granted the fees weren't too high, but they were excessive given the cost of rental in the first place.
When working at said company, I was fastidious about recording every bit of damage in order to not make people pay for extant damage. To be fair to the company in question, there was never a policy of 'finding damage', but when it was found, costs were high.
On a side note, be aware of the condition of cars. Many, despite daily oil and levels checks, were run without the correct level of oil and servicing, even during the warranty period, was at the local, agreed Fast-Fit Centre. Services were always just an oil service unless a perishable needed replacing. Furthermore, knowing how I (as a younger man) and others drove these cars, I would strongly recommend never buying an ex-rental if it is possible.