Beat the car hire insurance trick

One of the slyest tricks I have come across in recent years is that operated by car hire companies when it comes to protecting yourself against damage.

This is an annoying little catch that has popped up with the rise of price comparison websites that can slash car hire bills but mean car hire firms then try to claw some cash back.

I’ve been caught out by this before and it cropped up again when I booked a car for my holiday last week to the French Alps – but this time I beat it.

Here’s how it happens: Book a car in Europe and you will typically be automatically covered for damage by a collision damage waiver that should be included in the price. However, what this invariably won’t cover is the excess on any damage, which can run to hundreds of pounds.

To avoid this you are offered a damage excess waiver, costing say £2.50 per day. And so for a week the low price rises by about £15.

At the start of your holiday, you then arrive to collect your hire car and are asked if you want to pay extra to cover damage excess? You explain that you’ve already paid this and show the helpful person behind the desk the booking form. They then point out the small print saying what this won’t cover you for is damage to windows, tyres or the roof – the places that problems are most likely to occur.

Cover for that comes under this new excess waiver which will only cost you another £5 per day.

And here’s the dilemma. You’re stood at the desk, you have minutes to choose between paying the small sum of £5 per day or facing the hire car firm’s over-inflated bill of at least £100 for a flat tyre and much more for a cracked windscreen.

Thoroughly defeated, most people pay the charge. The cost of your week’s hire has now gone up by another £35, to £50 above the original price.

You probably couldn't call this a fiddle, but it's as sneaky as the old scrubbing brush trick and drives people mad. It's got me before and standing at the queue in Geneva last week I saw it get someone else.

This time I arrived prepared. Before the trip, I signed up for an annual policy with insurance4carhire.com. It covers me for a year on hire cars in Europe for £50, with no need to pay either damage excess waiver charges. On one trip alone I have broken even, and if I hire another car in Europe over the next 12 months I will have saved money.

- Simon Lambert, This is Money

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Comments

[Craig]

Another trick I recently crossed in France is the 'charge you the cost of petrol for driving to the airport' scam.

If your flight leaves early morning and you have to be at the airport around 8am there are few petrol stations open so you can top up the tank before returning the car, this is especially true in the countryside.

So if you live 30 to 45 minutes drive away from the airport you have no chance of replacing the petrol used - even though it is likely to be a very small amount.

But the car hire firm will insist that it is full for the next driver and will try and get you to authorise them to drive to the petrol station later that day to top up the tank.

Refuse and pointedly say you will be checking your credit card bill for any charges - just play 'hard ball' as they say!

The amount of fuel required is likely to be so small that it makes you wonder if the petrol station could even register the sale, and if the car hire firm has an account it would take some tracking down to find the cost for an individual car.

[Michael]

We decided not to pay this charge and spent the rest of the holiday in a nervous panic whenever we got in the car.

[Connie Froude]

I fell for the extra insurance cover in Cork last year and was told I was covered for absolutely everything except keys. Just before I returned the car I read through the small print and noticed that I was covered for everything except personal injury to myself. When I asked about this I was told that my passenger was covered but I wasn't as they presumed I had cover elsewhere - a dangerous thing to assume! It would have been nice to know I wasn't covered for personal injury!!

[Agata]

That's exactly what happened to me. Bought the damage excess waiver while booking the car on the internet and thought we were covered for additional damage so why buy another one they offer you when picking up the car, we thought. On our way back to Venice we were caught in a very big hail and discovered that as a result the roof was damaged slightly by it. We reported the damage thinking 1. we are covered 2. it was caused by natural causes so naturally they will not charge us. What a mistake that was. They refused to acknowledge it and charged us 335 Euros! I still can't believe that we should be charged when it wasn't our fault. Surely, the car hire company have their own insurance to cover damage by natural causes. If anyone knows how we can reappeal against this decision, I will be very grateful.

[barry longhurst]

Enterprise tried to rip us off on this when we hired a car at Glasgow Airport recently.They wanted £10 PER DAY for extra insurance. We took a chance & fortunately had no problems, but I would certainly not use Enterprise again. They also could not supply us with the car that we wanted, but offered us a cheap upgrade, (There's a surprise) which we accepted, on this occasion as the only car that was available in the grade that we wanted was far too small.

[Rob]

Acknowledging sod's law, I took the £10 per day extra insurance as my car had to go to a garage for some engine work. I was entertaining someone from overseas that week and couldn't afford for anything else to go wrong. Still it wasn't a pleasant surprise. I ended up with a Fiat Tipo for £114 for four and a half days inclusive of mileage at a haggle.
The one-off payment of £50 per year is welcomed knowledge.
Thanks.