Car insurance excess cover

Reesy

Hi,

Am thinking of taking a separate policy for my car hire excess for summer hols car hire - from the likes of

http://www.carhireexcess.ie/
http://www.axacarhireexcess.ie/
http://www.blueinsurance.ie/carhireexcess.asp

- but I've no experience of these firms or their policies. Anyone have any experience of claiming on such a policy, or recommendations, or links to articles? Any thoughts appreciated!

Bravobabe

Hi,
Did you go ahead with the insurance? Which company did you use?
For a few years I have ben using a UK company - insurance4carhire.com
I never had to make a claim - but one of my work colleagues made a claim following a parking accident in France (left boot door up while reversing in underground car park)
Anyway - the insurance paid for all the damage and she was very happy with them.
I'm looking at "travelsinsurance" and carhireexcess.ie and they are both coming in at €50 for Europe/Annual cover.

jimjoe333

I would certainly use this as opposed to been mugged at the rental desk. I have used the 2.99 policy above a few times. The only time I got close to using it was in Czech when I was hit head on. The company carehireexcess were fine. I rang them because the rental company hadn't decided whether to take the excess or not seeing as how I wasn't at fault. The company said fine if they did they would refund it once I gave confirmation I was charged. There was a 30 limit on making claims but they said if I kept them updated they would keep the claim open. After two months the Czech company confirmed they weren't charging me.

You need to be prepared to take abuse at the rental desk though. These guys are desperate for the commission they get from selling their own policies at 2 or 3 times the cost. They will tell you it dosent cover everything (it does) and when that fails they say they will take a deposit on your credit card and you may not have enough credit on your card for the holiday.

This is rubbish. They don't take a credit, they test to see have you got 1500 or 2000 limit on your card but that dosent affect your remaining credit.

Then they will offer you an upgrade or a reduced price to take out the same insurance cover you already have. I have literally spent 20 minutes at a rental desk shaking my head and saying No thank you over and over again before they will eventually fling the keys at you!

In Dublin I saw an elderly Canadian man pay over 700 euro for excess cover for four weeks. That was to cover a 1000 euro excess. It was madness but they sold it to him anyway.

So buy your excess cover and be prepared for a serious level of sales talk at the desk. And tell them to shove their expensive cover. When the rental companies start charging proper prices for excess cover or give up the nonsense of excess cover, then I will deal with them again