car hire excess insurance

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wollie
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car hire excess insurance

Postby wollie » Sat Mar 31, 2018 8:45 am

I am considering above. I principally hire Malaga and sometimes Seville, occasionally i hire in different countries but this is really not important.
I have noticed on here that some companies will not accept this insurance so i like to ask the forum as little point in g=having a policy if companies can accept or reject at will. I am kinda of the opinion that if we have this insurance it be valid for all companies.
I be grateful for any guidance from people who use this.

Many thanks.

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Wicksey
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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby Wicksey » Sat Mar 31, 2018 9:24 am

I think this has been discussed elsewhere recently. The car hire companies do not 'accept' the insurance as such as, if anything happens, you will still need to pay the excess to them but then claim it back from the excess insurance company yourself.

Many hire companies will try to sell you their own very expensive excess insurance, but you have the right to refuse that, whether or not you hold your own separate policy.

I use these https://www.icarhireinsurance.com/#0

I have a policy purely for peace of mind as we tend to use Hertz now and they have never done the hard sell bit with us, but I have experienced it with other companies in the past. If the car did get damaged, at least I know it will be covered and it also covers things like glass and tyres.

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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby ajtg1952 » Sat Mar 31, 2018 9:26 am

I have excess insurance but I hired a car from Firefly recently and they refused to recognise it. They're was no compromise, I left 1,500 Euro deposit, I took out their insurance or no car.
I am sure if I had an accident I would get my deposit back from the excess insurance but it would involve hassle so I took Firefly's insurance which trebled the original cost of the car hire.
I understand that in the UK hire companies are being required to show all costs in quotes including hidden insurances. I suspect this will be a long time coming here, if ever!

wollie
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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby wollie » Sat Mar 31, 2018 9:55 am

Thanks for replies, i checked before i posted but i could find no thread on this topic.
I asked on another thread about car hire a few weeks ago and apart from one reply from" wiksey" not much more.
I just like to have as much info as possible before i do.
We see what happens...

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Wicksey
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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby Wicksey » Sat Mar 31, 2018 10:03 am

http://andalucia.com/forums/viewtopic.p ... &start=120

The later pages in the thread above discuss the excess car hire insurance amongst other things.

It is my understanding that they may insist on a deposit against any possible damage and they'll need your credit card details which needs to have sufficient credit in case they need to take the excess from you, but they cannot force you to take their own excess insurance. A friend regularly uses Goldcar who have tried that with him, but he has firm refusal down to a fine art now!

wollie
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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby wollie » Sat Mar 31, 2018 10:34 am

I seen that and it was me that asked but i think by creating a new separate thread we may get more info.
I will wait and see...

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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby Paddy Pumpkin » Sat Mar 31, 2018 3:06 pm

wollie wrote:I am considering above. I principally hire Malaga and sometimes Seville, occasionally i hire in different countries but this is really not important.
I have noticed on here that some companies will not accept this insurance so i like to ask the forum as little point in g=having a policy if companies can accept or reject at will. I am kinda of the opinion that if we have this insurance it be valid for all companies.
I be grateful for any guidance from people who use this.

Many thanks.
Just about all the non international hire car companies try it on to get you to buy extra insurance and most of the time a firm refusal sees them off. On picking up the car go through it with a fine tooth comb, especially if the pick up area is dark. When you come back some of the companies have extra lights to find damage. Whether you have insurance from an excess cover polcy or not, you will have to leave a deposit on a credit card. A new scam that was recently tried on against me was telling me that my credit card was showing up in their system as a debit card...and the t&c say I must have a credit card (even though the card says on it that it is a credit card) . The only way around it was if I bought their extra insurance...then my 'debit' card would be ok! I produced 4 different credit cards and amazingly none were actually credit cards...according to their system. I just kept telling them I wouldn't pay and in the end they gave up and swiped my first card again...amazingly it had become a credit card!

Other one to watch out for is they say that credit cards that do not have the raised characters are not valid.

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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby elusive » Sat Mar 31, 2018 5:09 pm

ajtg1952 wrote:I have excess insurance but I hired a car from Firefly recently and they refused to recognise it. They're was no compromise, I left 1,500 Euro deposit, I took out their insurance or no car.
I am sure if I had an accident I would get my deposit back from the excess insurance but it would involve hassle so I took Firefly's insurance which trebled the original cost of the car hire.
I understand that in the UK hire companies are being required to show all costs in quotes including hidden insurances. I suspect this will be a long time coming here, if ever!
What do you mean by they wouldnt recognise it. If you have your own insurance than standard practice is you have to leave a deposit to cover any excess.you then claim it back from your own insurance company. The only way to get out of leaving a deposit is to take out their added insurance. Whicj would make your policy pointless

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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby ashtondav » Sat Mar 31, 2018 7:29 pm

You just give them your credit card details. You dont need to have insurance from anybody if they have those details, because they can just charge your card for any damage. If you have 3rd party insurance you can then claim back.

If they wont hire you a car if you dont take their insurance ask for the complaints book and log it. Believe me they will do anything to avoid being in that complaints book

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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby wollie » Mon Apr 02, 2018 11:33 am

Thanks for that, i now have a clearer picture as to how this works.
The credit card thing interesting, i just wonder if it have something to do with credit limit on card.
Say someone has limit of 2k, they put hold on 1.5k, the person goes on holidays and spends 1k +.
The 1.5k is no longer available, just a thought i have no idea....

ashtondav
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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby ashtondav » Mon Apr 02, 2018 6:25 pm

No. The car hire firm puts a hold on £1.5k. If your card limit is £2k your card will usually be blocked by the cc company if you attempt to make purchases in excess of £0.5k. If you are in this situation you would be well advised to have another credit card or debit card!

Manchesteral
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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby Manchesteral » Tue Apr 03, 2018 1:06 pm

That's what happened to me the last time I hired a car, they took a holding deposit from my mastercard, £500.00, it took a week for me to get it back to my card though !

ashtondav
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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby ashtondav » Wed Apr 04, 2018 12:18 pm

They don't, or shouldn't, "take" the deposit in other words it will not show up as a transaction on your statement. They "block" the amount which means they have first call on that amount of money should they need to make the deduction if damage is caused. Delays in "unblocking" the card is usually down to the card supplier.

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RichardCoeurdeLion
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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby RichardCoeurdeLion » Fri Apr 06, 2018 7:32 am

The business model of many hire companies is to offer very cheap rates, then pressure you into taking out their very expensive insurance.
If you don't take it, on return, they will forensicaly examine the car and you can be 100% sure they will find a minute fault and charge you an astronomical fee to rectify it.
The "fault" won't be fixed and will be used to scam the next customer.
It's all in their T and Cs

ashtondav
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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby ashtondav » Fri Apr 06, 2018 1:27 pm

RichardCoeurdeLion wrote:... you can be 100% sure they will find a minute fault and charge you an astronomical fee to rectify it.
...It's all in their T and Cs
Yes. Which is why hire car insurance is vital, because then its irrelevant. I have had scratches "spotted" twic by the lying car hire company, but in each case insuranceforcarhire.com paid up as promised. Just remember to get the documentation and receipts. Its not a problem as long as you are prepared to face up to the icy glare and unpleasant customer service. Having said that i have been hiring cars 2 or 3 times a year for 15 years and its only happened the twice, so as it happens it would have been cheaper to pay for the scratches and foregone the insurance!

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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby Paddy Pumpkin » Fri Apr 06, 2018 9:46 pm

I am wondering how long it will be until some car hire excess insurance company starts blacklisting and exclucding certain hire car companies. I mean they will be upfront about it stating we don't provide cover for company X etc.

wollie
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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby wollie » Sat Apr 07, 2018 7:54 am

I think unlikely be blacklist as very likely the same insurance company we buy excess insurance from selling insurance for car hire firms, when the car hire clerk and the insurance agent gets their commission everyone wins, who cares about the bloody tourist.
From what i am picking up here it is a completely separate contract.I am now thinking that there is no need to show if we have this or not as it only needs to be in place if there is a problem.
Thanks for all advise, i will go and get as i hire cars 8 to 10 yearly so it is a no-brainer for me not to have same...

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Re: car hire excess insurance

Postby katy » Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:53 pm

Paddy Pumpkin wrote:I am wondering how long it will be until some car hire excess insurance company starts blacklisting and exclucding certain hire car companies. I mean they will be upfront about it stating we don't provide cover for company X etc.
Either they do that or some will go bust.


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