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This
article is by an independent author and jml
Property Services takes no responsibility for its accuracy
or content
How
car hire rental companies try to discourage you from buying
car hire excess insurance from other sources than their provider.
By Philip
Suter
When
I recently rented a car in Nice, France the car hire company
Europecar wanted to see me car hire excess insurance. This
is one of the ways that a car hire rental operator can increase
its revenue from the commission paid by an insurance company.
If
you have used another provider like
insurance4carhire
or Questor
(whose products are normally cheaper)
you will often find that the car hire company representative
might make a comment as happened to my son in Dublin that
the policy would not cover the car properly, or have an amount
debited to your credit card.
Europcar
debited €800 to my card. This also occurred with my son in
Dublin recently with Budget. This seems most unfair if say
a renter is on holiday, they only have a small credit limit
on their car of £2,000 and have an outstanding balance of
£500. It would mean that with a deduction of say €800 and
with Sterling still weak against the euro there won't be much
left on the card to cover accommodation, restaurants and other
spending.
I
have rented cars in France on several occasions from National
Citier and they have a much fairer way of covering themselves.
They do not instantly debit your credit card and have the
benefit of your money helping their cash flow, but swipe the
card so that they have information and authorisation if it
is required. This means that if you have a low credit
limit you can still go about your holiday without the fear
of going over the limit and a) having the purchase rejected
or b) being penalised by a credit card company.
Buying
an annual policy from
insurance4carhire.com
or
Questor
is very good value (approx £44 /
£49 per year for European cover). Research that has been carried
out by insurance4carhire.com has found that their "Daily policies"
- the one sold by the car hire rental companies, cost a lot
less than those offered by the car hire rental companies.
Had
I purchased a daily excess policy from insurance4carhire I
would have paid £4.50 per day, with Europcar the cost would
have been £10 per day and they would not have covered windows
- tyres - undercarriage like the insurance4carhire one does
When my son was in Dublin had he bought a daily excess policy
from insurance4carhire it would have cost him £4.50 per day.
The cost of the Budget policy would have been £7.53 per day
and like Europcar they would not cover windows - tyres - undercarriage.
insurance4carhire have an interesting compariable car rental
company excess charge site that can be found
here.
Remember
be prepared to have your credit card debited whilst you are
renting and make sure they credit this amount back when you
return the vehicle. Ensure that you have an operational amount
of credit on your card and then you will profit from the great
deals from providers like insurance4carhire
and
Questor
-
May 2009. It also pays to take out annual policies.
The
information supplied on this page is by a third party and
jml Property Services do not take any responsibility to its
accuracy ©jmlpropertyservices 05/09
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