Hire car insurance for CDW

[jongood]

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts or experience on excess insurance for hire cars?

Were renting a car in Turkey for 10 days or so and wary of being stung large amounts for scratches, windscreen chips etc. full coverfrom the hire company is £72 ( but its a bit short of detail).

Reduce my excess offers cover for any excess amounts, personal effects stolen from car etc for £35, seems to be better cover and more transparent, basic terms are here:

Get an Instant Quote - ReduceMyExcess

Get an instant quote from ReduceMyExcess. High excess limit. Standard cover limit of up to £10,000 for excess reimbursement (including admin fees) and up to £1,000 for towing costs.

www.reducemyexcess.co.uk

 

[The Wino]

If you take third party insurance you will have to leave a very hefty deposit usually and pay yourself then reclaim from the separate insurance if there's any damage claim. Car hire is a nightmare on terms and conditions we often just pay the CDW and excess insurance with the car hire company as it's not going to end up a three way discussion!

 

[The Wino]

Which reckon it's better to use separate insurance though and give reduce my excess a reasonable score

Best car hire excess insurance 2024 - Which?

The car hire insurance rated top by Which? is 10 times cheaper than Avis, Budget and Europcar’s mediocre cover. We’ve reviewed dozens of car hire excess insurance policies, so you don’t have to

www.which.co.uk

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

We have a separate policy,and always have since we started travelling [ world wide]. It reduces the pressure selling at the hire desk. I accept they put a block of X£ amount against my card. The only place we had any problems was Croatia, where despite declining their insurance some slight of hand with the paperwork made my signature appear as a carbon copy on an agreement to accept it. This was reported to the main Avis office who after seeing our policy quickly refunded the cost of the insurance charged to us. Feck Croatia, it's got a lot more expensive in any case.
Mike.

 

[pandas]

Our experience has been the CDW taken with the car hire company does not give you the cover you might need. Will differ but generally it will not cover damaged , replacement tyres, lost keys, damaged paintwork/wing mirrors and so on. Therefore we always take out a separate cover, which we haven’t fortunately had to use yet, but go onto the companies web site and take your own call.
This is who we have used over the years.
icarinsurance.
Not expensive in comparison to what the costs could be.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[The Wino]

The whole car hire thing is a minefield we had one booked ( luckily with free cancellation) which when we read the t and c,s were going to charge 50 Euros to check the fuel level even if you returned it full!

 

[Figaro]

I've always used Money Maxim for CDW cover on hire cars abroad, but not for the last 10 years or so since having the motorhome.
I found it much better value and easier than having the high pressure tactics at the hire desk.
But overall car hire abroad is a minefield to trap the unwary and I dread the day I need it again.

 

[gus-lopez]

If you take third party insurance you will have to leave a very hefty deposit usually and pay yourself then reclaim from the separate insurance if there's any damage claim. Car hire is a nightmare on terms and conditions we often just pay the CDW and excess insurance with the car hire company as it's not going to end up a three way discussion!

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

for 72 I'd snap there hand off.

 

[pandas]

If you take third party insurance you will have to leave a very hefty deposit usually and pay yourself then reclaim from the separate insurance if there's any damage claim. Car hire is a nightmare on terms and conditions we often just pay the CDW and excess insurance with the car hire company as it's not going to end up a three way discussion!

Yes also pay the cdw with the car hire company as that cover 3rd party accidents etc but as said earlier it doesn’t cover everything so a separate independent company to cover those off.

 

[pandas]

In Sicily a few years ago arranged to hire a car through the campsite - when asked to see the paperwork there wasn’t any. Asked about insurance - there wasn’t any - ‘nobody has car insurance in Sicily’ we were told. What if I crash into a Ferrari- nobody has a Ferrari in Sicily! If I run over an old lady - well that is a problem and you will go to jail!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[VXman]

I've always taken out one of these 'car hire excess' insurances. It is so much cheaper than the equivalent insurance the hire company will offer. You will have to put a big deposit on your credit card and reclaim any charges from the insurance company but personally - having never damaged a hire car I object to paying so much for insurance to the car hire company - they are rip off merchants as it is.

 

[Bustup15]

Annual premium for me. Hire companies take a big hold on credit card but have never had a problem getting it returned. You still suffer the scams of alleged damage so ALWAYS take a full photo or video shoot including roof and internal seats.

Latest attempt was against my son where they claimed damage to the passenger sun visor! I asked the to provide the previous 2 return hire sheets showing that there had been no damage and they immediately retracted the claim.

Be aware of a scam in an off airport hire in Malaga. Company insisted on an International Driving Permit unless I took their insurance - I didn't have one at the time and despite showing them gov uk website non requirement they insisted, so I was forced to cough up.

 

[jongood]

Our experience has been the CDW taken with the car hire company does not give you the cover you might need. Will differ but generally it will not cover damaged , replacement tyres, lost keys, damaged paintwork/wing mirrors and so on. Therefore we always take out a separate cover, which we haven’t fortunately had to use yet, but go onto the companies web site and take your own call.
This is who we have used over the years.
icarinsurance.
Not expensive in comparison to what the costs could be.

I noticed the cover seemed better. I dont normally bother with waivers etc but sounds like the standard of drivjng in Turkey is pretty poor.

 

[jongood]

The whole car hire thing is a minefield we had one booked ( luckily with free cancellation) which when we read the t and c,s were going to charge 50 Euros to check the fuel level even if you returned it full!

Its a total lottery isnt it. We rented one in South Africa but due to a delay arrived in the semi light and didnt notice a chip in the windscreen untill the following day and then looked at it for the next 4 weeks, handed it back at OT and not a word and nothing since.

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

I resprayed the front end of a Toyota in Mexico after the damn thing seemingly deliberately ran into a low wall in a car park.
It was 100 degs.Sweating buckets, but the paint dried quickly. I sourced everything I needed in a sort of Mexican Wallmart. except any sort of T cut, but some cheap toothpaste did the job.
Took it back and they never even checked it, but I was maybe distracting them a little with a fault of the boot lid not locking nor opening with the key and having to crawl through the back seat to open it, a fair swap for my inconvenience I thought in the round.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[gus-lopez]

If you take the full car hire insurance then it shouldn't even be inspected when dropped off as they can charge you nothing.

 

[carolyn]

They’re con artiste the lot of them. Daughter and a friend hired a car in Dublin a couple of years ago to visit friends family . They took out insurance with Hertz or Avis(full package) for ease . On the way back to the Airport they stopped to fill up with fuel and the car wouldn’t start. They’d paid for breakdown so called them out and were told it was a flat battery and this wasn’t covered and were charged €150. They had to pay rather than miss flight.

Claire tried to appeal but deep in the small print battery failure wasn’t covered.

I’ve had to hire 2 vans since move both sons to Scotland and sure enough neither of those companies covered batteries. I think that’s a con. I wouldn’t know how to check if a battery was on its last legs.

 

[pandas]

If you take the full car hire insurance then it shouldn't even be inspected when dropped off as they can charge you nothing.

no incorrect: their CDW doesn’t cover scratches, tyre damage, wing mirrors and the list goes on. Usually covers an accident with another party. But they do all vary slightly. Sorry I should add ‘in my opinion’!

 

[jongood]

no incorrect: their CDW doesn’t cover scratches, tyre damage, wing mirrors and the list goes on. Usually covers an accident with another party. But they do all vary slightly. Sorry I should add ‘in my opinion’!

I think the key word in Gus's statement is "shouldn't "

 

[gus-lopez]

no incorrect: their CDW doesn’t cover scratches, tyre damage, wing mirrors and the list goes on. Usually covers an accident with another party. But they do all vary slightly. Sorry I should add ‘in my opinion’!

correct for me. I didn't have CDW but full insurance. when I checked it at hertz ,Poitiers,they had the sheet all filled out with any damage even on the inside boot shuts where people drag there cases out. When I returned it in Murcia city and I asked them to check he said "no need to you have full insurance, that covers anything"

They’re con artiste the lot of them. Daughter and a friend hired a car in Dublin a couple of years ago to visit friends family . They took out insurance with Hertz or Avis(full package) for ease . On the way back to the Airport they stopped to fill up with fuel and the car wouldn’t start. They’d paid for breakdown so called them out and were told it was a flat battery and this wasn’t covered and were charged €150. They had to pay rather than miss flight.

Claire tried to appeal but deep in the small print battery failure wasn’t covered.

I’ve had to hire 2 vans since move both sons to Scotland and sure enough neither of those companies covered batteries. I think that’s a con. I wouldn’t know how to check if a battery was on its last legs.

I'd have insisted on a jump start & never turned it off again.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[LittleGreyCat]

We always take out extra insurance if we are likely to hire a car.
Used Insurance4CarHire for years.
If, for example you are spending a month in NZ the savings are enormous.
Only had one claim.
Short term hire in Glasgow whilst we had an electrical fault on the Hymer repaired, and had to leave the hire car in a car park for collection.
Photo of a bump which wasn't there when we left it.
Insurance paid up without a murmur.

 

[carolyn]

correct for me. I didn't have CDW but full insurance. when I checked it at hertz ,Poitiers,they had the sheet all filled out with any damage even on the inside boot shuts where people drag there cases out. When I returned it in Murcia city and I asked them to check he said "no need to you have full insurance, that covers anything"

I'd have insisted on a jump start & never turned it off again.

That’s all they did. That was the call out fee. If it hadn’t started first thing one of Claire’s friend’s relatives would have given them a jump start but they were miles away by then.