Business booms for insurance4carrental.com

That was the headline on the "Insurance Daily" report this afternoon.

The insurance4carrental.com website has just had a makeover and now boasts some twenty pages of specialist advertising from providers like Questor, dailyexcess.com and insurance4carrental.com plus many pages for those thinking about hiring a car, be it for pleasure or business.

Insurance4carrental.com is a trading name of jml Property Services and part of the jml Insurance website group. They act purely as introducers under the terms of the UK's FSA regulatory body.

Let us know if you have any car rental experiences.

Renting a car close to home, can I buy car hire excess insurance?

This is is a querstion I raised recently with the people at insurance4carhire.com.

Apparently if you take out one of their annual policies there are restrictions. It is Not valid if vehicle is rented from a location within 150km of usual residence (for example, if you live in London, you are not covered to rent a vehicle in London. The rental location must be more than 150km away from your London home).

As there are many people needing a car to rent close to home for different reasons like:

• They only have one car, it is holiday time and they need a larger one for a day trip
• They only have one car and a family member is using this and another family member needs a car for a day or two.
• They don't have a regular car of their own and prefer to rent when they need one.
• The car is in the garage for repair.

Although the annual policies do not cover this type of situation apparently the " The Daily Excess Reimbursement Insurance" policy does. According to their website the only geographical exclusions are: No cover is provided under this policy for any trip in, to, or through Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Congo, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Liberia, North Korea, Myanmar, Sudan and Zimbabwe'

The website says it costs £4.50 (€5.76) per day and it covers:

Cover Excess on damage to the rented vehicle, Excess on theft Covers damage to windows, tyres, undercarriage & the roof

Valid worldwide: can be used at all car rental locations and with all car rental companies

Covers the policy holder & all additional drivers

Next time I need a rental car when I am in my home area I will certainly get this Daily Excess Reimbursement Insurance

Five Reasons to buy Car hire excess insurance from Questor

Did you know that according to the Questor Insurance website:


1.They have a total commitment to customer service from sale through to supporting their clients should they have a claim
2.No hidden charges - Questor does not charge its clients any fees our remuneration comes from our Underwriters
3.They offer the best price/cover combinations
4.Their products are designed by us for delivery through the Internet
5.They are innovators and market leaders in the products that we offer

Don't take my word for it take a look at their website Questor

Renting a car for business or pleasure?....... Don't forget the car hire excess insurance.

Have you used them, I would like feedback.

Hope those tourists had pre-paid car hire excess insurance

Monday 13th July 2009. I was walking passing a car rental office in North Dublin, Ireland that must have had some twenty people plus back packs waiting for cars to rent.

I hope that the individuals renting a car had bought their car hire excess insurance before using the car provider. I know that many of these car hire companies charge more for the excess insurance than specialist providers like insurance4carhire.com and questor insurance.

I have rented cars in Dublin for over 25 years now and some of the people I have experienced behind the rental desk have not been too helpful.

I have been told that the annual car hire excess insurance I had was not as good as the car rental company’s product, it would not cover me sufficiently and I should really buy their one as well. This is possibly because they can make a good commission out of these and the specialist questor or insurance4carhire policies are usually cheaper!

I have also found that they do not always make it clear exactly where their cars are being kept at Dublin airport and maybe some customer service training would help.

Unlike many other locations you always have to pay an airport surcharge at Dublin. I believe this is currently over €30.Even if you rent from the city centre, apparently you still pay this. This is as nearly as bad with London Luton airport’s recently introduced charges for dropping off and collecting passengers where there is now a fee, or for using the airport trolleys it is not very welcoming for tourists.

It must be frustrating for local Dublin residents who need to rent a car for a couple of days for a weekend away or whilst their car is being repaired to have to pay an airport charge.

Warning from Car hire Rental companies

On a recent visit to France the car hire company had included a very useful “Warning for renters” in French and English.

If you are hiring a car these days it is well worth considering the following advice on vehicle security:

 When returning the car you should hand the car keys to a uniformed member of staff at the rental desk. DO NOT leave the keys in the car. DO NOT give the keys to anyone, particularly in the return car parking area. If you do not follow this return procedure you may be liable for the full value of the vehicle if it is stolen.
 When you leave the car unattended (for example at a petrol filling station) always take the keys with you and lock the doors.
 As a precaution, when driving in some city areas, it is suggested you keep the doors locked and the windows closed.
 Do not leave personal belongings on display in the car.
 When parking, if possible leave the car in a secure, well lit parking area.

Thanks to Alamo, National and Citer car rental for this information.

Book your car hire early this summer - you might not get one at the last minute

Due to the world economic situation, it appears that many car rental companies have not been replacing their car hire fleets and decreasing the number of vehicles they have.

Earlier this week I heard of two people who had decided to take a last minute break at a friend's villa in the south of France arrived at Nice airport hoping to rent a car. They could not find anything apart from an Audi TT that was rather expensive for the week due to the type of car it is.

One of their friends contacted several car rental companies on the phone and was politely told they had no vehicles available.

Eventually they were able to source a vehicle (but would not be able to collect it for a couple of days) from a vehicle body repair company that provides courtesy cars. This was only possible because the villa owner actually knew of this company.

I normally use Holiday Autos and looked on their website seaching for cars at Nice airport for the next day. There was a message saying "We do not have any cars that meet your requirements" and I found the same situation on the 11th July looking for a car from 12th.

I then tried looking for a car from the 12th Augusst and had no problems. Remaining with a search in France for around 12th July and tried Lille Airport. Obviously not such a popular area in northern France as there are cars available.

Finally moving on to another popular location Alicante in Spain, there was no problem, however who knows in a few days time they could be just as busy, so whenever possible try and book well in advance, particularly in the height of the summer when events like the Juan Les Pins Jazz Festival is on.

Remember of course when book you car rental, from any car rental company to take adequate car hire excess insurance. Companies like insurance4carhire.com and questor offer great value policies that are usually cheaper than those offered by the car rental companies themselves.

You will normally be quoted a daily or weekly or period of rental you require cost for the car rental, however there are normally extras like car hire excess insurance, additional drivers, airport collection fee (not memany airports add this on, however Dublin airport in Ireland does and it a lot of money as it appears an easy way to make additional income from their clients) so check this out first.

Have a great summer holiday and if you have any experiences you want to share please use this blog.

Lost car hire keys cost money

Just renting a car as I have done take great care with car keys. If you lose them and need a replacement it can cost a fixed amount of €200 as with this car rental company in France.

You can of course make sure you have taken out a car hire excess policy and buying an annual policy costs around £50 - or with the present exchange rate approx under €60.

It is no good ruining your trip because of this and links to major car hire excess providers can be found at www.insurance4carrental.com

Enjoy these warm sunny summer days and make sure you take out car hire excess insurance before you collect your car rental.

It is usually cheaper to buy a policy from a specialist provider than from a car hire company.