Should I buy car hire excess insurance? asks The Daily Telegraph

On the day The Guardian was running a car hire insurance feature, The Daily Telegraph ran a story "Should I buy car hire excess insurance?"

A reader Liz Percival asked "I have just booked hire cars through Holiday Autos for both Cyprus and Spain and the company keep sending me emails saying they recommend that I buy excess insurance at £4.99 per day. Is this necessary?"

The Telegraph's car hire expert Nick Trend replied in the article. saying "Excess insurance for hire cars is a notoriously tricky area......."

He then went on to say "  You could buy a policy covering the excess from another source: insurance4carhire; questor-insurance; worldwideinsure and icarhireinsurance all sell policies independently. The holidayautos site says that if you do this, the rental agent will take a deposit on your credit card to cover the risk. "

Incidentally talking of deposits on credit cards, Economy Car Hire sent out an email yesterday saying "Shock changes to Spanish car hire industry - Many car rental companies in Spain have started to levy an excess for collision damage or theft of up to €1,000 EUR."

To see the Telegraph article in full go to the page here