Car Hire Insurance mentioned in two Daily Telegraph reports in last few days

April 15 at the "Daily Telegraph" started with Car Hire Insurance articles two days running. On the 2nd April the first article appeared "Hidden hire car costs - and why urgent reform is needed -Trend on Travel: No-frills airlines have been taken to task over fare transparency. Isn't it time car hire firms got the same treatment?"


Nick Trend's article was reporting the fact that when you book an airline ticket the various charges have to be shown, whereas this is not the case with car hire.


He had received an email offering him car hire in Lanzarote for £5 a day - too good to be true and what else would he have to pay?


The problem of fuel policies and of course car hire excess waiver insurance are covered thoroughly. See the article here


The second article by Richard Dyson appeared a day later on the 3rd April. "Holiday hire car: Avis still refuses to spell out extra insurance costs when customers book online - Travellers booking overseas car hire online with Avis, one of the biggest firms, aren't given full insurance costs until they reach the pickup desk – landing many with extra bills for hundreds of pounds"


This article reported that "Car hire giant Avis continues to withhold the costs of additional insurance from customers who book overseas vehicles online, despite promising Telegraph Money eight months ago that it was "working on a solution."


"The insurance in question is known as "excess waiver" protection.

If you don't buy it, you are liable to pay the "excess" or first part of the cost of any damage caused to the vehicle. This is usually about £1,000. If you buy "excess waiver" cover you won't pay this excess. Most of Avis's rivals, including Europcar and Sixt, do spell out the need for the cover and its cost at the time of booking. This gives travellers the option to shop around and consider stand-alone car car hire excess waiver policies which can cost as little as £3 per day"  See the article here


Whoever you rent a car from, you do need to check out what you will be paying in extra charges, particularly excess waiver insurance. This has been an area for many, many years now that the car rental companies can make some extra money.


Now of course some of them have this unfair fuel policy of collect it full, paying their price and return it empty. Great if you are on a fairly long hire driving around a lot, otherwise it better for those car hire companies as you return with a lot of fuel that they can sell on again.


For more information on excess waiver insurance for various types of vehicle rental, follow this link here.