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Monday 11 December 2017

Questor Insurance Services 10 per cent discount

Christmas and New Year holidays are now just days away so it is vitally important that you have the right Travel and Car Hire Excess insurance arranged and buy it now.
 
At this time of year it can be very costly with presents, decorations, food and drink and other seasonal fayre so if you can save some money then that is so much better.

If you buy your Questor Insurance product via a link at the euro-rentals, jml-insurance or insurance4carrental websites you can save money  - 10% off the cost.

Questor offers a great range of products -
Car Hire Excess Insurance
Motor Home - Camper Van Hire Excess Insurance
Minibus Hire Excess Insurance
Van Hire Excess Insurance
Car Club Excess Insurance
LifeStyle-Lite Excess Insurance
Motor Excess Insurance
Motor Fleet Excess Insurance
Golfing Travel Insurance
Gadget Insurance
Standard Travel Insurance
Winter Sports Travel Insurance
Back Packers Travel Insurance
Gadget Insurance

To find out more follow this link http://www.insurance4carrental.com/questor.htm#Discount

Thursday 31 August 2017

Fines For car hire damage trigger numerous complaints to EU watchdog

 
The 30th August 17 edition of The Irish Independent had an article saying that rental car companies have been accused of imposing supplementary charges on consumers for alleged damage to vehicles. The report said that disputes around car hire charges are the second biggest issue for The European Consumer Centre (ECC) in Dublin, Ireland has to deal with every year in it's annual report.

A press release was published on the 29th August by the organisation saying that it had published its annual report 2016 which shows that air travel is once again the most common area of cross-border consumer complaint. Also in the top five consumer complaints for 2016 are car rental, electronic products, furniture, hotels and accommodation.

In 2016, ECC Ireland dealt with 4,337 total contacts from consumers (cross-border complaints and requests for information) which represents a significant increase of almost 24% on the number of contacts handled in 2015. Complaints actively pursued by ECC Ireland and requiring further assistance from the European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) came to 719.

Air passenger rights, which accounted for 338 cases (47% of cases), was the most popular area of complaint. This category has held on to the top spot year-after-year. With 78 cases (11% of cases) car rental came in second and was followed by electronic products with 57 cases (7.9% of cases), furniture with 49 cases (6.8% of cases) and in fifth position was the hotels and accommodation category with 39 cases (5.4% of cases).

Of the 719 complaints requiring direct intervention on behalf of consumers, 167 involved Irish consumers against traders based in other European countries while 552 cases related to complaints by consumers from other European countries against traders based in Ireland.  Full report here

Car rental
  • There were 78 cases dealt with by ECC Ireland, 59 originating from consumers based in other EU/EEA countries complaining about car rental traders in Ireland, whilst a further 19 cases were pursued on behalf of Irish consumers.
  • Supplementary charges imposed when returning the vehicle was the most problematic area of complaint, followed by problems with the booking process, and hard-selling techniques for additional products such as insurance.

Recently the usual summer holiday bad experiences of car hire have been in various  consumer complaint columns in newspapers in Britain and Ireland.

Yesterday (30th August) BBC Radio 4  "You and Yours" programme featured complaints on same subject including complaints about a car hire company that is very cheap to hire from, however when they include the extras you don't realise you are signing for, can be very expensive.

At the insurance4carrental.com we put together a very useful guide about hiring a car - Visit the page here   

Wednesday 19 July 2017

Holiday warnings about Car Hire Scams are everywhere

You can tell that schools break up for the summer holidays in England and Wales in the next couple of days by the amount of media coverage given to Car Hire scams and rip-offs.

Last Saturday(15th July 17) iCarhireinsurance PR people had been very successful in getting their latest research in car hire onto the front page of the Daily Mail. The same report was carried over to the online edition of The Sun.

They had researched how car hire companies increase their charges during the busy holiday periods, particularly at popular destinations. Nothing new in this as it does appear to happen on an annual basis.

Meanwhile Simon Calder travel writer for The Independent and The I featured "The ultimate guide to hiring a vehicle without scams and shocks".

Finally The Europcar story was featured in The Daily Mail yesterday - 17 July. "Car hire industry is thrown into crisis as major firm faces police probe into 'fraudulent' repair costs
Half a million Europcar customers could have been overcharged for repairs- Company is facing criminal inquiry over bill inflated by up to 300 per cent Hire firm has admitted customers may have been overcharged £30million"
No doubt more of this will follow.


Enjoy the summer holidays, but do take care.



Tuesday 4 July 2017

CritAir anti-pollution sticker on cars in France

Riviera Radio News e-newsletter has advised motorists that as from  Saturday July 1st motorists, including foreign ones, will be subject to a €68 fine if they don’t display their “CritAir” anti-pollution sticker on their cars, whilst driving in certain parts of France.

For the moment the stickers are obligatory in Paris and most of the French capital’s surrounding suburbs, Lyon and Villeurbanne in central France and Grenoble in the south east.

Signs on the road side will let you know you are in a Zone of restricted Circulation (ZCR). By 2020 they will be obligatory in some 22 towns and cities across the country. (Source Riviera Radio News)

No doubt the car hire companies operating in France will be geared up for this, but do check if you are hiring a car. If you bring your hired car across the border from another European country it is advisable to check on the situation if you are likely to drive in one of the Zones. 

If you are taking your own car to France, you can apply on line and visit their website here Classifications are based on age of vehicle, there are quite a lot of restrictions for older vehicles.

Want to hire a car in France - Visit Zest Car Rental Here

Sunday 25 June 2017

Car hire and excess insurance in June 17 News

Car hire costs and the benefits of taking out car hire excess waiver insurance from an independent provider are very much in the news in the last week.


The Irish Times travel section of June 17th, featured a report by Joan Scales "Travel advice on....Pitfalls of car rental"


She reported that Car rental can be one of the most frustrating elements of any holiday. She had recently booked a car in Spain and the price for 10 days hire with a Nissan Juke was only €33.92. She added on the items in the Goldcar list it suddenly cost €313.92!


She wrote that Goldcar would block a deposit of €1,400 if she provided her own excess insurance, their price was €59.50 which of course costs the same as an annual policy from an independent insurance company.


On the 24th June in The Guardian's Travel special by Rupert Jones "How to avoid the add-ons that can double the cost of your holiday car hire" - This long article appears to be very much based on iCarhireinsurance's (  http://www.insurance4carrental.com/#Icar ) very well researched press releases. It identified the add on route whereby car hire companies make their money - satnavs, child seats, additional drivers. The article also stated that you should keep the car rental paperwork for some time and particularly keep an eye on your credit card statements for a while as suddenly some "charge" might appear.


On the same day - 24th June BBC News reported the Mail on Line's "Hire firm Europcar is accused of raking in millions by fraudulently inflating repair costs by up to 300 PER CENT"


The article went on to say "Trading Standards raided the UK head office of car hire firm Europcar yesterday as the company was accused of raking in millions of pounds by fraudulently inflating repair costs.


The firm, one of the biggest hire companies in Europe, allegedly inflated the cost of windscreens and other repairs by up to 300 per cent for UK customers. Evidence, seen by The Telegraph, shows Trading Standards is investigating the firm over billing concerns, including overcharging"


More about this at The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/24/exclusive-europcar-accused-overcharging-customers-repairs/  and The Mail on Line http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4635826/Europcar-accused-fraudulently-inflating-repair-costs.html?ITO=1490


No doubt in the coming weeks more on this final story will be known.


So the main advice is when hiring a car take out car hire excess waiver insurance from an independent insurance provider.
On the insurance4carrental.com site http://www.insurance4carrental.com/#Click There is a great choice - Questor, carhireexcess.com, insurance4carhire, Worldwide insure, Protect Your Bubble, iCarhireinsurance, insurecarhire plus companies offering Van hire excess, motorhome excess and minibus hire excess insurance and car club insurance.

Saturday 22 April 2017

Vignette in French cities and Holiday for less

The Irish Times of the 15th and 17th April 17 carried two features for travellers.


First of all travel advice correspondent Joan Scales wrote an article "Getting a Clean Air Certificate for France."


She reported that there is a new vignette/sticker for Paris, Lyon and Grenoble. They are first three cities to introduce emissions stickers for all vehicles and there are a lot of cities in France. Twenty two more cities are planning this.


On days when certain cities are at risk of reaching their Euro emissions limit heavy polluting vehicles can be refused entrance based on the "Crit'Air" sticker the vehicle is displaying.


You can apply on line and visit their website here Classifications are based on age of vehicle, there are quite a lot of restrictions for older vehicles.


Presumably rental cars will be issued with these, but no doubt it could affect the hire costs as it another admin detail for them.


Motorists driving without the Crit'Air sticker can be fined on the spot from €68 to €135


It will be interesting to see if other cities in different countries follow this system.


On Easter Bank Holiday Monday Conor Pope's article "How you can holiday for less than all the rest"


21 ways to bag a cheaper time away. No 11 on the list was "Car rental insurance" He said "if you do rent a car, do not take out super collision damage waiver insurance when you are picking it up. It's almost always spectacularly bad value for money and such as a policy could easily set you back as much as €300 for a two week rental." Buy on line first Ireland, UK and other countries here