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Friday 28 October 2011

Inspirational car hire from Holiday Autos

Just had an email in from those people at Holiday Autos earlier in the week.

They are saying  "As the winter weather takes a turn for the worse, be inspired with some of our most popular holiday destinations. Discover somewhere new today with our amazing offers and rates."

They are suggesting hot and cold destinations Finland - Iceland - Norway - Thailand - Malaysia - Singapore - Los Angeles - Las Vegas - Orlando - Dubai - South Africa - Egypt - well those are the destinations all you have to do is find somewhere to stay and organise your flights. All seems very straightforward to do in the darker evenings starting next week

To visit the Holiday Autos website Click Here

Carrentals warns motorists to think about winter tyres.

We are near the end of a very mild October (currently 13 degrees in the London area), in a month when we had a very hot "late summer" weekend at the start. Carrentals have just issued a press release earlier today reminding us that winter is not far away and it was not too good last year...so be prepared.

Their release say... Snow Tyres Advised on UK and European Roads This Winter Says Carrentals.co.uk

Award-winning car hire website wants Brits to think about fitting winter tyres at home as well as abroad with a view to safety.



With another cold UK winter just around the corner and weathermen predicting snow very soon, award-winning car hire price comparator Carrentals.co.uk has warned motorists to think about putting winter tyres onto their cars not just abroad but at home as well.

This time last year leading suppliers of car tyres like Kwik Fit were even found to have sold out of their stock of winter tyres as Brits in their thousands looked to make their cars safer and more secure on the UK's snow-laden roads.


Each winter Carrentals.co.uk tells its site users heading for ski holidays to pre-book winter tyres and snow chains when they reserve their rental car to be sure of getting what they need - this year however the website is also advising Brits at home to think about fitting winter tyres when snow is forecast by the weatherman.

Car rental providers typically class winter tyres and snow chains among their list of optional extras, but many drivers still expect them to be available on arrival in a ski resort - this can lead to people paying more for them or missing out altogether.

Gareth Robinson, Managing Director of Carrentals.co.uk, commented: "Whether or not winter tyres must be fitted on a car remains a confusing issue for drivers, but they're certainly required in ski resorts around Europe and this year advisable on the UK's roads."

"If hiring a car in a ski resort in the Alps or Pyrenees this year the smart move it to book a 'snow pack' with your rental provider before travelling - this is the way to ensure availability of these valuable extras like snow chains and special tyres."

 
Carrentals.co.uk is the leading hire car comparison site comparing cheap car hire deals from up to 50 rental companies, including Alamo, Auto Europe, Budget, Holiday Autos and Sixt, in over 15,000 locations worldwide including locations across Europe including car hire in Frankfurt and car hire in Berlin.




To compare the best prices visit carrentals.co.uk Here.

We hope that it is not as bad as last year and if it is does not last so long, however this release contains some good advice, in the meantime enjoy a sunny weekend.

Thursday 27 October 2011

Drivers take extra care - lower drink drive limits from midnight 27th October 2011

New lower drink driving limits come into effect in the Republic of Ireland  from midnight Thursday 27th October.

On the day the country goes to the poll to elect a new President see the level being cut from 80mg (like in the UK) to 50mg as in countries like France and Italy. 

The new regulations also mean it will be 20mg for professional drivers, learner drivers and newly qualified drivers.

The Government is issuing stiff penalties for anyone over the limit with points, €200 fines and the risk of being disqualified.

This now means that it will only be safe to drink one glass of wine to drive (or equivallent). Take care that you do not go over the limit.

Visiting Ireland? Arrange your car hire here  

Tuesday 25 October 2011

Record Spending in the Car Rental Sector in New Zealand as result of Rugby World Cup 2011

A report on PR Web on the 21st October said that New Zealand car rental companies are reporting a surge in business of around 30% as a result of the Rugby World Cup.



New Zealand car rental companies are reporting a surge in business of around 30% as a result of the Rugby World Cup, in stark contrast to the retail industry which has been complaining of stagnant revenue figures.



See the entire story Here

If you are thinking of going to New Zealand for your holiday and hiring a car, make sure you buy your car hire excess insurance in advance. See also Driving in New Zealand 

AA Thrifty Car Rental for Members in New Zealand

AA launches ‘AA Thrifty’ - a new partnership with Thrifty Car Rental - 21st October 2011

The AA has announced an exclusive business partnership with Thrifty Car Rental that will offer AA Members year-round benefits and discounts on car hire in New Zealand and Australia.


From 1 October, AA Thrifty is being marketed across New Zealand, and will feature in the 38 AA Centres and 34 Thrifty branches across the country.

Thrifty is owned by the NRMA, an affiliated motoring club to the AA that is based in New South Wales. Late last year, all seven Australian motoring clubs contracted with Thrifty to offer exclusive car and truck rental to their 6.8 million Members.

AA Club Operations General Manager, Peter Moxon, says Thrifty’s commitment to delivering great Member benefits and service, as well their strong focus on road safety, makes them a natural business partner for the AA.

“Members who choose to book with AA Thrifty for travel in New Zealand and Australia will receive discounts off the best rate of the day, year-round offers and exclusive benefits.”

“We are particularly pleased by AA Thrifty’s decision to provide motorists with the ANCAP crash safety ratings for their entire rental fleet. This shows a strong understanding of the importance that stringently tested motor vehicles play in improving safety on our roads.”

Bryn McGoldrick, CEO of Thrifty Australia and New Zealand, says “we’re delighted to be partnering with one of the great New Zealand membership organisations. Thrifty has become adept at serving motoring club Members and with 244 locations across Australia and New Zealand, we are looking forward to welcoming AA Members wherever they might be travelling. We will deliver friendly, helpful service along with great value, a wide range of exclusive benefits and many seasonal special deals.”

“To celebrate the launch of AA Thrifty, any AA Member booking a rental car before 31 January 2012 will be eligible to win one of two cars for a year. It’s a nice way for AA Thrifty to celebrate the launch of this exciting new service to AA Members.”

“We invite all AA Members to take advantage of our exclusive benefits and experience the special service for which we are already renowned.”


Source: AA New Zealand  - The New Zealand Automobile Association is an incorporated society with over one million members. It represents the interests of road users who collectively pay over $2 billion in taxes each year through fuels excise, road user charges and GST.

If you are going on holiday to New Zealand  or Australia don't forget to buy your car hire excess insurance in advance 

Monday 24 October 2011

Helpful tips from insurance4carhire

As I have had an insurance4carhire.com European car hire excess insurance policy for many years now, I have just renewed it.

I have a Europe Family & Partners policy for my wife and myself that costs £79 a year.

Fortunately we have never had to use this, but it does mean that as we both hire cars several times a year we are covered in case we do have a problem.

The administration department at insurance4carhire.com have just emailed me some "useful tips" and am sharing some of these on this blog page.



Your Driving Licence - British licence holders should note that many car hire outlets will not release the rental vehicle on sight of a photocard driving licence without also seeing the paper licence counterpart.


They may also ask to see the paper licence counterpart of all named drivers.


From my personal experiences when we have both been on the paperwork to rent the same car, the car hire company's check in staff have wanted to see both counterpart licences and both passports as well"

Credit Card - The person renting the vehicle must have a credit card. Most car rental companies will not accept debit or switch cards, or cash.


"I have never heard of any accepting cash, after all there is no way the car hire company can obtain payments that are due to them"

Excess - What to Do - We cover Excess on CDW and Theft as well as damage to: undercarriage, roof, windows and tyres. Decline the car rental company's Excess at the counter. You do not need to show them your policy.


If you have any damage to the vehicle you will be charged, and then you claim for reimbursement.

"After a couple of experiences in Dublin, Ireland where we have declined the car rental's Excess at the counter and they have still charged us and refused to refund, we both always state at least twice we do not want their insurance products - make you then don't agree to buying it from them in writing"  


Claims - You should notify our claims management company within 31 days. Your Policy documentation gives full details of how to claim.


Finally they say "If you think that our Excess Car Rental Insurance would be of interest to a friend or relative, please click on the link below"

Click here to tell a friend

Thursday 20 October 2011

Do you buy your car hire excess insurance from an independent provider?

When you do your local supermarket shopping you will see X product or Y product on the shelf for a price. If you suddenly arrived at the checkout and were told that you would have to pay an additional amount you would not be too happy.

Unfortunately with a lot of car hire operations you do not appear to pay the price that you saw "on the shelf". Some of the extras are easy to explain - It's half term holiday time and you are taking your two small children to Portugal for a week. You don't want to have to bring your child seats with you, so you expect to pay extra to rent them from the car hire company.

Until all cars come with sat navigation, then you will have to rent these as well, although they are a lot easier to transport to Portugal for that holiday than child seats!

The one "extra" that you will normally be asked to buy at the car hire check in desk is for excess insurance.   When you rent a car, you will find that your car rental agreement normally includes cover for Collision Damage Waiver - CDW (damage to the rental vehicle) and Theft. There is almost always an excess on the Collision Damage Waiver and Theft.

Unfortunately the person who hires the car (van or motorhome) is  still liable for the Excess on CDW and Theft. When a rental car is damaged or stolen, the driver is asked to pay the first portion of the repair or replacement costs. This is known as the Excess.

Fortunately for a low annual or daily premium a car hire excess insurance company can provide excess insurance protecting the customer against excess charges whenever he / she  rents a car/van/motorhome.

Buying the insurance policy from an independent provider like the ones advertising here at insurance4carrental.com  will normally be a lot cheaper than buying one from the vehicle hire company.

What is more you can buy annual policies if you are going to be renting a car for more than once a year (or if you are renting for two or more weeks it works cheaper usually).

Just make sure when you collect the car you state to their representative that you don't want their excess insurance as you have your own and take a print off of the poilcy with you in case you need to make a claim.

Some car hire company staff are under a great deal of pressure to seel their insurance products, you have to decline if you have saved money and bought in advance. I bought a new microwave in England last month. It cost £49 and the person at the check out was rather insistent I bought their insurance in case it went wrong. £49 microwaves are part of out "throwaway" society, but expensive cars are not, so you must make sure you are properly insured.

Monday 17 October 2011

Remember to buy car hire excess insurance for the Half Term Holiday

The half term holidays start this week. If you are going away you might be hiring a car or motorhome for a few days.

If you are staying at home, you might be buying new furniture or moving flat or house and need to rent a van.

Either way you should buy your vehicle hire excess insurance in advance as it is normally a lot cheaper than buying it from the vehicle hire company, so you save money.

There are a great selection of car hire - van hire - motorhome hire specialist insurance companies advertising at the jml Insurance and insurance4carrental.com sites.  

Many of these products can be bought several / weeks or even months in advance so if you are off on holiday at Christmas you can buy the excess insurance now.

Car hire excess insurance companies also offer annual policies as well as daily policies so by buying one of those you save even more money.

To find out more go to: insurance4carrental or  jml-insurance

By the way, you can also arrange car hire - van hire - motorhome hire via the insurance4carrental.com site as well.

Have a good half term break.

Thursday 6 October 2011

Driving guides at insurance4carrental.com

insurance4carrental.com  has over 30 individual guides to driving in different countries.

Each guide has a page of information on driving rules of the road, plus additional travel and resort information.

The A - Z of countries covers Australia to the USA with a great deal of coverage for European countries.
 
Apart from advertisers of car hire excess insurance - van hire excess insurance - motorhome hire excess insurance, car hire - van hire - motorhome hire companies also advertise their products.

The site has plent of information on hiring a vehicle and if you are running a vehicle hire business or thinking of starting one their are insurance companies advertising for that as well.
There are hundreds of car hire features listed under the "Blog Info" pages and the site has grown a great deal in size since it was very established two years ago.

Find out more at: http://www.insurance4carrental.com/Guides_to_driving_abroad_Summary.htm  

Monday 3 October 2011

Car hire fuel costs and insurance excesses too high says Which report

Which the UK consumer watchdog issued a report on their website yesterday (2nd October 2011) saying "Car hire fuel costs and insurance excesses are too high.

In July this year, Which? surveyed 2,618 members of the public about their car hire experiences. Of the 618 who had hired a car in the past two years, 70% thought terms and conditions were too complicated and 69% felt insurance excess was disproportionately high.

Some 44% of customers who hired a car experienced a problem, the most common of which was that the vehicle was not adequately checked for damage before hire.

Other common problems were having to pay unexpected charges on collection, being given a car that need to meet the customer's needs and not understanding what was covered by the insurance provided.

Which? believes the experience of car hire can be improved for consumers and will be investigating the issue further.

It will be interesting how this progresses as a lot of consumers appear to have felt pressurised into taking out insurance offered by hire companies.  Go to Which for more including their advice on renrting a car here

In the meantime the great late summer  weather in the south of England is going away very quickly this week. We are now into October and the half term holidays will be upon us.

If you are off on your holiday then, or before if you don't have children to take away and are renting a car / motorhome, take a look at http://www.insurance4carrental.com/  You arrange car, van and motorhome hire, arrange car hire excess insurance, van hire excess insurand and motorhome hire excess insurance.

If you run a car hire company and are looking for insurance or need motor insurance for a short period of time there are plents of companies advertising on the site to choose from. The site is not an insurance comparison price website