New research by the Post Office has found very high insurance excess charges for car hire

Two UK national newspapers have just reported on Post Office research about  additional charges when you hire a car. The research is for hiring a car for ONE week. The Daily Mail has run a story entitled " The great car rental rip off: Holidaymakers face £1,000 excess charges or insurance that DOUBLES the price of car hire"  Full report Here

Meanwhile The Daily Telegraph called their one " Most expensive car hire destinations revealed The holiday destinations with the most expensive rates for car hire have been revealed in a study by the Post Office"

Full Report Here In the Post Office research on top of the basic car hire prices are costs for an additional driver, 40 litres of unleaded petrol and "Excess Waiver Insurance".

Of the twenty destinations in the report Florida comes up top with £4.69 for an additional driver no charge on excess waiver insurance and £21.20 for fuel.

All the other destinations have charges for excess waiver insurance. Ranging from £34.83 in Marmaris in Turkey to £151.94 in Spain's Costa del Sol. 

The remaining 17:

Oslo Norway: £150.40 | Pisa Italy £148.15 | Geneva Switzerland £ 115.42 | Split Coatia £104.27 | Salzburg Austria £ 88.01 | Nice France £ 115.17 | Copenhagen Denmark £81.34  Faro Portugal £97.90 | Mallorca Spain £122.98 | Larnaco Cyprus £134.86 | Costa Blanc Spain £128.28 | Dublin Ireland £100.24 | Tenerife Spain £122.46 | Crete Greece £63.13 | Corfu Greece £66.47 | Luqa Malta £54.92 | Burgas Bulgaria £51.49

The most expensive place to hire a car in the Post Office research was Oslo in Norway. The basic car hire alone was £271.30, add on the excess waiver quoted above of £151.40, then an additional driver £72.00 and 40 litres of unleaded fuel £72.00 and it comes out at £520.60. Quite some difference to Orlando in Florida at the other end of the scale with a total cost of £164.69    

How do you save money?: Well items like child seats and Sat Navs were not included, but by bringing your own that helps cut down additional costs. If you really need an additional driver then you cannot cut that out. You will also have to pay for fuel, but beware of so many companies that have a collect full policy, return empty. You pay for fuel at their price and then if you don't use it all...they make more money out of you.

Finally the excess waiver insurance: You can save money here by buying from an independent insurance company like Questor - insurance4carhire - iCarhireinsurance - Essential Travel - Worldwideinsure - carhireexcess.com and Protect Your Bubble. These companies should be able to supply you with an annual European policy for around £40 which is a lot less than it would be in the Post Office research for one week's hire.Find out more about these car hire excess waiver insurance products here