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.
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