Topics
on car hire rental:
Irish Car Rental Companies make customers buy their car hire insurance
by financial constraints... By
Philip Suter
Irish car rental companies are making it very difficult for customers to use independently
purchased car hire excess insurance by insisting they pay a large deposit at the
time of hire. Unless you are carrying a credit card with a high credit amount
that can cover an instant deduction of €1,300 or
more you have to buy their very expensive product.
If you are renting a car in Ireland
apart from paying for the car rental in advance on line, you will more than likely
have to pay the car rental company a lot of money as "a deposit" if you have purchased
your car hire excess insurance separately and not from the car hire company.
When
you rent a car the renter is normally liable for the "excess".
The excess is a set amount that the hirer must pay towards the cost of any insurance
claim. It can be set very high, ranging from around €600 to €1,700. This is normally
not covered in the price of car rental, so the renter will have to purchase "car
hire excess insurance" in case there is a claim and it solves this problem.
As
car hire companies have traditionally charged a lot of money a day, around €15.08
in Ireland for example, independent insurance companies have been selling the
same product for a lot less. There are currently eight companies advertising their
products at http://www.insurance4carrental.com
which is a specialist car hire insurance marketing and information site.
Buying
one of these daily policies from the independent company for use in Ireland will
cost €3.53 per day whereas the Irish car rental company
will charge the renter around €15.08 per day. There
are independents who charge more and others who charge less and it is advisable
to see exactly what is covered for your money. Are the windows, tyres, wheels,
underbody covered? Are car key losses covered?
If
people are going to rent a car at least twice a year, it normally makes sense
to take out an annual policy. Most of these insurance companies offer these for
Europe (approx €50 a year) or
Worldwide (approx €70 a year) and even older renters
(75 to 85 age range for €85 to €97 a year) can obtain cover.
In
some countries if you do not buy the car hire company's preferred insurance and
use your own they will swipe your credit card and you agree to have around €400
debited in the event of an accident. Car insurance in Ireland is very expensive
for the average motorist and so this is very much reflected in the car hire market.
At
the end of January 2011 a visitor to Dublin
arrived at Dublin Airport searching for a car to hire for four days.
As
it is a quiet time of the year and late in the afternoon companies were anxious
to rent out their vehicles. This person was able to arrange a rental for €100.
This also included the "airport car collection fee" that Irish car rental companies
try to add on (even if you collect the car in a location in a city or town nearby
it can cost an additional €28), but the surprise came with the excess insurance.
He
had his own annual excess policy that had cost under €50, however if he wanted
to use this cover he would have to have had €1,300 debited
to his credit card. This amount would have been taken out of his account immediately.
As he had other transactions on the card and not a very high credit limit this
was going to rather tricky, so in the end had to purchase the car hire company's
over inflated priced insurance which for the 4 days worked out at
€60 (that is €10 more than he had paid for 365 days cover via the independent
insurance company).
Enquiring
as to find out how do other people get round this problem if they don't have a
very high credit limit, he was told they have a separate credit card. This is
OK in the UK where you can apply for lots of cards still, provided the companies
will issue with one, however in Ireland, the Irish Government imposes annual "stamp
duty" of €30 for each card.
This
is very off-putting for visitors to Ireland
who will normally have to pay for accommodation and other costs by credit card
and are therefore pressurised into buying the car rental company's expensive insurance.
Imagine if you rented a car for the two week family holiday, you would end up
paying around €210 in car hire excess insurance, whereas you could have bought
a policy for a year for a third of that amount. Wherever possible make sure you
have sufficient credit on your card if you are hiring a car in Ireland, or bring
an additional card with you. It can save you a lot of money if you buy an annual
policy.
(February
2011 ©jmlpropertyservices - Philip Suter)
N.B.
This information should not be relied on for accuracy and is presented here without
the responsibility of jml Property Service and the website it is being displayed
at. jml property Services 02-11
Car hire insurance for Irish residents
Travel & self catering holiday rentals
See
also:
Watchdog:
Mis-selling car hire cover at Knock Airport, Ireland - February 2012
and more on this
at the Car hire excess insurance blogspot Looks
like Irish car rental companies are still mis-selling car hire excess insurance
Following on from
the iCahireinsurance
article "Dubious Dublin airport car rental staff - November 2011" we
have added a summary and extracts and comments on the "Car Hire Excess Blog"
and invited readers to comment and add their experiences of problems renting a
car in Ireland - Visit the blog article
"Focus on Dublin Car Hire Rental Staff - November
2011" Here
Car
hire company in Ireland charges for unwanted excess insurance - July 2011
Flying
to Ireland and hiring a car can prove cheaper than taking your own car - March
2011
Irish
Car Rental Companies make customers buy their car hire insurance by financial
constraints - February 2011
Irish
Tourism in 2011 - January 2011
Irish
car rental consumer's problem hiring a car in France - December 2009
Irish
car hire companies are taking visitors for a ride - November 2010
How
Irish car hire companies are not improving Irish Tourism Article - October 2010
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