Topics
on car hire rental:
Irish car hire companies are taking visitors for a ride...
By
Philip Suter
For most people visiting a different location can be very exciting, however if
you are going to Ireland renting a car there can give you quite a headache.
For
many years my wife and I have been visiting family in Ireland
and whenever we fly we need to hire a car. What could be easier? You go on line
look for a car to rent see a daily rate advertised and book it for the duration
of the stay. Sounds fairly straightforward?
I
know there are additions that you have to pay for like child seats, roof racks
and until they become standard in a few more years Sat
Navigation. There are also some strange rules about excess insurance;
however it does not always stop there.
Being
people who hire a car a few times a year we have an annual car hire excess insurance
policy. I went to one of the companies advertising on the www.insurance4carrental.com
website
and purchased an annual
policy that
would cover my wife and myself. We paid £79 in October and for one person you
can buy one for under £40 a year (around €48 November 2010) about 11p a day or
14 cents a day.
I booked a car rental for her in Dublin
early in November for a few days. It was with a large Irish based hire company
and the rental price looked good. My wife arrived at their reception at Dublin
Airport to be asked if she wanted additional insurance. She declined. They asked
her if she wanted to take the car across the border into Northern
Ireland and she told the person she would not be going there. She enquired
as to why they wanted to know. The reason they make a €25
charge to take the car across the border.
She
was asked to sign the contract in three places. She went to collect the car that
did not even have radio as it had been removed and made sure when she returned
it was full of fuel as many car hire companies make an administration charge to
refuel.
On
receiving our credit card bill an amount of €54.48 representing
4 days additional insurance and tax on it. This €13.62
a day and we already had an annual policy . If you buy a daily policy through
a car hire excess insurance company you can pay in the region of £1-94
( €2.29) to £4.75 (€6.03) a day, so this car
hire company is making a very good profit.
Despite numerous complaints the company refused to credit us back for something
she verbally declined, but was sneaked onto the car hire agreement.
Ireland
is in an economic mess now, the very successful budget airline Ryanair
is continuing to offer cheap flight to destinations in Ireland and is publicizing
these in the UK newspapers greatly. So you decide to a break there for a few days
and then discovering with some Irish car rental companies (unless you check the
small print thoroughly) you will have to pay daily car tax, additional insurance,
airport fees, cross border charges and use of the M50 toll at the car hire company's
inflated price when you might not have even gone anywhere near there.
They
are not doing Irish tourism any favours when they should be and simply taking
tourists for a ride. These tourists go back home and instead of encouraging their
friends to visit Ireland do not as bad car rental experiences like the one in
this article puts them off the place.
In
conclusion there are many other car hire companies operating in Ireland who work
hard to keep the customer happy and if you are visiting Ireland or any other country,
it is always checking out car hire reviews at web sites like Tripadvisor
and reviewcentre.com.
(November
2010 ©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 11-10
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
How
Irish car hire companies are not improving Irish Tourism Article - October 2010
Irish
car rental consumer's problem hiring a car in France - December 2009
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