Car Hire and Insurane

Having hired a car previously and taking out full cover from Rental Cars.com, only to be told at Goldcar it wasn't valid and we had to take theirs we never brought it again just paid it at the counter in Alicante airport. Today Rentalcars.com and offered us their insurance and we explained why not but they insist Goldcar or Firefly cannot with hold the car unless we take their insurance. Now unsure what to do,has anyone else had this problem please? Than you

Hi
I use solmar had no problems

If you go through an agency, such as DoyouSpain, Rentalcars or any other, then you are taking out their insurance and not the insurance of the car hire company. The car hire company will tell you this when you pick up the car (it works like that in UK as well). If you need to claim, the car hire company will charge the excess amount to your credit card and you must then claim through the agents insurance.
We get an annual car hire excess policy for about 40 quid a year. Yes, the car hire companies tell you they don't recognise it but it is valid. They will put the extra on your credit card (Enterprise UK was 400 quid) which they should refund on return. We had a problem some years ago and had to claim for a new tyre (£106) and a new alloy wheel (£145). We paid for the tyre ourselves but the car hire company took the £145 from our deposit. The insurance company paid out the full amount without a quibble and credited my bank within about two weeks.
In your case, the same thing would happen. Yes, you will get the hard sell at the airport but simply keep telling them you don't want their insurance. They will put the excess on your credit card but you shouldn't even notice it being taken.
Avoid Dickmanns as they have been reported to hold on to the excess for over a month before refunding it.

Thank you so much am I understanding this correctly then it is ok to take the insurance from Rental cars.com?
And is your excess on your own uk insurance?

Yes, you can take the insurance from Rental cars but the actual car hire company will put the excess on your credit card.
No, I don't have UK insurance. The annual excess comes from a company called insurance4carhire.com which I pay about 40 pounds a year and it covers me for all of Europe including UK. It is a separate policy and well worth it.
The insurance you take out for a hire car can come to as much as the car hire cost so 40 quid a year is well worth it.

A friend of ours had to take the full insurance out with the car hire company when he arrived at the airport in order to be able to get the car as he is over 70

That's great I'll look the Insurance for car hire up seems a very good deal to me.
Re being over 70 were not I'm pleased to say but that did happen to us.
Thankyou everyone Nola

good posts everyone, I have been in the same position as Nola, having to argue until your blue in the face over insurance. I actually had the car hire company on my phone arguing with the rental desk at the airport trying to convince the clerk that the excess insurance I had taken out would cover all damages, end result, the rental company re imbursed my excess insurance the next day and I had to take the airport insurance. when I got home 2 weeks later, the insurance company asked me to send them the full details of what took place, and they were alledgedly going to bring it up with all the companies they deal with.

The other thing to bear in mind is that you must always have a credit card, not a debit card, at the hire desk when paying for the car. If the car hire company cannot take a security deposit from a credit card, then they will insist on full insurance being taken there and then, regardless of what other insurance you have in place. It's an easy mistake to make because most debit cards in Spain are MasterCard, but these are not acceptable for taking the deposit.

Travel supermarket info on car hire ripoffs

http://www.travelsupermarket.com/blog/7 ... ffs-avoid/