Car hire fuel - fill up or not?

Am i the only one still paying the extra insurance for my car hire

Somebody please convince me that i should just use an annual excess policy and refuse the extra insurance

^^^I use an annual excess insurance. Well worth it. Had a window broken last time over and had 150 quid to pay. Insurance remunerated me pretty quickly.

Caer Urfa wrote:Am i the only one still paying the extra insurance for my car hire

Somebody please convince me that i should just use an annual excess policy and refuse the extra insurance

Hi,
We have had the annual excess insurance for years now. W have never claimed but I'm sure it's worth having this excess insurance. It means we don't take out the car hire companies extra insurance, such as tyres, glass, roof and undercarriage insurance.

It is only £39.99 a year, with the company we use, and that covers all drivers named on the rental agreement.

There is quite a lot about it on the forum - One of the topics is on this link:

• Annual Rental Car Insurance Policy

Hope this helps,

Jan

Okay that's me sorted 39.99 includes up to 9 extra drivers.

Anyone experienced any grief at the car hire office when they turn down the offer of extra insurance? Ive heard a few horror stories

Caer Urfa wrote:Okay that's me sorted 39.99 includes up to 9 extra drivers.

Anyone experienced any grief at the car hire office when they turn down the offer of extra insurance? Ive heard a few horror stories

Hi,

Extra insurance is voluntary and if there is any 'grief' you can ask if any extra insurance they are trying to make you have is voluntary.

The only problem I can see is if a hire company is being crafty and are quoting a low price that doesn't include the full hire car insurance. However, this can and should be checked before booking the car by asking the question - Does this price include full insurance?

There has been a few complaints though about some hire car companies saying that if you don't take their extra insurance, you must leave a pre-authorised sum of money on your credit card to cover the amount of excess in case of damage to the car. We have never had this happen to us but it's worth remembering that it can happen. I personally wouldn't use any company that does this if I knew in advance.

Hope this helps.


Jan.

hi Jan. which car hire company do you use when in Spain? We have an annual insurance policy but the car hire company we use gives us a price and says its all inclusive. Sometimes think we are paying for something we may not require.

kevinchetwynd wrote:hi Jan. which car hire company do you use when in Spain? We have an annual insurance policy but the car hire company we use gives us a price and says its all inclusive. Sometimes think we are paying for something we may not require.

We have been using Opencar for a few years now. They are not always the cheapest but we have found them efficient and easy & friendly to deal with. One of the main reasons we started to use them was that we used to use the Alicante airport hire car companies and realised that if we had a problem with the car we had to go all the way back to the airport to sort anything out, but with Opencar we can collect from the airport and take back to the Opencar office in Quesada if we have any problems - Even small things, such as we picked the car up once and found the next day that we hadn't checked to see if there were two warning triangles in the boot and there was only one, so we went back to the office and they gave us another one. It's very convenient and they only charge for a small amount of petrol in the tank of about 20 to 25 euro approx. and it's bring back as empty as possible.

However, I think 'all inclusive' may just mean that it's fully insured. Although, you could ask if they are including the windows, tyres, wheels, undercarriage and roof insurance in that price because you don't need to be paying for that if you have the annual excess insurance. Most companies have the voluntary insurance to cover those parts of the car - With Opencar it's voluntary but they aren't pushy with their 'extras'. In fact the first few times we hired with them, we didn't have the annual excess insurance and we weren't even asked if we wanted any extra insurance - That was a bit risky really and just lucky that nothing happened during our hire. We didn't even know there was an excess to pay in the event of damage and assumed that the hire car insurance covered it all...we were a bit naive at that time, until I decided to read the small print one day and then luckily heard about the annual car hire excess insurance.

Jan

As I've said previously on here, I like Centauro. Each to their own I guess.

Jan you're point about Opencar being handy in Quesada is valid but when our Centauro car window was broken I was given the choice if exchanging the car at the airport or at their offices in Torrievieja. That's not so far away. As it happens, I chose to go back to the airport but only because it suited me to at the time.

I agree with Jon but have always booked them through http://www.economycarhire.com/ and always got a better price I have posted this before and also details of the yearly Insurances you can get. you don't have to have the extra insurance but the yearly ones cover you for tyres loss of keys damage to underneath the car in fact everything the normal hire insurance does not. if you hire more than once a year I believe they are worth paying for complete peace of mind, and no mater who you hire through. you just say I have my own insurance.

Ive been using Drivalia now since last year.