Car Hire Excess Insurance

Hi,

I was just checking the dates of my car hire excess yearly insurance and was pleasantly surprised to see that the yearly price for European cover has gone down this year to £42.50 - Last year it was £49.

After being charged a hefty sum for damage, which we didn't do and only noticed after we had collected the car, quite a few years back, we now always use insurance 4 car hire.

As long as the CDW is included with the car-hire or paid for separately (we always check as they don't always tell you!), insurance 4 car hire will pay for any excess charged for damage to the car.

In the past we didn't realise that almost all hire car companies have excess charges. There is usually a charge to cover this, at the point of hire, if the hirer asks for it, but it isn't automatically offered and this charge taken out separately for more than one car-hire a year can mount-up to much more than the yearly charge by insurance 4 car hire.


Also just seen that there is now a text 'help' included with all annual policies at no extra charge, which seems like a good idea but not sure how this actually works or what number to text to and I assume the call-backs are not free! - see details below:

If you have an emergency abroad where you need help and don’t know what to do or can’t understand the language, simply text the words HELP and the country you are in, e.g. HELP Spain and a multilingual assistant will call you back within five minutes and speak the language for you.
Just Text HELP membership includes unlimited multilingual emergency assistance text messages. All text messages are charged at your standard network rate. Your network provider’s roaming charges will apply.
This service can be used in the following situations:
When requiring emergency medical treatment or to deal with the emergency services (police, fire, ambulance)
When requiring help with lost or stolen passports, bank or credit cards
To deal with the police and others as a victim of crime


Just thought I would pass this on as we have been very reassured by having this yearly cover and not everyone knows about it.

http://www.Insurance4carhire.com

Jan.

I can add that I had to make a claim with this company ... for a broken windscreen in UK ... and was fully re-imbursed.
The paperwork is (or was) a bit cumbersome, and it took a while, but I got my GBP172 back.
My premium for this year's renewal(for European cover) had come DOWN from GBP49 to 39.99 ... perhaps a discount for being a long-term customer?
A good investment in peace-of-mind ....especially with today's HUGE excesses, and high daily charges for waiving them!