Motor Car excess insurance - who offers the best deal?

horusd

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Planning two trips away this yr in Europe and looking into the best car excess policies. I've never bought this before so a bit green about it all. Looking at Blue insurance & car hire excess as well as, ( AFAIK) AIG. there seems to be a plethora of policies on the market, and I note that Bronte mentioned insuranceforcarhire.com which seems to have a lot of good bells and whistles (like emergency numbers etc). They all seem to be in and around the same price- thoughts anyone?
 
We use Blue. Made a claim about 2 years ago and it was settled very quickly (getting the documentation from Hertz in France was a whole other ballgame and was only resolved when we did a Visa chargeback against their transaction).
 
I'd have to agree with Emeralds. Its not really going to matter the customer service from the insurer, because it takes so long to get the docs out of the rental car company. I was 3 months waiting to get documents from Enterprise in France,
 
Just called Blue to cancel my policy and they could not have been more efficient. Had email confirmation almost before I put phone down. No interrogation or attempted persuasion. I will call them when I am taking out a policy again.
 
Its not really going to matter the customer service from the insurer, because it takes so long to get the docs out of the rental car company.

On the flip side, if you've battled the rental company for 3 months, surely you'd prefer an insurance company with good customer service rather than face into another prolonged battle?
 
On the flip side, if you've battled the rental company for 3 months, surely you'd prefer an insurance company with good customer service rather than face into another prolonged battle?

I'm a bit mweh on that. Generally speaking you notify them of the loss asap and they will just give you a claim reference and a list of documents they need. And once they have all the documents they will pay out. There is regulations in terms of how quick valid claims have to be turned around.

And even if the insurance company has a good name, most outsource their claim handling so it depends on that company. And you wouldnt be aware of who they used. In Blue's case I think it was OSG i dealt with.
 
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Thanks for the replies everyone. I seen a comment from Bronte in another thread about insuranceforcarhire.com, and, on the face of it, they seem to offer a very good package including a 24 hour helpline with agents that speak the local lingo- very important if yer involved in an accident. Also the cover was up to £5K for approx €51 or 39.99 STG amd cover oup to 6 add'l drivers. All in all it seems the best deal, altho I seriously hope I never need to call on it!
 
We are looking for worldwide (South Africa, specifically - renting with Avis) cover on an annual policy. AXA are currently coming in at €65 p.a (€5k cover).

Has anyone any experience with using AXA for this type of cover? We can just as easily go with AIG or Blue as mentioned above, but all guidance appreciated.
 
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