Car Hire Excess Insurance - Super CDW

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harvey

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Has anyone any experience of:

(1) Carhireexcess.com -

v

(2) Insurance4carhire.com - http://www.insurance4carhire.com/

The first one is part of Blue Insurances and seems to be (from ?) €60 versus €78 odd for the English one which is underwritten in Ireland from a crowd I've never heard of. It seems a good idea as I am always planking it while driving a hire car in case I do big damage to the car.

Am I right in saying on both policies, that even if i smack the car the excess set by hire company will be covered or just 3rd party ?

(I have nothing to do with either -the first link seems to have a referrer but cant get corresponding page from their own site)
 
I've used Insurance4carhire for the past three years - no claims (touch wood!) This covers the excess charged by car hire companies. NB, in the event of a claim, you must pay the excess at the time of return and reclaim from Insurance4carhire.

Super CDW cost for a small car (Fiat Punto) in Portugal this year was approx €9.5/day = €133 for two weeks. Even if you don't hire at any other time, it's financially worth taking the annual policy.

I'd be interested in hearing from someone with a Insurance4carhire policy who had to claim under the policy - how fast was the refund from Insurance4carhire?, any hassle?

I've always hired from AVIS and the general response on hiring is quite frosty when I don't take the Super CDW, explaining I've got my own cover - cash cow gone!!
 
If you hire a lot it might be worth it alright (however the # of times you can claim / limit per claim seems quite low on those policies) - I've never used any of these - I hire pretty often and just take the risk myself - I figure that it often costs way more to insure the excess than the risk of actually causing the damage up to the excess (e.g if your excess is €750 and it costs €75 to insure it away you'd only bother if you think you've a 10+% chance of causing that much damage)

I wonder how easy it is to claim on these policies too ... insurance often looks great on paper, but I wonder how easy it is in an actual claims situation... no experience but it would be interesting to hear.

It's worth noting that if you're worried about Excess liability Auto Europe (www.autoeurope.ie) often quote you two rates when booking - once includes this type of separate excess insurance for a few € extra on the hire ... cheaper than taking an annual policy if you only hire once or twice and certainly cheaper than paying the excess insurance at the desk when you hire.
 
I have dealt with many different carhire firms abroad and, as regards Super CDW, www.holidayautos.co.uk are the only ones to deal with.

They guarantee to refund the Super CDW additional cost to your credit card at the end of the rental period, regardless of any claim or not.
 
That's not what the detail on the www.holidayautos.co.uk site says - see below. The DEW (Super CDW) cost is very good but you do have to deposit the full excess when hiring and the exclusions are far more restrictive than usual. IMHO, it's cheap but not necessarily the best.


damage excess waiver product (DEW)

  • On all bookings you will be required to leave a deposit to the value of any CDW excess you may be required to pay if the vehicle is damaged... If the vehicle is damaged, the deposit will be retained and treated as payment of the excess. If, however, you have purchased our DEW product, your liability to pay the excess will be waived and you may reclaim it, subject to our terms and conditions.... Your liability to pay for damage to the vehicle will therefore be limited to the cost of the daily rate you pay for CDW and DEW.
  • DEW (and CDW) do not apply in relation to damage to windows/windscreens, wheels and tyres, the underside and the roof, the interior of the car, towing charges or where the vehicle is driven off-road or on un-tarmacked roads, without due care and attention, negligently or where the driver is under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. Your liability to pay the cost of the damage will therefore not be waived in these circumstances and you may be liable for the full cost.
  • In the event that keys are lost or damaged, you will be liable for the reasonable costs of obtaining a replacement, and further costs if directly related to the theft of the car.
 
Marathon Man; with regard to your question on claims, I've claimed from Insurance4carhire and the process took about 3 - 4 weeks, as the paperwork was processed through England, by snail mail only. I thought it was acceptable.

Sorry for the slow reply, I just joined the Forum recently.
 
Marathon Man said:
I'd be interested in hearing from someone with a Insurance4carhire policy who had to claim under the policy - how fast was the refund from Insurance4carhire?, any hassle?
Click to expand...


I used Insurance4CarHire on a 60 day rental in New Zealand earlier this year. As a result of several stones hitting the windscreen I had to pay for a replacement at the end of the rental.

The NZ company gave me a letter stating the nature of the charge which I paid by credit card. About €140.

When I got home, I sent off a copy of the letter, copy of my credit card bill, policy etc to the agents for Insurance4CarHire - all electronically.

About two months later, with no other communication, the correct amount has been credited to my bank account from the UK.
 
I'm currently looking for this type of cover and came across www.insurance4carhire.com, so it's good to hear that they pay out when required.

I came across these articles from the Sunday Times travel section which provide some more info on the above and refer to holidayautos.co.uk and a few others as well

This is a general article on car hire tips
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/your_say/article2869815.ece

and this one is more specific to insurance
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/your_say/article713476.ece

I found them useful so hopefully they'll benefit someone else as well.
 
I hired a car in the UK recently and got "ambushed" for £25 excess insurance charge (3 days) at the car hire desk.

Is it possible to get this car hire excess insurance for less?
 
I've used insurance4carhire.com to reduce my excess in the past and have had to claim on them (twice !).

Its a few years ago now but I found them very good to deal with. I just submitted a description of the damage and evidence that I had paid the excess to the car hire company. They paid out fairly quickly as far as I recall and it was a fairly painless process.

In one case I wasn't even present when the damage occurred, I had returned to a car park to find someone had bumped into the back of my hired car. It was a minor bump and was barely noticeable but it was picked up by the inspector when I returned the car who charged my credit card €250 for it.

Thankfully I had reduced the excess to zero using nsurance4carhire.com and I got the €250 back within a few weeks.

It was much much cheaper to reduce the excess to zero using insurance4carhire.com rather than paying for this option to the car hire firm directly.
 
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