Hire car excess

Whenever I've hired a car for a holiday, I've always bought excess insurance via the links on the Martin Lewis MSE website. Most recently when flying back to Cardiff for a football match last December and hiring a car for 24 hours.

In the past, I was hiring 'abroad' while living in the UK and was always surprised by how cheap it was. Being in the reverse situation in December as a Spanish resident, I was surprised by how expensive (relatively) it was! It worked out at about £40 for the 24hrs. I still wouldn't have been without it though.

I've only claimed once, about ten years ago, when an Italian car hire firm at Bergamo airport tried to rip me off with the usual miniscule damage scam. The insurance company was very supportive, but their intervention wasn't neccessary in the end because my credit card company threatened the crooks concerned and they dropped the damage charge.

Just use one of the companies with everything included, Lara Cars or Coys Car Rental. They may be a bit more expensive, but you will never have a problem with them. 

I used Questor for car hire excess insurance for several years. I had one claim for damage, a car I'd hired from Avis in Munich. The cost of the damage was extortionate in my opinion but Questor paid up promptly without  quibbling about the cost. The claim was completed online in a day or so.

 I rarely hire cars now but when I did I had a annual cover, that included my wife as a driver also, well worth the relatively small cost compared to rip car hire firm add-ons.

Rgds,

Aitch. 

I second using the MSE website. I always use their recommendations for UK car parking as well and get good discounts.

Aitch.

We always used to use insurance4carhire, assume they are still in business. Yes, claimed a couple of times when car hire company, Centauro who used to be about the best and completely honest, started to get above themselves and find minuscule damage. Claims dealt with efficiently and easily, well worth it. But like any insurance, do not expect a magic payout within three days, they still do all the checks etc and it takes time.

I used these guys https://www.icarhireinsurance.com annual cost is about £40. I've had it for about 3 yrs and never had to claim until this year in April. 

I returned the car to recordgo key box as we were an early departure and by the time we got home I had an email with some pretty poor quality photos showing damage to the underside of the front of the car. 

I sent all the details off to ihirecarinsurance and the €240 charge was repaid within 5 days.

We use iCarhire, taking the annual policy. My husband had a claim in London Stansted with Green Motion Car Hire, they said he had damaged the roof of the car 🤨. iCarhire settled the claim quickly and interestingly they no longer cover hire cars from Green Motion (possibly too many false damage accusations from them?)