Car rental

It can be the most stressful part of the holiday for many travellers. Do you take the excess cover insurance or try without it but find extra charges & spurious claims added afterwards. 
I have had both. Prices are down now though. 30% plus off. Some direct agencies like Centauro, Lara, Drivalia/now Leasy & more give a an all inclusive price for full cover so at least there are no surprises afterwards. 

Get yourself the best deal through autoeurope or rentalcars.com or similar and get yourself an annual excess insurance cover for about £30 and tell the hire company where to go when you collect and they try and upsell you there own insurance.

I agree that having a self purchased excess insurance cover policy is the way to go, check out the subject on Martin Lewis's Money Saving Expert site.

I've also found that Centauro near Alicante Airport are a fairly honest and straightforward company to deal with in terms of not trying it on with spurious claims on return of the car.

I wish I could say the same for Centauro.

They knew what scuff they were looking for on my hire car return, dropped straight on his knees to locate it, I know for a fact that I hadn't done that, shame really as I previously had the same opinion as yourself regarding Centauro.

Fortunately I did have my own care hire excess policy, they were quick to reimburse me.

Oddly enough it was the first time that this had happened to me across many rentals in Spain including the more unscrupulous renters, so it was a bit of a shock that it was Centauro.

It leaves you with the feeling that everyone will get caught at some point and therefore I would highly recommend the annual car excess policy.

As you’ve travelled before you’ll probably know the main problems renting through one of the online agencies and taking an insurance policy with them or taking out separate insurance is that the hire companies themselves in Spain when you pick up your car won’t recognise either and will put a block on your credit card of up to €3000 or more depending on car size. If you have plenty more in your card then fine. Then as the last gentleman says they can always find hidden damage if they want to take money off you. You may not even be told by some of them until your credit card statement comes. If that’s the case and you have taken out your own excess policy prior to departure then you’ll have to chase the car hire company from your own country for the necessary paperwork to claim your money back. It’s been many years since the one time this happened to me but I never got my then £230 scratch damage back. Another family member in recent have had scratch damage to wheels deducted but had a policy themselves  The scams they use are so very well documented everywhere as are the names of the companies who chance this the most. I often think some of the hire companies have 2 lists & sketches of damages to every car, the one they give you & the one they use when you return the car to remind them where the hidden scratches etc are. It’d be nearly impossible for a renter to find every one of them without putting the car on a lift. I read of women comparing notes on another website 3/4 year ago where they had both been charged for the same scratch on the same car 8 months apart. It had never been repaired & God only knows how much revenue that car had brought in. Taking out the outrageous insurance at the desk solves all this but the cost of it if you were renting for a few weeks would be more than your annual premium back home. Taking a policy yourself before travel is by far and away the cheapest once you can stomach the block on your card for the holiday and the risks involved. Long rant over 😊

Try Les at Wheels in Spain.  Small company, reliable cars and pick up/drop off service, good rates and absolutely no messing about with insurance or fuel.  Used many times and highly recommended.   

Thanks for your reply. Do you have his contact details please. Thank you

Tel 0034 635 732 012

Wheels in Spain.com

Its always a good idea to take photos or a video of every aspect of the vehicle before you drive it away.