WARNING terrible drivers ahead... think about insurance cover ?

This year I have hired three cars in Spain from various firms , Fire Fly, Centuro at Murcia and Alicante. On all occations I have (at the last minute) decided YES on taking the full comprehensive cover for all damage. Generally subject to "Hard Sell" at the collection desk.

Can you believe it......  all three cars were badly damaged by hit and run drivers while the car has been parked in various areas of Mazarron and Pt of Mazarron. Im not sure if its deliberate but it made my blood boil as I take good care of hire cars and havnt had an accident for 20 years. Im begining to feel as though Spanish locals in some areas deliberatly set out to damage Hire cars which are obvious with stickers in the back window. Maybe its some sort of Insurance fraud.... who knows.

Take my advice if you are hiring a car next year and take the full cover.

I take out an annual top up policy underwritten by a UK insurer for the cost of £40.00, I have had the occasion to claim and had no problems.  

I always take the sticker off any car I get.

Mark

I take out an annual top up policy underwritten by a UK insurer for the cost of £40.00, I have had the occasion to claim and had no problems.

Crooksey

If you used " UK Top Up Insurance" was it recognised by the Rental Company at the desk or did they still take several hundred Euro Deposit off your card........  How did you make the claim please ??  Has anyone else had car damage when parked up ?

maybe im just unlucky but  "three in a row 2 ?

Cheers

Hi

We had a annual policy which the hire company would not recognise so we take out the fully comprehensive cover at the time of hire now we did have some prat hit our car in ikea malaga but when told the hire company they said its ok you've got full cover so we only take a car now with full cover its not a lot this time of year but in season it does get a bit pricey. We are now thinking about buying a car and annually parking it at tge airport its about €500 per year

I'm a retired Registered Insurance Broker, so obviously will not have the knowledge that you folk have. What the hell does the hire company recognising the 'top up' policy have to do with the issue? If you don't take out the comprehensive insurance  cover at the point of  hire you would quite simply be charged for the damage and given a receipt, which you would then send to the 'top up' insurer, it's not rocket science for christs sake. 

Ohhhh, somebody got out of the bed tge wrong side this morning. ?...

I'm a retired Registered Insurance Broker, so obviously will not have the knowledge that you folk have. What the hell does the hire company recognising the 'top up' policy have to do with the issue? If you don't take out the comprehensive insurance cover at the point of hire you would quite simply be charged for the damage and given a receipt, which you would then send to the 'top up' insurer, it's not rocket science for christs sake.

You might be a "retired Registered Insurance Broker" but this is SPAIN and im sure if anyone else found this so easy and properly covers every car hired in a year they will let everyone know about it.  If the car was written off would your £40 a year cheap top up policy cover everything.  Can you let everyone know the Insurance company used so we can get the Rocket Science Department to check it out

Hear hear! Aliton. We had one , hire company would not accept it as insurance we told insurance company they gave a full refund which shows the confidence in the "rocket science for Christ's sake". 

For the last time it's nothing to do with the hire company, if you don't take their 'top up' policy they don't stop you from driving the car, I have succesfully claimed on my UK top up policy, let's cut to the chase, are you calling me a liar?

Both me and another poster have given details of the names of the insurers that we have used, you don't belive either of us, so phone them up and find out for yourself, you will find details on a thread headed 'Hire Car Insurance'. 

Crookesly I am certainly not calling you a teller of fibs, but my daughter bought this type of policy and the hire company said ok use it if you want but we dont recognise it so were blocking your card for €400 anyway.  This they did she did not have a accident and returned the car they were happy that was in august they have yet to receive the €400 back because they did not block the card the deducted from the card. so after this fiasco we find it better to take the fully comp route and not have to fight either tge hire company or the insurance company

As a footnote to this can anyone tell me which major hire company will accept this insurance policy without blocking or deduction from card ...... I use hire cars about 10 times per year out of malaga and havent found one yet

The hire company will take a block on your credit card at the time of hire if you don't take out their insurance, anything between €600-€900. We did have to make a claim as the hire company took some money for a punctured tyre after we had driven 120km back to the airport, with no problem! We had to get a copy of the damage report from them and then claim on our Excess insurance. Ok it did take some time, I can't remember exactly how long, but we did get all the money back. Our policy is about £50 a year as we include USA cover as well.

When we hired the car through Firefly's connection with Ryanair the deposit was €900 and €600 when we booked via DoYouSpain!

It is important to check your credit card statement when you get back home though as the hire company did not tell us that they had taken the money for the punctured tyre. It was only after I checked the statement online that I saw it. A bit of a hassle but well worth the saving - in my view.

We all know the reasons for these extra policies from the rental companies, extra profit and the ease of claiming on the rental companies part for them should anything go wrong,  how can anyone blame them for  this.

I paid €35.00 for 15 days rental a while ago, plus the extra insurance of about €75,00 ish. About £6.00 a day all in.

I did last year buy the insurance from the UK for about £28.00 (€35,00) knowing full well it wouldn't be accepted without a fight,  sure enough it wasn't, could have been, but like others on here they still wanted a large chunk as a deposit, so I bought the rental car insurance, came back and phoned the UK insurance company to tell them it's not as easily accepted like they advertised it would be,  they refunded every penny back, didn't like it, but did.

To look at it another way your in a strange country, no full knowledge of the road and traffic laws, many no understanding of the language, whats the cost of having a prang and dropping the car of at the rental company, leaving them the details, and coming home knowing they will have to sort it out. 

To mess up an Alloy Wheel and Tyre is even better, that one is no hassle as a friend found out,  especially when the local garage wanted over €400,00 to replace both. 

For an easy life then take out the "top up" policy simple, no hassle with claims etc.

If you are doing a lot of hire cars thorughout the year every year  at the same location then buy a car and leave it at the airport plenty cheap annual parking from ~250€

In Costa Blanca many  long trem airprtt parking compnaies cover both Alicante & Murcia

It is always important to check a vehicle before you accept it as another scam by some car hire companies is to charge for minor damage then declare it to the next customer If you are unfortunate to damage the same panel they will charge you thereby recovering 2 or more claims for carrying out the same work Some also charge for loss of business when the car is off the road whilst it is being repaired In reality most minor repairs are left unrepaired as the car is put through the auctions in its existing state

Mobile Phone.

Video.

Walk around the car on pickup taking the video.

Job done.

Leave someone with the car until you finalise the return of the vehicle if you don't have compehensive cover, it's a strange coincidence that many without it have lost a windscreen wiper on retuning their car, especially in the Malaga Airport basement. 

This post was raised to warn car renters picking up cars in Spain that you need to be aware of the possible implications of not having fully comprehesive cover over your hire period . More importantly it seems to be from my experiance with three damaged cars in "three hires in a row" this year the "major issue" is how and why is all this damage being done , ?

Break it down to the cost per day ( 9Euro a day as BAZ1946 said) take out the cover and you can relax, dont have it and you will have days of worry.  Its the other drivers you need to worry about but everyone does whats right for them.

After circa 35 years of renting cars in Spain I now use a company that I have affectionately christened 'Rent a Wreck'. I pay circa €40 per week for a Berlingo, that always looks as though it has been driven through a war zone, dents and scuffs everywhere and unvaleted inside, I pay on the net and print my own rental voucher, a rep is waiting at Malaga arrivals and walks us round to our car that is parked outside, no more long waits in the tunnel. They don't event attempt to sell me the top up insurance, however I still have my UK annual policy, I park it where I like without fear of it having car doors opened into it, and more importantly there is just enough fuel in the tank to get me to the petrol station just south of the airport and return it close to empty, circa €30 of fuel usually does me for 2 weeks.

This information comes from a tight fisted old Yorkshireman who refuses to be ripped off by Spanish car hire sharks. 

This message was last edited by crookesey on 06/11/2014.