Car Hire & Excess Insurance

Hi guys,

I know this has been debated many times but I had a different experience when picking my hire car up from Firefly at Alicante on Sunday.

I have used them many times and all has been good. "Do you want our insurance?" "No thank you I have my own cover etc etc"

This time I was told - things have changed and you have to sort everything yourself, we can sell you recovery insurance which is 'specially' for excess policies!? Have things changed or is this just another sales technique trying to get you to part with your cash?

Cheers

They are trying it on. I have just taken this from a well known car excess insurance provider "Cover is provided for Towing costs associated with mechanical breakdown" I always use annual car hire excess insurance, luckily I haven't had to claim yet.

Let them say what they want, I had similar on Sunday with Centauro, “Upgrade for 40 euros, breakdown cover for 80 euros etc” at the end of the day, if the unforceen happens, make sure you get the relavent paperwork for your costs and you shouldn’t have any issues claiming from your own insurance policy.

Not my fault they want to hire me a car for 16 euros with no extras.

Dont forget to take the car back full of fuel either or they will sting you.

Yep - always make sure tank is full.

RecordGo tried one on with me in regard to 'upgrading' car - you can have BMW or Merc for €100 euro extra! No thanks I'll stick to the Meriva for €34 for the week thanks 😁 

Hi! im spanish and i use to give some tips for my french and english friends, first of all, i recommend to rent a car if u wanna stay in spain some days, cause u will improve your experience, second, be ready to try some clasical foods like paella, cocido, chopitos, tortilla, jamon... andalucia is a good place to try "tapas" that means order a beer and eat some nasty food for free.

GL and HF in spain!

Clearly if excess insurance is a declinable option when booking the car, hire companies are back to their old tricks. Financial losses caused by COVID 19 is likely to bring the worst out of some companies. You will need to be on your guard for everything for quite a while.

I think you must watch well all this private insurance things, but mainly because I think there NO company that is prepared to hire a car loosing money. And having a private insurance is no gain for them, so they must find a way to get their money from somewhere. 

I work at Victoria Rent a Car and the other day I rented a car at Alicante Airport to a customer that ended paying less. Of course you must see the price of the hire that have the company. 

Like for example he booked a small car with the full insurance and costed them 130 euros for 1 week in August. He was looking to book with a broker through another company an offer for just 65 euros a week + private insurance = 105.00 euros. But when he looked better at terms and conditions he realized that you must also pay for a kind of fuel administration charge and with that company was 40 euros + the security deposit, so that would take the rental up to 145.00 euros + deposit. 

So, at the end something that was aparently cheap would have been a lot more expensive. 

Hello Adrian

It’s nice to that know some care hire companies operate honestly on occasions. I think most people appreciate they have to make a profit. It is the deceit that upsets most people. Imagine arriving at Alicante airport at 10pm with wife and 2 kids queuing for your car and then told if you won’t have the extra insurance, agree to refuelling costs, no car or go to the back of the queue. We’ll get you on the mystery damage anyway. Of course if they are busy and the desk staff wants to go home you might be lucky and just given the keys. True or false?

I do not have to imagine that. :) I lived that just before I started to work in the car hire bussiness about 14 years ago with one of the competitors (of course I will not give names because would not be fair from my end. however all that use that systmen act identically). I was had to argue at 9.3 in the evening at Malaga Airport with a guy that only wanted to sell and on return BANG! a dent underneath the car! found with a MIRROR fitted into a mop stick to search that kind of damages. 350.00€. i was driving big trucks and I have a good driving experience and I know I have never done it, but that was not marked on the checking list!

However sometimes I think also people have the fault and some of them really want to be scamed. I receive lots and lots of enquiries from people and I tell them 100-130 euros a week depends on the season and they startr arguing that it is not fair, that we want to cheat them because there are lots of other companies that hire through Ryan air or whatever just 20-30 euros a week plus insurance about 50-60 and they go there. I simply agree with them and tell them Victoria Rent a Car will not use that system and let them go. I prefer losing a client that arguing after that or even worst, cheat them! The good thing is that next time they come back to me, tell me what happened and book without even asking for a discount.  :) 

I haven't rented for a couple of years now, but I always used hirecarsinspain. They are a UK based broker, you can ring them and talk to them with any issues and they offer an "all inclusive" policy, which does exactly what it says on the tin. It is obviously more expensive than the 5€ day hire companies, but what you sign up for at time of booking is what you pay. I also used to play the system by making a booking to guarantee me a car, then checking every so often. If the price wnet down, i was able to cancel and book at the new price as it is payment on arrival.