Car Hire Scam?

I have been visiting web sites of car hire firms, and have noticed that most of them refer to "fully comprehensive" insurance, "no extras" etc, and yet when reading the small print it would seem that tyres, wing mirrors, under-carriage etc. are not covered by the insurance, (additional coverage needs to be purchased), so how can the insurance be properly described as "fully comprehensive"?  I feel this is misrepresentation, or is this the norm when hiring a car in the Costa del Sol?  Moreover, one company wanted to add 18.50 Euros to my bill as a processing fee!  Why?  On the surface, this seems to me to be just an excuse to make a fast Buck!

I welcome your comments!

 Whenever we've hired a car we've always paid for an an extra insurance cover to cover the excess in case of an accident or damage.

Even fully comprehensive policies have an excess which you are liable for, so I assume that is what is meant by the small print.  I always thought this was quite normal.

Regarding the processing fee, is that because you are using a credit card and not a debit card?  Certain companies are passing on these charges to the consumer in the same way that the low cost airlines are doing.

Justin

Yes, we always take fully comprehensive insurance as opposed to third party, but what seems to be offered by the insurance companies could be considered as third party, but described as fully comprehensive.

Yes, we will be paying with a credit card, but this is the first time that I have encountered a company passing on its expenses to its clients.