Just wondering what hire car insurance companies people use? The hire car company's own insurance seems excessive and it seems a lot of the time the credit card company complimentary insurance doesn't cover the full excess. Does anyone have any recommendations?
Edit: I am travelling domestically.
Just it seems that rental car companies have their own expensive insurances and its always optional to take it. So if i have my own from a company that specialises in it, then i can save some money. I have previously used a company, however, never claimed, so was wondering who everyone else uses.
If it's domestic you can get travel insurance. I did about 10 years ago, can't remember the company I used though.
Also international will be covered too
I should have my credit card complimentary insurance covering me for a bit.. however, it wasnt going to be enough to cover the rental excess.
This is a domestic trip.
I do have 2 other international trips planned for later in the year however.
I use these guys a lot but never claimed, also check out https://www.carhireexcess.com.au/ although I’ve never found them to be cheaper
I used them, had to make a claim for hit and run and no issues.
I used them a few times and made a claim once. No issue at all.
The claim was about a chip on the windscreen. The rental car company charged me more than $1200. After submitted all required documents, the reimbursement was received in a few days with no questions asked.
Ooo.. thanks for that! Thats a decent coupon code! Have you ever claimed with them before?
I am travelling domestically.
I have previously used www.tripcover.com.au
Haven't needed to claim, sorry :)
I have used them plenty and have made claims several times, very easy and painless. In Australia and overseas
Nice. That is great to know!
If you're talking Australia, rental companies insure their fleet against damage/loss but charge hirers a huge excess. Rental companies bundle additional cover (including excess reduction) and include a hefty lazy tax to hirers who don't organise their own cover. I generally use rentalcover.com per @bdl however understand having to claim may not be as straight forward as the rental company's cover. There's a bunch of competing rental excess insurers. For longer rental periods, domestic travel cover is sometimes the best value. If you're talking USA all cover is purchased by the hirer.
Yes, i will be using this for travel in australia - 8 days car hire.
I do have 2 international trips planned for later in the year, however, i wont be hiring a car for this.
Have you ever had to claim through rentcover.com?
No, but I've read reports from others who didn't report any issues. The problem is the rental companies have jacked up their excesses which makes carhireexcess.com.au uncompetitive. For an 8-day rental compare domestic travel cover; e.g. scti.com.au, zero policy excess, $6K cover.
Just buy domestic travel insurance and read up which one does what you want it to do
I just take the extra under my comprehensive for the period I need it
What do u mean your comprehensive?
Most comprehensive car insurance has either rental car insurance built in or as an extra.
It doesnt just cover a rental car when your car is in the shop.
With the RAA, you can turn it off/on as you like. So if you dont care about a rental car for a car fix at home (because you might have 2 cars) but you travel and hire a car, you call them, activate it, and you're covered whilst hiring.
RAA appears to cover only up to $4K; if this hasn't changed I fear it's a junk policy
If you hire through Booking.com they offer car rental insurance, very cheap compared to rental companies. Around $130-$170 for a week, depends on vehicle, location and age, fully comprehensive and no excess.
I recently went to tassie and hired a car thru Bargain Car Rentals. I got full cover ..it was as much to get full cover with them as it was just to rent a car with no coverage from the big operators..so that might be worth looking into. They are in quite a few states
I've always had a credit card with car hire excess cover so have never paid for it.
Which card do you hold?
I churn cards for FF bonus points but NAB, Westpac and Amex platinum cards all have it.
Same, I've only recently discovered this as I don't often rent a car domestically. I was renting a car with eastcoast car rentals, and the cost of the rental itself was $205. Including 0 excess, the cost wouldve been around $350, so a significant proportion more. I have an ANZ plantinum frequent flyer card though, and was happy to find out that excesses up to $5000 are covered by ANZ's credit card insurance. Score!
I just rented last week with SIXT, excess $6,050. It may be that East Coast at $4,400 is the last one under $5K
Have you checked the limits lately? A lot of the domestic rentals have now jacked up the excess above what most credit card insurance covers.
And the credit card cover always includes a policy excess which I prefer to buy out given the high risk of damage to rental vehicles.
2 years back booked with East Coast Rentals at Gold Coast . Someone dinged with a shopping trolley without any note. Hardly visible to naked eyes but rental company charged 1100 dollars for repair and no of business days car was out of service. Luckily had booked through Amex and they paid minus the excess without any fuss.
Be careful. Some of the insurance policies will cover the excess from the hire company, but not the many events that are not included.
Underbody, overhead, tyres, windscreen, …
I had a gumnut fall on the car when parked, leaving an almost invisible dent. The hire-car lady spotted it, but after a pause decided not to charge me :-)
Ive never personally paid a serperate hire car insurance. What have you found out so far?.