roberino

Can anyone (UK-based) recommend an insurance policy to cover car rental so that I don't have to take the insanely priced coverage offered by the rental companies?

I'm spending about GBP5-6k per year on car rental and it looks like around a third of that is insurance (my company dictates that we have to take full cover and excess waiver). I've found one or two insurance firms that offer CDW/LDW/Excess waiver for an apparently reasonable annual price.

https://www.icarhireinsurance.com/ca...-products.html

Is this a gimmick? Has anyone else gone down this route? I'd liek to know your experiences and which company you used.




PS: I really, really, really don't work for an insurance company or their advertisers. I'm a commercial scientist.

lloydah

yep, I use insurance4carhire.com - pretty much the same as yours. The hire firms are not too keen and try to tell you theirs is better etc etc but I've never had a problem over at least 10 years. I have had one pay out and it was easy, efficient and speedy.

I never ever go down the hire company's own insurance extras. Complete rip off.

emma69

I was looking at something similar for a relative and found this: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire

gives tips on insurers that offer coverage.

You might want to check with your company first that this works for them and are willing to reimburse (e.g. "car hire" [including the insurance] may have different tax treatment than just "insurance")

Flaneurs

I am not sure of the availability out of the United States but if you are an American Express card holder they offer a premium primary car insurance add-on. It is based on a per rental not per day basis and is IIRC $25.00/rental. It replaces any insurance offered by the rental company and even personal car insurance as it is a primary policy. You might try to see if this product is available to you.

Cymro

Sadly the AmEx cover is UK only.

I would agree with expensing an annual car hire policy unless your company is the kind that would question your authority to get that cover. Make sure it covers business use too.

pinniped

For business rentals, I would stick with what the firm requires. Even if it's high cost, and you think you're doing them a favor by looking for something cheaper, I'd want to stick with the known and approved process for handling claims and support if you get into an accident. Doubly true if your use of the rental car would fall into any kind of "commercial purposes" area.

As a general rule, I'm highly skeptical of buying insurance from any financial institution I don't immediately recognize and generally trust. I would be doubly skeptical if I wasn't completely clear how the product was regulated by the government and rated by independent agencies, and I don't exactly know where a rental car kind of insurance might fit into that mix.

OP, where are your rentals taking place?

The AMEX product would fit the bill for me: underwritten by AMEX Assurance and obviously linked to a credit card company that I know well. Although I haven't used AMEX Assurance specifically, I have enough trust in the master brand that I'd be willing to do it if needed. The US-based AMEX premium cover is valid in a quite a few countries, but there are also some notable exclusions. (I seem to recall that Ireland is one.)

In years when I didn't own a car, I held a "non-owner" policy from my insurance provider. It was a few bucks a month and provided basic rental car insurance, although my list of countries where I was covered seemed to keep shrinking over time until it was basically parts of Western Europe, UK, US, and Canada.

obscure2k

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roberino

Normally I'd agree, but the company has insurance for US rentals. There's many fewer employees in the UK office so they never bothered with setting one up for us, but I spend GBP10k per year on rentals so I can save around GBP3k through 3rd party insurance. Our finance department is currently checking this out, so they're taking it seriously.

A point well worth making. The insurance is from a registered insurer which is underwritten by the FSA. They also get 5* reviews on Trust Pilot, so I'm OK with this. I don't expect to recognise a firm selling a niche product like rental car insurance.


Mainly Europe but could be anywhere worldwide.

roberino

Update: I bought this product. https://www.icarhireinsurance.com/ca...-products.html

I'll give any feedback when I have some.

kinimodb

AMEX Premium Car Rental Protection.

About $25 per rental and covers luxury cars too.

If you Google it they also have a UK offering.

But note it only works if you have an AMEX credit card. However it is worth acquiring an AMEX credit card just to have this insurance option available to you. It is very convenient -- every time you use the AMEX card (you have to) for the rental transaction, it also charges the rental insurance automatically for you.

If you have to use the corporate card of your company, it wouldn't work unfortunately.

I think they are best in business and their customer service is recognized in the world as one of the best. I've always had only great experiences with the reps.

Flaneurs

I mentioned this up thread but it did not seem to be available for the OP.

roberino

I did look into it but there's an annual fee for the card, plus there's a cost per car rental. For short rentals this would work out about the same as the insurance from the car rental company. With the separate policy it's one fee for the whole year (GBP90 in my case) so I don't even have to remember to take out the insurance for each trip I do. It's also easier to get my company to return a single expense than a separate expense for each car rental (shouldn't be, but it is...)

I will report back sometime later in the year or if I have to make a claim.

Flaneurs

Glad that you found a product that is going to work well for you. Happy Travels and Safe Driving! Just because you have insurance doesn't mean that you need to use it.