Wyatt82

Hi all,
Looking at hiring a car for a trip to the UK through avisba as m'lady would like to drive and the free driver for exec club members is appealing. I'm currently comparing with Sixt who have the option to zero out the excess on the car too as this is important to me. I can't see on the avis site what the standard rate excess is but i'm reckoning it's probably 600 pounds or so. Can anyone confirm and tell me the daily rate to reduce the excess to zero? I'm looking at a thousand dollars for a 2 week Vauxhall Astra hire with Sixt with a zero excess.

Newly Wed

No idea, sorry, but I generally find the excess waiver costs charged by rental companies to be excessive and have found it much more cost effective to take out standalone vehicle excess insurance cover (i.e. not buy it from Avis/Sixt). My annual policy is around £60

pauldb

I assume you are looking through ba.com or avisba.com? If you search avis.com with the BA Bronze AWD N284300 do you get the same price ... if so it's probably easier to see the extra costs you're looking for on avis.com.

cmcbugg

Indeed, I have the same - although you still have to deal with annoying interactions with agents trying to push their insurance on you.

My last Avis rental in US via BA (in Dec) didnt seem to have any excess. They still tried to sell me some kind of personal belongings insurance, but the CDW type insurance seemed to be fulled covered without any excess. But the details from the BA booking confirmation were vague and I didnt know that beforehand - hence had my own separate annual excess insurance also.

T8191

US rentals with Avis/BA are totally different on the insurance front compared with UK/Europe, especially in respect of excesses. I never worry when renting in the US, knowing I’m fully covered. In UK/Europe, I would look at taking out separate cover ... and tell the rental desk to stick their excess cover somewhere dark ;

Oxon Flyer

There's a Brucie bonus for anyone who can actually afford the OP the courtesy to post the "Typical daily Excess Waiver charge for an avisba rental, Astra sized-car, in the UK".

Newly Wed

Only one person here showing lack of courtesy. Everyone else has provided answers that actually help the OP.

T8191

I’m not sure how many UK residents (and also BAEC/BAFT members) hire cars in UK. A few perhaps, but most will tend to drive their own cars to wherever ... it’s a small country! During 60 years of living in UK I never hired a car.

Or am I wrong? Thread bumped in the hope of getting “local knowledge” from those who HAVE hired in UK ... presumably visitors from Europe, in the main.

Saltire74

I paid it a couple of years ago when I collected a car at EDI. I booked a VW Golf or similar and when I arrived at the desk, the agent happily told me that I had been upgraded to a C Class Mercedes. Asked if I wanted additional insurance and probably due to tiredness, going to say ‘goodbye’ to my gran and the thought of wrapping a C Class around a lamppost, I was suckered. This was for a 7 day hire but can’t remember how much it was but something niggles that it was about £15 per day extra. Sorry can’t be more precise.

S

mikeyfly

My excess in NCE last year was 1,500EUR

Quite worrying !

Iamnotlost

I found this in the Location specific conditions for Avis uk. You can get the whole thing from the Avis site under location specific conditions - I think there is the option to reach this from the avisba booking page. Might help to work out the worst case scenario for Avis to evaluate alternatives.

ptr120

IIRC the excess when I picked up a car at LHR earlier this week was GBP1000. If you really want to zero out the excess I'd recommend the previous advice to get a seperate policy which will be much better value.

SeattleDavid

Avis at Heathrow have two levels of excess (three if you include the no coverage option that you get with your vacation booking). The cheaper level gets you a £1000 excess (I think it is pounds not dollars) and is maybe a couple of hundred dollars on a two week rental. But a zero excess will bump that up closer to $1000 for two weeks (I have done all three varieties and will look up my records at Avis and edit this post). Added: On an 8 day compact car rental the price went from £200 to £500 for a £1000 excess!

Best value is not to use a vacation booking but to book with Avis direct on a credit card that includes primary coverage for UK rental cars (e.g. Chase Sapphire Reserve - the effective annual fee is under $150). Though I've never had to claim on them, so don't know how painful that might be compared to the reassurance of having a zero excess.

Also as someone who has often been used as a UK driver for my American colleagues, be aware that most US folks find driving in the UK very stressful - manual cars are the main affordable option, driving is on the left and there are many many roundabouts (traffic circles) to be negotiated.

NickB

Credit cards that provide rental car insurance cover is a North American thing. It is almost non-existent for those of us based in Europe.

SeattleDavid

Indeed - I assumed that the OP was US-based, but actually nothing indicates where they are based.

But the reverse is also true - standalone insurance policies to cover a car rental, or travel in general, are much more of a European thing than a US thing.

And most American credit cards that provide car rental cover only provide secondary cover, not primary. And some only provide it in the USA.