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Easter holidays on their way

March 28th, 2012 No comments
Easter 2012 is only under 10 days away and many people will be setting off on their breaks this coming weekend although with this fine spring weather in the south of England it feels like it has already begun.

The shops have their Easter displays like this one in Belgium to the left so if you have booked your car hire, don't forget your car hire excess insurance. The supermarkets have been selling chocolate eggs and hot cross buns for many weeks now. Some start soon after Christmas!

You can save a lot of money by buying it from an independent insurance company and whatsmore, if you are likely to travel a couple of times a year you save even more with an annual policy.

Some insurance4carhire and Questor insurance policies are still being discounted if you buy them from the link you find on the insurance4carrental.com site.  

Many people go on holiday around Easter hiring a motorhome and Questor and Worlwideinsure offer motorhome excess insurance. Find out more here.

If you are still looking for a bargain in the never ending sales and are staying at home, but renting a van remember you can also buy van hire excess insurance independently that will save you even more money to spend in the shops. Insuremyvanhire and iCarhireinsurance both offer this product. Find out more here   

Whatever you do make sure you do have adequate insurance for your travels.

You never know when you could become involved in an accident that is not your fault. (Left wing mirror cut off by falling metal from a delivery vehicle on a motorway). With a hire car if you had not taken out excess insurance such an incident that was not your fault would be very, very expensive. 
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Your car hire bill could rise by 75% as a result of a hidden cost

March 13th, 2012 No comments
iCarhireinsurance have today published a news release "The Hidden Cost That Could Add 75% To Your Car Hire Rental Bill"

Well what is it all about? According to the release, " Travellers arriving to pick up their hire cars may be surprised to find that excess insurance sold to them at the rental desk may add up to 75% again to their original car hire bill.


If excess waiver insurance is not purchased by a hire car customer they could be liable for up to £1500 if the car gets damaged or stolen, even if it's not their fault. Even a small scratch on a windscreen can cost hundreds to fix.


Research undertaken (see Table 1 below) by specialist excess insurance provider, iCarhireinsurance.com has revealed that:


- Buying excess insurance at the car rental desk can cost an extra 38% to 75% again on top of a customer's original hire car cost


- The five leading car hire companies surveyed charged an average of £17 a day for excess waiver car hire insurance, with the highest being an eye watering £23 a day with Europcar.


- An 82% saving can be made buying a £2.99 a day excess insurance policy covering Europe from a specialist company like iCarhireinsurance.com.


"Excess car hire insurance is sprung on people when they arrive at the car rental desk to pick up their car," said Ernesto Suarez, CEO and founder of iCarhireinsurance.com. "Tired after their journey they are then held to ransom to take out excess insurance with the fear otherwise of being liable for huge penalties, when all they want to do is pick up the keys and start their holiday or business trip. Asking people to make a snap decision on a complex product is not a fair transaction."


Many rental companies do not make it clear, when people are booking their hire car, that they are not completely covered unless they purchase additional excess waiver insurance. This lack of transparency in the booking process is creating a situation where people are arriving at the rental desk wrongly believing that they have bought all the insurance they need.


An iCarhireinsurance.com excess insurance policy starts from £2.99 a day or from £39.99 for an annual policy. It also includes cover for vulnerable parts of the vehicle, which are frequently excluded by the rental companies' policies.


"Our advice is simple, buy your excess insurance before you fly to save you time, bother and most of all money with a better product which gives you absolute peace of mind," said Ernesto Suarez, CEO and founder of iCarhireinsurance.com." 



Well with the Easter holidays now under a month away, it is time to book your car hire and of course buy your car hire excess insurance separately. Find out more about iCarhireinsurance here and save some money.
 
Another important consideration with Easter just around the corner is if you are flying, don't forget to book your car parking at the airport (or close to the airport) in advance. A lot of the smaller better value car park sites will become full early, so book now.
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Insurance4carhire in Daily Telegraph’s avoiding extras at car rental desk

March 4th, 2012 No comments
"How can I avoid being stung for extras at the car rental desk?" was the question in Gill Charlton's travel question and answer feature in the Daily Telegraph.

She explained that the local car hire company would not receive a very large payment for the car gire from a car hire broker and the car hire company itself will need to make up any shortfall itself with extras. She said that a customer can quite often pay more for "cheap car hire" than going direct to a large company like Avis.

She suggested checking the size of damage excess saying that rental companies will charge between £10 to £15 a day to reduce this to zero and to "buy an annual excess-reduction policy instead from Insurance4carhire.com."

Currently these cost £39.20 (instead of the usual £49.00) when you buy from the link at the insurance4carrental's website. Find out more HERE  

Insurance4carhire's "Daily Excess" policy costs £4.75 a day (around €6.08) which is a lot less than you would pay to the car hire company at the desk or when you book.

It is all very well being armed with your own car hire excess policy. however as mentioned quite often in this blog, Gill Charlton said in her article "Another swindle is to include extra insurances you have verbally declined. Make sure you query anything you are asked to initial as "agreed". 

You could consider actually writing on their form "declined your excess insurance" as so many car hire companies try to make someone sign for this after the customer has verbally declined it.

The weekend break and mini holiday season is now hotting up, so make sure you have bought your car hire excess insurance in advance.
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Insurance4carhire in Daily Telegraph’s avoiding extras at car rental desk

March 4th, 2012 No comments
"How can I avoid being stung for extras at the car rental desk?" was the question in Gill Charlton's travel question and answer feature in the Daily Telegraph.

She explained that the local car hire company would not receive a very large payment for the car gire from a car hire broker and the car hire company itself will need to make up any shortfall itself with extras. She said that a customer can quite often pay more for "cheap car hire" than going direct to a large company like Avis.

She suggested checking the size of damage excess saying that rental companies will charge between £10 to £15 a day to reduce this to zero and to "buy an annual excess-reduction policy instead from Insurance4carhire.com."

Currently these cost £39.20 (instead of the usual £49.00) when you buy from the link at the insurance4carrental's website. Find out more HERE  

Insurance4carhire's "Daily Excess" policy costs £4.75 a day (around €6.08) which is a lot less than you would pay to the car hire company at the desk or when you book.

It is all very well being armed with your own car hire excess policy. however as mentioned quite often in this blog, Gill Charlton said in her article "Another swindle is to include extra insurances you have verbally declined. Make sure you query anything you are asked to initial as "agreed". 

You could consider actually writing on their form "declined your excess insurance" as so many car hire companies try to make someone sign for this after the customer has verbally declined it.

The weekend break and mini holiday season is now hotting up, so make sure you have bought your car hire excess insurance in advance.
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Simon Calder gets caught with car rental rip off

February 25th, 2012 No comments
Simon Calder the Independent's Travel expert has recently been involved in a car rental rip off in the USA.

According to his article in the 25th February 2012 edition of "Independent Traveller" he recently visited California. His moto is never to upgrade a US hire car and always order go for the basic model.

This time he arranged the rental via Holiday Autos and when he went to collect it, was offered a "Thanksgiving weekend upgrade special". He declined it and was then asked to initial the rental contract in the places he was asked to do. He had just had a 12 hour flight and like any traveller tired.

He discovered when his credit card bill came in and additional £26 had been added for the upgrade!  He took up the issue with Holiday Autos customer services who did a an efficient job looking into it and they got hold of a copy of the rental contract. This showed he had initialled for a better car.

This type of action by car hire receptionists, of getting customers to sign here, there and there is so similar to when my wife rented a car in Dublin via Irish Car Rentals the Europcar Ireland franchise operator. She declined their excess insurance has she had her own, however was told sign here, there and everywhere and when questioned later, although she has said she did not want it, but they said you signed for it so we are not refunding the money.

Do take great care and if you are tired, why not write on the contract "don't want upgrade" or "your excess insurance" even if it is one of those screen signature boxes that a lot of car hire companies are now using.

To see Simon Calder's article on line at The Independent, follow this link.
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Looks like Irish car rental companies are still mis-selling car hire excess insurance

February 24th, 2012 No comments
I have just come accross this article on the Auto Exress web site "Watchdog: Mis-selling car hire cover" by Mike Gibbs on the 22nd February 2012.

Reading the report it looks like the same old story is cropping up again. According to his article - "Conor Mills from east London pre-booked a car to be picked up at Knock Airport, Ireland, through online broker CarHire3000. The best deal was through Budget.Conor Mills from east London pre-booked a car to be picked up at Knock Airport, Ireland, through online broker CarHire3000. The best deal was through Budget.The car was fully insured, but Conor paid CarHire3000 an extra £26 for an excess waiver, to avoid having to shell out the 1,200 Euro excess if he damaged the car. But the lady at the Budget desk at Knock Airport told him CarHire3000’s excess waiver policy had loopholes big enough to drive a car through. “She said the insurance did not cover any accidents deemed my fault, or repair time,” Conor told us.So he forked out another 45 Euros (£37) for Budget’s own excess waiver. This was totally unnecessary". See full story here

From personal experiences over the years and other peoples experiences, I have written about these continual problems on this blog and with articles on the insurance4carrental.com site How Irish car hire companies are not improving Irish Tourism, Car hire company in Ireland charges for unwanted excess insurance, Irish car hire companies are taking visitors for a ride  and then in November 2011 iCarhireinsurance published Dubious Dublin airport car rental staff

It is such a shame that these companies continue to do this to tourists, business people and even their own nationals returning to the home country for a few days. It is not a good advertisement for Irish Tourism and this is happening at entry points to the country. 

On a positive note however, on the last three occasions my wife or I have rented a car in Dublin we have used Hertz. We have told them we have our own excess insurance, we are then told that they will deduct several hundred euro from the credit card till the car is returned, but there is no pressure to take their own products, which probably like in the story in Auto Express is exactly the same coverage and in reality, they have the right to deduct the amount from the credit card, but don't actually debit the account, unless it is required.

Irish car rental companies you are giving Ireland a bad name. It is about time that you thought more about returning customers than making a fast buck from the one standing in front of you.
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Car hire shortages in Spain in the summer of 2012?

February 17th, 2012 No comments
Economy car hire issued a news release yesterday.

They said that one of the largest independent car hire companies in Spain has recently announced that they will cease trading causing a shortage of vehicles this summer.

AurigaCrown have been operating under administration for around two years, however, due to increasing costs and lower revenue, it has been decided that they will cease trading. As a result the availability of hire cars across mainland Spain will plummet. The loss of 15,000 vehicles in the market will cause prices to rise significantly in the coming months according to Economy Car Hire, one of the UK’s leading car hire brokers.
In both 2009 and 2010 there were availability issues due to the economic situation in Spain, making it difficult for car hire companies to raise finance in order to equip their fleets. 2012 is in danger of being even worse due to the fall in the number of cars.


Economy Car Hire warns customers that they must book early if they want to secure a hire car this summer. The costs of car hire will also rise, meaning that customers may end up paying more than double if they leave booking until the last minute, if there are any vehicles left at all.


“It is clear that the recent raft of exceptionally low prices has taken its toll on the car hire companies of Spain” says Rory Sexton, Managing Director of Economy Car Hire. “There is no doubt that following the failing of one company, the rest will increase their prices. The message is clear, book in advance.”


If you have already booked your holiday for the summer, Economy Car Hire advises that you book your hire car now. This way, you can choose the most suitable vehicle for your stay and not be left with something hugely inappropriate, or worse still, nothing at all.


It is not yet known exactly when AurigaCrown will cease trading, however, as a precaution Economy Car Hire have already moved affected bookings to an alternative provider. Customers who have a car hire booking with AurigaCrown made through another broker or agent are advised to make alternative arrangements.


Economy Car Hire provides car hire services in over 26 countries worldwide, including the UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Turkey, Jamaica and Australia.

Source: Economy car hire

If you are going on holiday this year to Spain book that car hire now. Remember back in 2009 there were a lot of shortages It can be rather frustrating leaving the car hire booking to the last minute and then finding you cannot get a car or the price has gone sky high.

Notes: The AurigaCrown website was still working OK today (17th February 2012). According to their website "AurigaCrown Car Hire was founded in the begining of 2006 with the merger of two leading companies in the rent a car sector in Spain Crown Car Hire and Auriga Rent a Car, what converted this new company into the leader of the rent a car sector.With over 40 years experience in the rent a car sector and a fleet of over 18.000 vehicles, none exceeding an average age of 6 months, a network of 30 offices distributed all over Spain, and our staff of 350 multilingual and qualified professionals, our aim is transparency and reliability in order to improve a better service for our clients day by day."



Find out more about Economy Car Hire Here
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The ‘Winterisation’ Charge for your Hire Car

February 15th, 2012 No comments
I visited the icahireinsurance blog a short while ago and found a very interesting piece written by Ernie about going skiing. 

No it was not warning you to take great care when you are on or off the slopes, but before you actually got to the ski resort.

The blog went on to say " If you are taking advantage of the near-perfect skiing conditions in Europe, be aware that if you are hiring a car you will probably come up against a 'winterisation' charge (or ...another opportunity to fleece you out of your hard-earned cash).



Despite hire companies knowing that winter comes each year this is an opportunity for them to levy an additional charge for the winter tyres and snow chains that your hire car will need by law in many European countries.

Many people are surprised when they arrive at the car rental desk to pick up their car to be told that they have to pay an additional fee for the hire car's anti-freeze, tyres and chains so if you're not sure check your booking T&Cs. The charge is usually about 5 euros a day.One way you can save money is to make sure you buy your car hire excess insurance in advance and save up to 70% when compared with buying it at the car rental desk. Excess Europe retails for £39.99 for an annual policy or £2.99/day for Single Trips."

Find out more about icarhire insurance Here

At the insurance4carrental.com site we have a list of Driving Guides for numerous countries. Information has been compiled from our partners in the travel, car hire and insurance business and whenever we have the winter tryre in snow image, information on regulation is provided.  For example in Bulgaria "Snow chains should be carried in the car in the winter from 1st November to 31st March. The road signs will indicate when snow chains are compulsory or not. The use of snow tyres is not legally required"  Find out more about the driving guides Here 

In the meantime if you are renting a car in a country like England, that hopefully has just had it's snow fall for the winter, remember driving conditions can still be icy and if you are not used to a car because it is not your own personal one, but a "hire car" take even more care. 
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Flash Sale discounts at Holiday Autos

February 11th, 2012 No comments
Holiday Autos today announced that If you’re one of the lucky ones planning a holiday before the end of March, make sure you’re quick off the mark to save money on your car hire in the Holiday Autos’ Flash Sale. - "10% off car hire in selected locations in the Holiday Autos’ Flash Sale"

Between 13th – 19th February 2012, (that is this coming Monday and the following Sunday) Holiday Autos is offering 10% off car hire in South Africa, UAE, Cyprus, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The promotion is valid for pick-ups until 31 March.



In order to redeem this offer, simply use the promotion code FLASH10 when prompted during the booking process. A minimum 3 day rental applies.

Go to the Holiday Autos website Here and book a holiday to somewhere hot now. They have included the UK in this promotion and it is currently minus 4 degrees in the High Wycombe, Bucks area however as this offer is valid for pick-ups until 31st March we could have a heat wave by then. Remember the Easter of 2011?

According to Holiday Autos media department - "The FLASH10 promotional code will apply a 10% discount off the car rental cost off car hire bookings made in United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, UAE, Cyprus and South Africa until 19 Feb 2012 for rentals until 31 March 2012. Minimum 3 day rental applies. This code must be entered and applied in section 6 of the booking details page in order to redeem the discount.

Please note that this code may not be valid for selected car types and you will be informed on section 6 of the booking page, once you have applied the code. This code will also not be valid for van, prestige or motorhome hire bookings. Limited offer. This promotion is subject to availability. All bookings which require confirmation within 48 hours will still be eligible for the 10% discount providing the original booking is confirmed with our supplier.

If we are unable to confirm your original booking within 48 hours you may still be eligible for the discount providing you re-book your car hire with holiday autos within 48 hours of being notified that your original booking cannot be confirmed. The holiday autos standard terms and conditions apply. Prices are applicable to UK residents only and may be subject to change without notice." Source Holiday Autos News Room 10--2-12
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Car hire companies getting ready for Valentines Day

February 9th, 2012 No comments
With Valentines Day only under a week away, the car hire companies marketing teams are sending out the special offers.

Just received two in the last 24 hours. First of all Holiday Autos, the company celebrating 25 years in the business sent out an email saying - Sprinkle a little romance into your life with a Valentine's break away.

Our enchanting selection of locations gives you the perfect mix of winter sun, sightseeing or ski - and car hire from as little as £4 per day - Take a romantic break in Paris, Rome, Milan and Pisa and save 10% on car hire with our love

Carrentals was talking about Venice - the city of Love. The glorious city of Venice has changed little in the last 600 years and is known for its culture and architecture by those fortunate enough to visit.


Many wealthy Europeans taking Grand Tours of Europe arrived in Venice in the 18th and 19th centuries and never left. Great artists, led by Canaletto, immortalised its waterways and magnificent architecture for future generations...
 
So if you are thinking of taking a romantic break or any other kind of break or going away on business don't forget to arrange your car hire in advance as you usually save money when you pre-book.
 
To find out more about Holiday Autos - Click Here
 
To find out more about Carrentals - Click Here 
 
Oh I nearly forgot, another thing you can save money on is if you buy your car hire excess insurance from a specialist insurance company. You can find a list by following this link
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