Comments on: Read the small print when booking car hire

By: Is annual car hire excess insurance a good buy?

Is annual car hire excess insurance a good buy? — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:15:38 +0000

[...] may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!I’m always trying to point out the potential pitfalls of car hire because it is complicated to come up with best all round car hire deal. You should never purchase [...]

By: Sue Agland

Sue Agland — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:19:45 +0000

Economy Car Hire
You are really guilty of repeating yourself now – so forgive me if I do the same and say that yes – future improvements would be great but will not benefit past customers who believed that your top up insurance was comparable to other companies in that it was fully inclusive.
How can you justify covering glass that is broken by a thief but not a lock?
I repeat – crazy.

By: Economy Car Hire

Economy Car Hire — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:11:19 +0000

Hi Kyle, Sue and Karen,

We currently provide a more inclusive product than any other car hire broker, with no insurance excess as standard, a free additional driver and unlimited mileage. Where possible we try get all other charges included in the price. As a result of this we are sometimes slightly more expensive than other brokers when you compare the headline price, but once you add up the final price we are normally much cheaper.
With all types of insurance, it is always wise to read the terms and conditions to check what is and is not included as there are many different levels of cover available.
We are always working hard to improve our offering, and we will be enhancing our top-up insurance product shortly.

By: Karen Bryan

Karen Bryan — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:29:45 +0000

Kyle – I agree all inclusive should mean that with no exclusions.

Sure – I have to hold my hands up to not reading the terms and conditions of the additional insurance, I assumed it covered everything excluded by the standard supposedly all inclusive price.

By: Sue Agland

Sue Agland — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:50:54 +0000

An agreement with insurers in the future would be very good but will not help past customers who have been misled by airauto staff at the airport. The economycar hire website states on the ‘front’ page of their website ‘no excess for theft or damage’ but fail to say that they only mean damage caused by collision. The implication when you take out ‘top-up’ insurance is that makes a partial policy inclusive. Most major insurers DO include locks and keys in their top up insurance.
When even experienced travel writers have been misled by this it is not surprising that economycar hire are catching out a lot of other independent travellers.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:55:58 +0000

It is disappointing that an “all-inclusive” insurance still have some exceptions. When people want to pay extra for peace of mind, they are willing to pay for everything to cover.

It does not make commercial sense to offer less than this to people who are willing to pay more for 100% cover. So if that cover costs an extra £1 a day (or whatever), people may well be willing to pay that for 100% peace of mind than those who are willing to take a risk anyway and pay for a substantially lower cover price.

I have discovered that car rental companies in Australia are not willing to forego extra charges as goodwill should a disaster (remember the recent forest fires in Oz?) prevent the tourists from delivering their vehicles to a previously agreed place and time. Once again I would have paid extra if for some reasons outside my control, I’m unable to deliver the vehicle at the agreed location and time.

By: Karen Bryan

Karen Bryan — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:13:14 +0000

Economy Car Hire, thanks for your comment, I do hope that you can come to an agreement with your insurance provider so that your car hire can become truly all inclusive.

By: Economy Car Hire

Economy Car Hire — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:03:34 +0000

Hi Karen,

The following wording appears alongside the top-up insurance option and we think this makes it very clear to customers:

An additional £7.00 will provide insurance cover against damage to glass, wheels, tyres and the under body, which are not already covered by our comprehensive insurance. View https://www.economycarhire.com/docs/insurance_faq.php and https://www.economycarhire.com/docs/Insurance_Policy_Wording.pdf.

I would also like to point out that there is no insurance excess in the event of theft or collision damage, please see our terms and conditions for full details http://www.economycarhire.com/terms.php. At the moment our top-up insurance which is offered when booking online at £1 per day only covers loss or damage to the glass, wheels, tyres, and under body. We are however talking with our insurance provider about the possibility to extend the cover to the locks and other parts of the vehicle that are not normally covered.

By: Karen Bryan

Karen Bryan — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:40:11 +0000

Sue – the exclusion of locks and keys has been confirmed by econonycarhire in their reply to my email below -
“The additional insurance does not cover loss of vehicle keys or damage to the locks as per the terms and conditions as displayed at the time of booking and on your booking voucher”

Looks like I have not taken my own advice and read the small print carefully as
I’m in Spain at moment with car hired through economycarhire having paid the additional insurance and assuming I was covered for everything.

By: Sue Agland

Sue Agland — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:43:18 +0000

Hi Karen
Yes, I paid the ‘top-up’ insurance with economy carhire in the UK when I booked the car. On returning the car to the airport the representative from Airauto (their local supplier) told me that the locks were covered and that I would be able to claim the 300euros back from economycar hire. BUT – apparently locks are not covered by their insurance brokers (which are questor insurance). Most reputable major insurers (like Fortis) DO cover locks in their top up insurance – so I think this is very misleading. Ecomomy carhire boldly state on their website that there is ‘no excess for theft or damage’ but fail to list the exclusions in the same size font. If a thief had smashed the car window I would have been covered, but because he damaged the lock then I am not covered! Crazy!!