Singapore the Most Expensive City/Country to Renta a car – Madrid the Cheapest

Singapore is the most expensive city to hire a car. In fact, the daily rate for car hire in Singapore is over eight times more expensive than that in Madrid, at $115. Although, given that Singapore is a small island, you can probably get around without hiring a car.

The cheapest destination for car hire was the Spanish capital of Madrid, where the average daily rate was just $14. Madrid is known for its beautiful boulevards, parks and galleries, all of which can be explored on foot or by using the city’s Metro system.

See more results here:

https://www.theautochannel.com/news/2022/02/23/1109911-new-study-reveals-cheapest-countries-to-hire-car-after-prices.html

Fee Fighters: How to beat crazy rental car hire insurance fees

Insurance on a rental car can now be more expensive than hiring the vehicle itself.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Analysis by News Corp Australia shows that adding insurance to the cost of renting a Hyundai Elantra for a week doubles the price.

For example, through Hertz, intermediate vehicles are available for $316 per week, whereas its “SuperCover” product is $322. more……

How To Start A Car Rental Company

The car rental business is one which is always in demand. This is because people will always need to hire a car on a short-term basis for various reasons such as a work trip, going on holiday, or while their automobile is in the garage. The car rental industry can, therefore, be a lucrative and rewarding area to work in, but it can also be a competitive space while also being difficult to stand out from the crowd. So, how can you succeed in the car rental industry? Read on for a few tips for getting started and how you can go on to find success:

Type Of Business & Your Fleet

First, you will need to decide what type of rental business you will operate. This could be a company that offers customers (usually individuals) daily hire or short term hire, or alternatively, you could lease automobiles for a longer period (this option is usually for businesses). Once you have decided this, it should help you to decide on the vehicles that you purchase (choose a selection so that there is a type for all needs).

Website

A professional-standard website is an absolute must. This website should contain details (including photographs) or your entire range; you could even have the option for customers to arrange their rental online through ecommerce platforms to make it quick and easy for them to arrange a rental. In addition to having a high-quality website, you should also use internet marketing to increase your visibility online and use social media to engage with your customers and promote your business.

 Location

It is important to find a suitable location which is safe, spacious, and easy to find. Ideally, this will be near transport hubs like airports, train stations and hotels so that you can get more business passing through.

Insurance

Before opening the business, you also need to make sure that you have enough insurance in place. This will include fleet insurance and car rental excess insurance for customers. It can also be helpful to have a system in place for checking your customers before leasing them an automobile. You should also carefully craft a rental agreement for customers to sign to ensure that the vehicles are well looked after.

 Promoting Your Business

Finally, you will want to raise awareness about your company to attract customers through the door. As mentioned, internet marketing is a great way to do this, but you could also look into more traditional forms of marketing and getting involved with the local community. One excellent idea is to team up with local businesses to help each other, such as pairing with a local hotel where customers can get a discount on their hotel room when they hire a car from your company.
The car rental industry is one which can be rewarding to work in and one which is always in demand. It can also be competitive and hard to break into, but the above tips should help you to set up and operate a profitable company and to make a name for yourself in the industry.

New Zealand Tripcover Launches Car Rental Excess Insurance New Rates and Policies

Car rental rip-offs have been very topical lately, especially when the rental companies are falsely charging its customers for damage that they were not responsible for.
One way to counter this type of fraud is to let third party car rental excess insurance companies fight the battle with the rental companies. Tripcover is one such insurance company that offer such policies in Australia and now a full policy offering in New Zealand for residents and overseas visitors.

For six years now Tripcover has been offering Australians and overseas visitors to Australia a chance to offset this car rental excess liability and  they sell over a million dollars worth of cover for Allianz Gloabl Assistance now. They now have the same policy offering in New Zealand for New Zealanders and overseas visitors to New Zealand.

For more on what they offer visit Tripcover.com.au and Tripcover.co.nz

How This Startup Created a Funding Channel

I know this is going to sound very simple but I am about to tell you what has been a very valuable and lucky result of setting up a Paypal payment gateway.

First a bit about our business. Tripcover sells car rental excess insurance in Australia, and for Aussies going overseas, direct to the car rental customer and competes head on with the car rental companies and they don’t like us…ha!

We, my brother Steve Sherlock and myself Desmond Sherlock started the business at the start of 2012, creating Australia’s first standalone car rental excess insurance business and thus a new category was born here.

After the first 3 years I decided to add a paypal payment gateway and offer it as a zero payment fee option. It was an instant hit with our customers with about a 30% uptake.

Then about 18 moths ago Paypal started its Working Capital offering to customers with a track record of sales. This is a great service where we can decide how much % from each sale goes to make repayments and also choose how long we wish to take out the loan for and thus the size of the fee we wish to pay.

This has allowed us to take out a few small loans now and use them along with some local state grants/loans from Iowa and and the Global Insurance Accelerator (GIA)to expand our business into the USA over the past 2 years, creating:
www.pablow.com – Pablow Pronto, vacation rental managers earn extra revenue while offering cancellation protection to guests and owners, in under 2 minutes!
www.bonzah.com – Bonzah provides affordable and primary rental car damage insurance compared to the rental desk. So, travel anywhere with your rental car and take pleasure in declining the expensive rental car company insurance offer
www.pteet.com – Rental Car Damage Protector provides up to $40,000 in primary coverage and annual policy with coverage up to $45,000.

So I highly recommend this funding option when only small seed is needed while we are working on getting traction.

Rental sCARe Mongering

Car Rental Companies Scare Mongering Tactics

The other day I received a strange comment on our Facebook ad, so I checked their profile and found out that they worked for Thrifty but failed to disclose.

Here is their comment/queston:

“Just so long as they realise they have to have up to $4500 available to pay the excess in the first instance. It’s only an excess refund policy.”

View Facebook Ad Here

Not true. I went to my local Thrify depot and was told how it works.
It is optional if you take their CDW (Collision Damage Weaver) as it is to take the cover
that we sell for Allainz. If the customer does not take their CDW then that is fine and the car rental company will take a small amount out of your credit card as a deposit. The same applies if the customer has their own cover or uses Tripcover car rental excess insurance.

If you don’t have the funds to pay for major damage then that is the rental company’s problem not yours. If you have a debt card they will take some $750 out as surety. But once again if the damage costs exceed what you have in your bank then that is their problem not yours (liability is around $4000)

We ensure that we warn our customers on our home page of what our product is ie
a typical, insurance reimbursement, policy and you would need to claim from Allianz.

But it is true that if you have an accident the car rental company will assess how much damage costs and will err on the side of caution and usually charge your card around $4000 and refund later when they have an accurate quote. If it was just tyre or windscreen damage they would just charge the estimated costs.

It would be up to our customer to then submit a claim with Allianz and once completed
would be refunded within 10 working days.

The car rental companies are not happy that we sell this insurance cover as they make a large degree of their profits from their CDW and have been doing so in Australia for the last 50 or so years.

Tripcover was the first standalone reseller of this type of car rental excess insurance policy in Australia, starting in Jan 2012. We now sell over $1.5M worth of cover each year and it is growing annually with a number of new players in the market also.

Thrifty, Avis and all the other major car rental companies have failed to react to our foray into this market, other than try scare mongering, but like all lazy and greedy incumbents they may rue the day that they failed to heed the complaints of their customers and our warnings.

4 Things Your Car Insurance May NOT Cover!

Most people enjoy their problem-free holiday without worry; however, it’s estimated that as many as one in six holidays have something go wrong due to trip cancellation, lost baggage, stolen items, car rental damage and more. While some of these mishaps are totally unforeseen, most are predictable or even preventable.

Car accidents are one of those problems that are predictable, and while they’re not always completely preventable, there are certain steps that you can take in order to protect your financial well being before putting the rubber to the road. Conversely, the other option is to not purchase insurance, which can ultimately lead to a hefty bill if your insurance company refuses to pay out on your claim.

Steve Sherlock, co-founder and CEO of Bonzah.com and licensed agent in 50 states, recommends the following approach, “You should take a closer look at your insurance policies next time you rent a car or go on vacation. Chances are that you’ll be surprised what isn’t covered and how many excess charges and fees could arise. To prevent losing your money, you should understand what coverage is provided for your vacation and supplement it where needed.”

  1. There’s a Limit for Your Car Insurance 

Standard auto insurance is legally required and important for all drivers, but it will not always cover damages, accidents or theft when renting a car. Even if your auto insurance policy covers rental cars both at home and abroad, chances are you’ll still find yourself with a $2,000 to $4,000 bill for certain damages, deductible payments or bills that exceed your coverage limit if you get into an accident. The challenge is that many rental companies don’t inform policyholders of the potential out-of-pocket expenses unless you seek them out or before it’s too late.

  1. There’s a Lack of Personal Accident Coverage

When travelling outside of the country, it’s important to ensure that you and your family are covered in the event of an accident. In most foreign countries your medical insurance will not be valid and unless you purchase insurance to protect your family you’ll be on the hook for medical emergencies, evacuation and anything else that could potentially occur. For this reason you’ll see many travellers purchase travel insurance or some sort of specific medical coverage for an upcoming trip.

  1. The Liability Coverage May be Inadequate

It’s also important to have insurance coverage to pay for claims against you from people who may sue after an accident. Personal liability insurance should protect you from bearing the cost of injury and damage litigation in the event that you cause an accident in your rental car. In addition, in countries where auto insurance is non-mandatory or unpopular, you may want to consider purchasing a policy that provides you with coverage if a third party is liable for an accident, but does not have any insurance.

  1. What Damage is Not Typically Covered?

If you are planning a vacation with a rental car, consider what you’re willing to pay for in the event of damage or an accident. If you accidentally damage your windshield, lights, bumpers, trim, overheads, undercarriage, wheels or tires and you haven’t purchased rental car insurance (aka collision damage waiver) then there’s a good chance you’re paying out of pocket.

However, if you’d rather have the peace of mind of paying $7.99 a day and having everything covered versus risking having to pay a deductible, for damage or theft of the car, then car rental damage insurance is probably the best bet for your trip. Car rental damage insurance can increase the likelihood of a smooth vacation and can help keep everyone a little more at ease in case of an accident. To learn more about car rental damage insurance visit Bonzah.com, one of the few companies that offers primary insurance that will reimburse you up to $35,000 in repairs, replacement of the rental car for any reason out of your control and any deductible at a fraction of the cost of major car rental companies.

Top reasons your free credit card travel insurance could be denied

Common knock-back 1: “Oh, you actually think you can claim on that?”

I’m starting with the “automatic” insurance often offered domestically that reimburses nose-bleed car hire excesses (and saves you buying the rental company’s extortionate insurance) … if it’s worth the paper it’s fine-printed on.  more…..

Car rental insurance better than credit cards