Category Archives: Kea

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

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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

Rental sCARe Mongering

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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.”

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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.

A Question from one of Our Customers

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Jerzy:
“I recently purchased Tripcover for a rental car hire.
After picking up the car, I realised that the car had existing damage that I had not reported on the Damage Form that I signed.
I am concerned that I may have to pay the excess to Budget and put in a claim if they try to say the damage occurred during my rental period.
I have been looking over your claim form in case I need to complete it.
Can you please tell me what you mean by Police or Accident report and what you would require for this type of damage so that I can be prepared if Budget charge me the excess for this damage.”

Tripcover Team Member:
The police report is only needed if it was a significant accident Kate.
This is a common trick the car rental companies can play with their customers.
Always pays to walk around the car and video it or take a few pics.

 

SOLO TRAVELING AROUND TASMANIA – 10 GOOD REASONS

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Alleine-durch-Tasmanien-6If you wanna travel around Australia on your own, then you should definitely consider self-driving around Tasmania. Tasmania is the smallest state of Australia far down in the South. Read on to find out why solo traveling around Tasmania is a good idea…..More>

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Best service I ever got, that gives us a warm feeling!!!

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5 out of 5, reviewed on Mar 29, 2016,
ProductReview.com.au

My husband and I planned to make a trip from the Netherlands to Australia in May-June 2016. We booked in advance a camper during 6 weeks. The insurance was from Tripcover.
Unfortunately my husband got very, very ill. He needed an operation and further therapies. It wasn’t possible to make the planned trip. But his health is most important. We booked a lot in advance and when you are worried about your husband it is very, very difficult to ask for cancelling all the booked things, specially for English is not my native language.
Desmond Sherlock of Tripcover responded prompt: “Give me some days and I will see what I can do for you.” Some days later we got the prepaid money refund!!!
Gorgeous, it gives us a very, very warm feeling in difficult times.
Hilde and Jan Nelissen, Sittard, Netherlands

Peace of Mind & Service at a Fraction of the Cost

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Latest ProductReview from Brad one of Tripcover’s Customers
Hiring vehicles when driving in unfamiliar areas as well as being worried about even slight damage such as carpark door dents, bumper / undercarriage damage & windscreens, is always a concern. However, Tripcover gave us peace of mind. Beforehand I had a query re the policy’s T & C’s & Des personally responded within a day.

Great service at a fraction of the car rental company’s excess reduction (which also does not cover the extent of damage that is covered by the Tripcover policy). And it’s backed by Allianz should a claim be made. We look forward to using your rental vehicle insurance service again in the future.