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……

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

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.”

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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.

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.

Ultimate Guide To Rental Car Insurance (Guest Post)

Car Rental Excess Insurance

Guest Blog Post

You’ve heard this one. It’s the birthday of someone special. In your opportune hours of kindness and generosity, you planned to put them behind the wheel of a nice car and travel somewhere special, maybe even somewhere magical. You didn’t purchase rental car insurance.

Things didn’t go as planned.

It might have been an accidental dent on your door from a nearby car, or perhaps you were simply blamed for damage that you missed during the inspection when you were at peak excitement for the adventure ahead. Was it really your fault? You hand the keys back with a whopping $5000 hit to your credit card and a sour taste in your mouth as you utter… more>

 

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.

 

Travel Insurance Vs Tripcover Car Rental Excess insurance

car-rental-insurance-option-comparison
Email enquiry from one of our customers at Tripcover

Karl: “As I am in the process of taking out a policy, I’m somewhat puzzled by the fact that one of your competitors “I Cover” provides supposedly similar cover as yours but the cost is less than half. How can this be?

Furthermore their policy also covers a number of other benefits.

Thanking you.”

 

Tripcover’s Reply
“Hi Carl, but they cannot say and do not say that they cover windscreens, undercarriage, tyres, lights and single vehicle accidents in their PDS because they don’t generally as they only cover what the standard

excess or CDW that the car rental companies offer.

But it is a free market, you can buy travel insurance which is what they offer or you can buy our specialist car rental excess cover. Up to you.”

PS Karl’s reply was as follows:
“Many thanks.

This would be a great brief for a PR campaign for Tripcover. For as a consumer, it can be very confusing out there.

My initial suspicion was based on the value for price/offering, which prompted me to investigate further, and the unclear answers I got back from them.

Thank you for getting back to me, so I can now take out a Tripcover policy, as well as passing on the information to family, friends and contacts.

Best wishes
Karl