car hire costs

[laudan14]

I have booked with direct holidays and took up their offer of a "free car". This free car has cost me £364 for platinum insurance for 2 weeks for an intermediate car. Reading these sites I think I have been done but what would the price be booking direct and do you pick the car up just the same from the airport.

 

[Clare D]

Goodness that is expensive. We have booked through Virgin for our trip in Oct and their Platinum Ins cost has us £147 each week for an intermediate car.
Last year we went as independent travellers so booked direct with a UK car hire firm that use Dollar. The procedure was just the same as what you would find if you booked your car hire via your tour op.
I still have their info if you want it. I priced them up for this year but as we are Frequent Virgins and need a car seat for our DS then it worked out about the same. They are very reasonably prced though.

 

[steve_rob]

I cannot believe that repuatable holiday firms (including Virgin) are still doing this "free" hire car scam.

Looking through the brochures, the insurance on various "free" cars would have cost us somewhere around £340 for our holiday in November, yet we booked both car AND Platinum insurance for under £270 ourselves, and I bet we could have got cheaper than that if we'd really looked hard enough.

So if I do my maths, that means the car hire bit (minus insurance) must be costing us NEGATIVE £70... a bargain if ever I saw one!

 

[alisonbestford]

Okay, you can do car ins way cheaper - even with Dollar who like you to buy theirs as it's how they make their money on the 'free' rentals!

We just used the Dollar 'free rental' and took out annual insurance from:

insurance4carhire.com.

It cost £103 plus airport and state taxes (around £55 when we were there in Feb)

Alternatively, if you have a NatWest credit card, you can insure through them for £75 (£99 if you don't have a card)

http://www.thedibb.co.uk/jpeg/nwback.jpg

I know that some people are nervous about taking out independant insurance but we had no trouble at all. I spoke to both the car ins company (which says it might not be suitable for fly drives on the homepage) and Virgin and they both said it would be fine.
Saved us about £250 in the long run - yippee
Alison

 

[laudan14]

Am I reading this right. Can you take the free car from your holiday company (ie Virgin or Direct) then sort out your own insurance (ie through Natwest)
Thanks for the help

 

[Miffy2003]

Yes you can

 

[alisonbestford]

Yes you can
Just no-one at the rental firm will tell you-cuts their profits !
Alison

 

[disney13]

Excuse my ignorance, but who can you hire a car from here in the UK without needing to have their insurance.

Thanks,
Andy

 

[allie5]

We have a Nat West CC and Ive been tempted to pay for the £75 insurance as it seems a really good deal. However, we have been unfortunate enough to have been involved in an accident in Florida (not our fault, and no serious damage or injuries). We had the usual "all in" policy, from I think TCD and all we had to do was sign a form. The Dollar guy took some polaroids, wrote down all the info we had (name of the other driver, police incident number etc) and that was it. I have heard horror stories from people that have used their own cover and have had to pay for any damage (whether it was their fault or not) AND been refused another car. They then have to claim the money back from their insurer.

Has anyone had any experience of making a claim using one of these policies? I know AMEX do one as well. What happens in the case of an accident?

 

[alisonbestford]

I rang insurance4carhire (think this works in the same way as NatWest - may even be NatWest policy) before we travelled and they assured me that I would not have to pay anything if we had an accident .
I was told that it would all be dealt with through the insurers.
Now, fortunately, I can't say whether this is so but maybe if you get it in writing before you go...?
There's always someone with a horror story... Unfortunately these are the ones you hear about - not the good stories, just like in most situations
If you're hiring, independently, from the UK I think you can find some competitive, inclusive deals - tends to be the 'free' rentals that hike up the insurance payments!
Alison

 

[laudan14]

Spoke to direct holidays and I can cancel my car insurance without penalty. Do you think this is the right way to go. By reading the above if I keep the hire car and get my own insurance and just pay the tax over there I could save about £200.00. If they wont let me have the car without taking insurance I could still get a deal saving us about £100.00. Hubby would love to upgrade and if we could get the original car hire for less would feel as though it was not costing anything. I'm a bit worried about the comments on some insurance companies making you pay then claiming it back. Any advice please, have to pay the outstanding balance soon.

 

[alisonbestford]

I would cancel and rebook .
If you feel uncomfortable about separate insurance I'd look at booking a package from the US.
Someone sent me the Hertz site. If you look on the Budget Board you can usually find people posting discount codes too.
Look at Amis too - I'm sure others will have more suggestions.
Best thing is probably to post on the Budget Board to find out who the locals use
As I said, we had no trouble with the insurance we used but I was a little nervous too until I took a deep breath and decided to 'go for it'
Hope this helps.
Alison

 

[laudan14]

Thanks
Keep your opinions coming, I'm all ears.

 

[alisonbestford]

That's a point.
Try Mousesavers.com. They might be able to point you in the right direction for some savings
Or the Allears website - not sure of the address but I'm sure you can find it on here or through a search engine.
Alison

 

[laudan14]

Just e-mailed insurance4car hire and got this e-mail back.
Back to square 1

If you have a free car rental then I would not recommend our CDW/SLI insurance. This is because the car rental company will in all likelihood be expecting to make its profit from add-ons such as insurance and we would expect that they would not be very willing to accept our insurance in those circumstances.



Please let me know if I can be of further assistance



Kind regards



Maureen Ursich

Insurance 4 Car Hire Agents Ltd

Tel: + 44 (0) 207 012 6300

Fax: + 44 (0) 207 871 6315

 

[alisonbestford]

LOL, well that's not what they told me on the phone but there you go
Basically I was told that the rental company might try to make me buy their insurance but to stand my ground.
I was ready for the hard sell at the airport but just got a smile, told 'you seem to know what you're doing' (my work head is marvellous when it's put into action ) and sent on my way.
The package deals seem a good option - as I said earlier, I'd have a look around and ask who the locals use, picking up some discount codes on the way You just type the codes in at the end of your application.
Alison

 

[k-herm]

I have also booked a fly-drive with Direct Holidays for Oct.

At the time of booking I declined both their travel and car insurances. This was not a problem for the agent I was talking to, although she does require that I send a copy of our travel insurance documents before we go (to make
sure it's adequate which is fair enough).

As for the car insurance, I explained that I would get this elsewhere (I was thinking of using insurance4carhire but didn't mention the exact compny name) and she said that was OK. In fact, I doubt that the hire company in Orlando would care really. Certainly they would not be getting (and therefor losing out on) the full £364 that Direct Holidays are charging. Most of their customers will pay full whack, so the few who have done it independently might get a bit of hard sell, but I am certain that they would not refuse cover from elsewhere.

I do have some concern in not using the insurances offered, but I also hate getting ripped off (and £300 for travel insurance [I have paid £52!], and £364 for car insurance [I expect to pay £99 + local taxes], is a rip off.

There have been many other threads regarding insurances - it might be worth doing a search to get even more opinions.

 

[alisonbestford]

This was my response from insurance4carhire when I let them know I'd had no probs

Dear Alison



I am delighted you did not experience any problems. Thank you very much for letting us know and we will review our approach to this issue.



Kind regards



Maureen Ursich

Insurance 4 Car Hire Agents Ltd

Tel: + 44 (0) 207 012 6300

Fax: + 44 (0) 207 871 6315

Doesn't mean they'll change their view but you never know

I would certainly cancel the 'free' rental as I'm pretty sure, even if you feel more comfortable booking a prental package, you're going to save

I did a search last year and found that, using a discount code from the boards, I could save over £100 on the 'free' car plus their recommended insurance.
Why not post a separate thread on the budget board asking for rental deals? Explain how expensive the insurance is on the 'free' cars and see what anyone comes up with?

Good luck.

Alison

 

[alisonbestford]

Have a scout around this thread on the Budget Board.
I've only glanced at it but it might offer some suggestions.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=758884&highlight=car+rental

Alison

 

[martina857]

M