What if I wreck the hire car?

[k-herm]

I have read the many helpfull discussions regarding car hire but have a query which I have not seen discussed already.

If I decline the tour operator's car insurance package (£392 for 2 weeks) on my fly-drive and arrange my own, what would my position be if I were to have an expensive accident?

For a small accident, I guess I could handle my credit card being charged and then claim back when I return home (this is how it works, isn't it?) but what if the car is written off - would the hire company try to charge my card for the price of a new minivan????

Maybe I've got this all wrong.......but I am confident that you will put me right. Thanks.

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

As long as you've got a good, all-encompassing insurance policy, you needn't be worried. Loads of people choose not to take out their tour operators insurance - because it is heavily loaded. You seem the sort to worry (like me ), so would highly recommend buying the all-inclusive insurance packages which cover for everything because their car insurance is quite different from ours. If you do a search there will be loads of help out there to find cheaper alternatives . . . something we're looking into at the moment for our next trip. We've only ever done it through Virgin Holidays in the past, but even with them now you get the option to buy your own insurance

Good luck - hope you find something suitable and peace of mind.

 

[witchypoo]

I crashed the 15 seater bus we had hired in January!!!
Well, I thought that if TCD were charging us £995 for 2 weeks insurance then i would get my moneys worth!! ( only kidding)
I went to change lanes at traffic lights and was so busy looking behind me that I tore open the side of the car in front like a sardine can .
I did in excess of £2,000 worth of damage
I can't really answer the question about personal car insurance but just wanted to say A) It's a real pain waiting for the cops to finally arrive- they had a bit of a shock to see a 5 foot woman getting out of this enormous bus with the aid of a step stool!!
B) The guys at the car hire firm were really lovely when I took the bus back, no need to worry.
C) The driver of the other car was very good about it and kept us all enterained with his stories of his hobby-airboat riding and stabbing aligators!!!!
Lin xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[jockey]

I crashed the hire car back in December 2000 on a slip road joining the I4. We had to wait 2 hours on the Florida highway patrol who then give me an $80 ticket for careless driving!!! The hire car company were fine about the whole thing and just brought a new car the next day. We had the Alamo gold package so did not have to pay anything!

We were staying at the GF and we drove up to the valet parkers, they rushed over very concerned and asked what happened? My DH replied "we picked the car up from you guys like this so you tell me" The CM's did laugh though!!

 

[k-herm]

Thanks for the replies. It seems that should any mishaps occur, the travel agent's insurance handles things smoothly (as it should).

However, as I am thinking of buying a separate policy (eg: www.insurance4carhire.com), I was wondering if anyone has experienced an accident / claim when covered either with this or a similar policy and if such a policy can be recommended.

A potential saving of almost £300 over the travel agent's price seems too good to be true - is it

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

Originally posted by k-herm
A potential saving of almost £300 over the travel agent's price seems too good to be true - is it

I've used independent car insurance (part of my American Express travel insurance) for the past 7 years, saving a small fortune in the process. Happily I've not had to claim as I've not had an accident, but I'm reasonably confident that Amex (which prides itself on good customer service) would do a good job of handling any claim I needed to make. I think there probably would be less hassle if I took out the all-inclusive policy offered by the tour operator, but that's a risk I'm repared to take because of the thousands £££s I've saved.

Regards

Rob

 

[k-herm]

Thanks for the reply Rob.

American Express is one of the options I had looked into. On the plus side, like you say, inclusive travel & car insurance from one place and also the A/E brand is well regarded. I can see myself going for this.

However, I will always know that I could have done it cheaper still.

Single trip family insurance bought online: £70
Car waiver, etc bought online: £100

....or A/Express : £280

.........or travel agent :£470.

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

The Amex policy really comes into its own when you go for longer trips or more than one trip in a year. For peace of mind make sure you check the levels of cover of independent policies against that offered by your tour operatror.

Also, don't forget that you will have to pay local taxes and surcharges when you collect your car at the airport. From memory these come to about $35 a week.

Regards

Rob

 

[patdavies]

We have always got our car hire independently, usually via www.airline-network.com.

Since we both drive (yeah right, maybe somebody might take it once round the car park or perhaps for a few miles on one of those nice straight roads called freeways!) and want to avoid the hassle of gassing up on the way to the airport, we always take the extra cover - it is about £18 - £30 depending on length of hire. It includes the extra insurance, extra drivers and a tank of gas.

I have to confess that since we are fully insured, I don't even bother to look too closely for damage on the vehicle at pick-up. After all I won't be paying for it.

BTW, for the majority of car hire companies CDW/LDW is somewhat of a scam. They don't use the money to pay for any insurance - they pocket it. Also the cars have minimum legal insurance - it is cheaper over the whole fleet to pay for the occasional damaged or written off car than to pay fully comprehensive insurance on the whole fleet. The personal liabilty is covered by insurance since payouts here can be in $millions.

Do the math; the average 747 carries about 400 people; the average family size is 4, so assume 100 hire cars per 747; further assume that half of these hirers take out the daily CDW/LDW at $19/day; this is 50 cars x $19 x 14 days = $13,300 per 747 per fortnight. so as long as they don't have to spend this on damage/car replacement for each planeload, they are quids (or $$) in.

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

Originally posted by patdavies
BTW, for the majority of car hire companies CDW/LDW is somewhat of a scam ...

Do the math; the average 747 carries about 400 people; the average family size is 4, so assume 100 hire cars per 747; further assume that half of these hirers take out the daily CDW/LDW at $19/day; this is 50 cars x $19 x 14 days = $13,300 per 747 per fortnight. so as long as they don't have to spend this on damage/car replacement for each planeload, they are quids (or $$) in.

Exactly right Pat. It's no surprise that the tour operators are so determined to sell their over-priced insurance.

Regards

Rob

 

[MalcolmC]

Just back from Orlando.

9th July arrived in Orlando .

Collected brand new Chrysler Pacifica (10 miles on the clock) from Dollar.

!0th July en route to MacDonalds for number three son's burger.

Mad Mexican swerves into rear drivers side wheel. Nobody hurt, luckily. Car is undrivable - wheel is hanging off.

60 miles on the clock!!!!!!

Phoned Dollar to report accident and was told to just go to the nearest depot and pick up a new car which I did the next day. Thanks to "Gold" insurance coverage.

P.S. Mad Mexican appeared to be under the influence, had three fake IDs, no driving licence or insurance. Polk County Police who were on the scene in under a minute must have had a field day with him.

They were very good to us though.

 

[Red-Snapper]

Originally posted by patdavies
. The personal liabilty is covered by insurance since payouts here can be in $millions.

Yes PL claims can be in the millions - All hire car companies I have seen only cover Personal Liability for the state minimum i.e £100k - £500k.

You seriously need to buy the extra top up SLI cover to ensure you have adequate coverage.

 

[patdavies]

See how much your travel insurance covers you for personal liability. Normally, you do not need SLI.

 

[Red-Snapper]

Pat - personal liability cover as part of a travel insurance policy usually excludes liability arising from the use of motorised vehicles.

This is an exclusion as this form of liability cover is more correctly picked up under motor insurance (as the PL aspect arises as a result of a motor claim)

Not sure if you are saying you take out the Travel Insurance offered on the Airline-network site but I have checked that cover and it DOES EXCLUDE liability arising from the use of motor vehicles.

However - renting a car from them INCLUDES the SLi automatically even though you say dont need it !!

So check the exclusions to the personal liability section of any travel insurance you take out carefully before dismissing top-up liability cover.

In most cases SLI is VERY necessary whether as part of the cover offered by the car hire company or as part of a separate car hire cover taken out independantly.

 

[kevin harrison]

Just get the best insurance possible....Here's my story....

Last year when we visited again, we hired a people carrier. One night I took it upon myself to drive up I-Drive to fetch KFC for everyone, I got my food and put it in the passengers front footwell and balanced the drinks upright.

Now I don't know if any of you remember the sharp right you need to take to get out of KFC in order to head down I-Drive towards the Rosen Plaza, well I'll never forget it.... Turning rapidly the drinks all tipped over in the footwell, Like an idiot I reached down to put them upright, next thing I know I'm heading up the pavement/sidewalk and heading for a bus stop !!!!! Luckily because I have experience of driving forklift trucks I'm capable of moving the wheel very fast, I was swerving and weaving out of the way of people like I was driving a dogem car. How I didn't hit anyone I'll never know to this day. I stopped myself and wondered what to do, angry people were heading for the car, should I wait for the Police? In the end I composed myself and drove slowly down to my hotel white as a sheet. I hardly slept that night and when I went to pick up my paper in the morning the Police were in the lobby and I was sure they were looking for me.

Anyway the Police were there for something else and nothing happened , but it just shows how something as silly as a spilt drink could have killed people and left me in serious trouble and facing numerous lawsuits.

Just get the best insurance you can, in case you spill a drink !!!

 

[Red-Snapper]

I agree Kevin.

Insurance is a difficult thing to understand and messing around with it without knowing what you are doing is a very dangerous thing.

Whilst I agree many travel companies try to cash in on prices for cover this is not the only thread I have seen on these boards that contains very inacurate advice that if followed could leave people with a very heavy uninsured liability to third parties.

Court awards in the USA for serious injury to a person can easily top $1m.

 

[k-herm]

Thank you all for your input!

So much advice and I'm as confused as when I started

Can someone tell me how the system works in the event of an accident if I have insurance other than that provided by the travel agent / hire frim?

....Say I'm on the road and have a bad accident (undriveable car)...then what?

Presumably the police would contact the breakdown service supplied to me by the hirers?

But then ......... Does the hire firm have to phone the UK office of my insurers to check all is in order?...or is my insurance note/certificate enough for them.. or do I have to pay and then reclaim when I get home?

OH God, I worry tooooooo much (but going by the number of views to my original post, others do to!)

Thanks for listening.

 

[Tron[ADS]]

In the past I've declined any extra insurance...i'm not sure why I did that, seems foolish now, but fortunately, I never had any problems.
Last few trips I have always been fully inclusive, and I always will now...I'm just too paranoid - I'm confident of my own driving, but worry about other people perhaps hitting me and driving off etc.

Ive seen some very dodgy driving out there, perhaps one of the strangest things Ive seen was on the 535, near to the LBV Factory Outlets, I saw a young lad at the roadside with the bonnet up, broken down, and at that time one of his mates arrived in his hilux type pickup truck......I went to the Reebock store to buy some Packers shirts or something, and then set off back the way I had come. Its a 2 lane road there, and I was in the right hand lane doing the speed limit.....next thing I know, this guy in the broken down car passed me on ths inside being pushed bumper to bumper bu his mate....thats right, pushed, not towed !....they got up to i'd say about 70 when the truck backed off and the honda civic type car then freewheeled to rest, where the pickup then resumed its pushing it back up to speed ! Crazy.