Apr 13

Travel Insurance with Car Hire Excess Included

Where to buy travel insurance with car hire excess insurance?

Travel and car hire usually comes together so it would be great if we can buy an insurance policy which cover the rental car excess and the travelers too during the journey.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any travel insurance with car hire excess insurance included in the price. However there is a solution and it is possible to buy both insurance at once. I recommend you to keep reading below for how to taking out this travel insurance and car hire excess cover.

Questor Insurance Services Limited offering many insurance product including single and annual travel insurance and daily or annual car hire excess protection. When you buy one of their insurance you might be interested in an other policy and you can receive a multi-policy discount of 5% or buy three or more policies and get a multi-policy discount of 7.5%.

[important]Consider buying more Questor Insurance policies and you can get up to 7.5% discount![/important]

Questor Insurance product range:

Travel Insurance

Questor has designed a great travel insurance offering giving a range of products at competitive prices with the flexibility to tailor the product to your exact requirements.

Annual European Travel Insurance starts from just £31.07 for a single adult, family cover from just £59.03 for a family of two adults and two children.

>>More info 

LifeStyle-Excess Insurance

Did you know that you can now insure the excesses on your Household, Motor, Travel, Pet and Health Insurance policies for as little as £26.99.

>>More Info  >>Get a Quote

Car Hire Insurance

Our benefit rich product that insures the excess on a car rental agreement plus much more. Daily and annual policy options and worldwide coverage.

>>More Info  >>Get a Quote

My Driving Licence Insurance

Insure against the loss of your driving licence through the totting up process. Our insurance pays additional travel expenses for up to 12 months. Three levels of cover available for clients with upto 8 points in the last three years.

>>More Info  >>Get a Quote

 

Apr 09

5 car rental tips that will help you to save some money

How to choose the perfect car hire agency? Here are a couple of tips that can help you to book the perfect vehicle:

  1. The best option is to book your rental car online. It’s pretty easy and it will save you some serious money. Once you booked your hotel online, you can also do the same when it comes to car rental.
  2. Have you ever considered rent a car for weekend? It’s a great way to get discounted rates, sometimes you can even get up to one-half off.
  3. Weekly rate deals can also save you some money when it comes to car hire. Car hire agencies offer rental cars for €30 per day but they may offer discounted weekly rate for 7 days – €210.
  4. Insurance is a tricky question and you can save money when you buy car hire excess insurance and you say no to the insurance offered at the car rental desk. Car hire excess insurance reviews >>
  5. Plan ahead and book in advance. It’s a very good idea to plan ahead your trip because it will help you to save money – at least a week in advance. You’ll get better choice of rental cars and more discounted rated.

To be continued …

Apr 02

Car clubs are getting more and more popular

Cars are very comfortable, you can drive around wherever you want, it gives you freedom but it has a price. This price is going up day-by-day. Just think about the fuel cost, the tax, repairs cost etc. Owning a car costs a fortune. What other alternatives do we have?

You can i.e. join a car club. What are these car clubs?
You can join a club to rent a car when you need it. Car clubs are becoming more and more popular especially in urban areas where owning a car can be very costly.

Advantages of becoming a car club member:

  • They are pretty easy to join.
  • you only have to pay a yearly subscription and insurance to use this service (road tax and 30 miles petrol come in the price).
  • you can rent small or large cars however there are clubs who have MPV’s, premium cars and vans.
  • Fully comprehensive insurance is also included in the price but there is an excess which may vary depending on the vehicle type, drivers age and some other factors too.
  • You’ll get a fuel card with which you can top up the car without handing over cash at the petrol station. When you drop off the car the computer will calculate if you need to pay for the extra fuel.

Important to remember: drivers’ minimum age is 19 and the driver must have a full driving licence for at least 12 months. Car hire excess insurance reviews >>

Source: http://www.bewiser.co.uk/news/car-insurance/car-club-cuts-congestion-fuel-costs

Mar 26

How to save money when you’re on holiday

I came across a great article on how to save money when you’re on holiday. There are great money saving tips that you can follow. I’d like to share them with you:

  1. Premium phone lines: there are travel companies that can charge you extra when you call them to make a booking. You have to watch out when you dial 090 numbers, they are probably the most expensive ones. Ryanair has a very expensive number to which cost you £1 a minute (higher from mobiles). The most common numbers are the 0871 numbers, they’ll charge you only 10p/minute. Travel companies use these premium phone lines to get some extra revenue. How you can avoid them? Book everything online, it’s free and secure.
  2. Credit and debit card fees: these fees can add an extra £48 to the cost of a family booking. It’s a lot of money and it has attracted the attention of the OFT. Aviation companies has raised appr. £300 million a year in this way since last December. It has been said that the aviation industry will ban these exessive extra charges but since then not much happened. EasyJet has dropped this fee but introduced a new one called “administration fee” (£9) same with Ryanair – administration fee of £12. How you can avoid it if you can avoid it at all? Always check the bottom line and take all charges into account before you make your booking.
  3. Airport parking: airport car parks cost a lot, it’s a really easy way to raise revenue for the airports. Prices can vary (for stays longer than  days), these are per day prices:
    – Heathrow long-stay car park: £17.20
    – Gatwick: £13
    – Manchester: £90 for 7  days
    – Stansted: £12.50
    – Edinburgh: £9.90
    You can avoid these high parkig fees by booking airport parking online or you can visit special sites where they offer you better and cheaper solutions i.e. at airport hotels.
  4. Airport security: everybody has to use these little plastic bags for liquids and pastes but they can cost you a lot of money when you don’t bring your own. Always brings your own -it’ll only cost you (packs of 50) 68p in Sainsbury’s, the size has to be 20cmx20cm. Manchester can charge you £1 for two small plastic bags.
  5.  Car hire extras: there’s always confusion about car hire extras. Many car hire companies want you to buy extras you may already have. There are many other policies offered by different insurance companies that can reduce these costs >> Car hire excess insurance reviews

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-advice/9162291/Holiday-money-saving-guide-How-to-escape-extra-charges.html

Mar 19

WeCar car-sharing program expanding

Good news for the residents and visitots of Lane Transit District and the cities of Eugene and Springfield that the WeCar car-sharing program is expanding. WeCar is part of the Enterprise car hire company and the company will expand its rental program with 4 more cars – 1 in Springfield and 3 in Eugene (Ford Fusions).

When you want to us the WeCar car-sharing program you have to pay the following:

  • annual membership fee – $25 fee for the first year plus $35 in credits for the member
  • $5 to $9 an hour including fuel, insurance with a surcharge of 20 cents per mile for driving over 200 miles

Once the members paid the annual fee they can book the car over the Internet. The members pick up the car at designated spots using a membership car to open the door and get the ignition key. Once they finished using the car they just have to return to the designated location. It’s really easy and fast.

Car Hire Excess Insurance Reviews >>

Source: http://www.registerguard.com/web/newslocalnews/27777146-41/eugene-wecar-program-car-ltd.html.csp

 

 

Mar 13

Loss-of-use policies – what’s the truth?

Damaged Rental Car
Mr. Tamminga from Tucson, from the US has rented a car with Dollar for a family reunion. Luckily he had done his homework and knew that it would be unnecessary to buy extra insurance at the car hire desk because he had his insurance for his own vhicle plus the extra coverage provided by the credit-card issuer.

When he picked up his rental car a Dollar sales rep told him that he’ll be still charged for the loss-of-use if anything happents to the vehicle and maybe he won’t be covered by the credit-card company. That’s why Mr. Tamminga bought the insurance – just to be on the safe side.

What’s the truth?

  1. Not all car rental companies will charge you for loss-of-use: Hertz, Avis and Budget do it. Enterprise says that some of their branches do, some don’t, it depends. (This is the situation with car hire companies in the US.)
  2. In most states the auto insurance providers won’t cover the loss-of-use. Only Alaska, Connecticut, Louisiana, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island and Texas require insurers to cover rental-car loss of use.
  3. Credit-card providers: Visa is pretty generous and covers it but Discover and MasterCard don’t . American Express takes everything on a case-by-case basis. They can also request fleet utilization logs which means that the car rental company has to prove how long a vehicle was being repaired. Many car hire firms don’t want to share such an information, claiming that it’s a trade secret so that also means the car rental company won’t pay for the loss-of-use. Very twisted situation indeed! Some car hire companies will charge you for a month repair time when it have should taken only 3 days. You might not be in the position to verify this with an independent mechanic and you have to take the company’s word. You might ask for legal advice but when the cost of repair is “only” $100 or $200 it doesn’t worth it.

What’s the advice? What can we do in a situation like this?

  • We have to do our homework: always check your personal insurance policy and check with your credit-card issuer as well.
  • If everything is covered but the loss-of-use take the chance but it has to be your own decision.
  • If you want peace of mind go for the extra insurance you can also go for car hire excess insurance which is cheaper and you can book it online in advance.

There are excess insurance for car hire companies who are offer covers again loss of use charge. Ie. worldwideinsure and questor insurance both will cover loss of use if chatged by the car rental company.

Source: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/09/business/la-fi-lazarus-20120309

 

Mar 05

Big brand car hire company mis-selling car hire cover

I’ve just came across an interesting article about mis-selling car hire cover:

Conor Mills from East-London rented a car with big brand car hire company – Budget  at Knock Airport, in Ireland.  He was fully covered against excess charges but he picked up the car at the aiport the lady at the Budget desk told him that the insurance did not cover any accidents deemed my fault, or repair time.

He has already paid an extra £26 for an excess waiver, to avoid to pay the 1,200 Euro excess if he damaged the car and on top of that he had to pay 45 euros for Budget’s own excess waiver which was pretty unnecessary.

The problem is that Conor was misled by Budget because he paid for a second policy that did not offer any additional protection. Although Budget accepted that the policy that was sold by the car hire broker online (CarHire3000) was valid but they refused to comment on whether the Budget staff misled the customer and they did not offer any refund. Luckily the car hire broker refunded him although it wasn’t their fault.

Good advice: when you have a proble like this with a car hire company and they won’t help you please contact the Financial Ombudsman to solve the issue.

More information car hire excess insurance >>car hire excess insurance reviews

Source: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/279127/watchdog_misselling_car_hire_cover.html
#ixzz1oGE8rSPn

Feb 29

Car hire fuel policy full – empty scam?

Car hire fuel policy is a scam?

When it comes to hire a car in Spain one of the most common problems for a client is the charges apply for the fuel full/empty policy. We’ve collected the rental policies used by the car rental companies in Spain and the Canary Islands.

The three most used fuel policy in Spain:


1.) The car is supplied with a full tank and must be returned with a full tank of fuel.

2.) The car is supplied with a full tank of fuel which should be paid for upfront when the customer collecting the car. The rental company charge at normal petrol station prices but also add a sevice charge around EUR20-30 and the car should be returned as empty as possible. No refund for unused fuel.

3.) The car is supplied with a different level of fuel and must be returned with the same level. ie. Half full -Half full

These are the common practicing in many major Spanish locations including Malaga Airport, Alicante Airport, Barcelona Airport, Seville Airport, Madrid Airport and Palma (Mallorca) Airport.

The 1. and the 3. options give the best value for the renters because they have to pay what amount of fuel they used. The value of “forced full-empty policy” can be vary by car hire supplier to supplier.

I believe they are in a price compatition and selling rental cars for €4/day as today and they have to make some money somewhere else..

While some companies don’t go too far and adding only a little extra others have no shame and charging €86 for a tank of fuel for a Kia Picanto at Tenerife. (When I writing this 1 liter unloaded petrol cost €1.06 in Tenerife and a Picanto holds 35 liter.

So what can you do about it? 1. Check what the rental policy say about the fuel. If “full-empty” ask them about what they charging for a full tank. If sound too much go for an other car hire firm. 2. calculate the price including the full tank it’s possible it is still a good price. 3. Go with a rental company who offer a full-full policy even for a higher daily rental fee.

To receive the full-full  fuel policy in Spain simply book online with www.Avis.co.uk. Booking with Avis means, that you can choose if you want to return the car’s tank full or empty.

Full – Empty policy provided by: Goldcar, Interrent, Dickmanns, Drivalia
Update: in 2020. full – empty fuel policy is no longer used by car rental companies but new service like easy return, fuel service option and smart return are introduced. For a service fee you can return the car without refueling and you will get a refund for the unused fuel.

If you want to rent with “full-full”  you can go with : Avis.co.uk, Sixt or Autoreisen.es

Feb 27

Spring road trip destinations in the USA

South Beach, Miami

Spring is a great time to start a road trip in the USA. The weather is getting warmer and nature is so beautiful during March and April. Why not start a road trip at this time of the year?

Let’s check out some of the nicest spring break destinations in the USA:

  • Do you fancy some climbing, tracking, camping or mountain biking then head to Utah, Arizona or to the Grand Circle. Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, Arches National Park, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and the town of Moab in Utah are the perfect places for an adventure road trip. If you would like to visit Arizona you can also find some beautiful places i.e the unique red rocks of Sedona or the world famous Grand Canyon. There are also some spooky places in Arizona, you can visit some very interesting ghost towns. If you like boating then drive to the Lake Mead Recreational Center it’s definitely worth a trip. If you want to spend some time in the US then you can choose a longer road trip like the Grand Circle which has probably the most beautiul scenery and parks in the whole country and it takes about 2 week.
  • If you like warmer weather during March and April you can always visit Miami and its great beaches, restaurants. You won’t be bored because it’s always something to do here. South Beach is the best spot for some people watching and don’t forget about the long, white sandy beaches, you can’t wish for more. For nature lovers Florida Everglades is a must-see, you can go for an airboat ride and spot some aligators. Miami’s nightlife is also unforgettable – just a few examples of the best bars and night clubs in Miami:Tobacco Road, Crobar, Wet Willies, Clevelander or the Mango’s Tropical Cafe . You can reach Miami if you take I-95 south through Florida from all northern destinations.
  • Do you want to relax and enjoy life to the full then head to Key West which is the best place to enjoy the stunning tropical scenery. There are so many great historic bars in town that it’s really hard to choose. Sloppy Joe’s, Irish Kevin’s, The Green Parrot, Kelly’s Caribbean Bar, Hog’s Breath Saloon or the Finnegan’s Wake Irish Pub – well, the list is endless. You can get to Key West from Miami by taking Route 1 south from Miami to the Overseas Highway. This is actually a beautiful road trip which will take you through islands, waterways and inlets – they are truly breathtaking.
  • If you fancy a drive on the beach you can do it on Daytona Beach. Beautiful sandy beach where you have enough place to spread your towel – 23 miles of sandy beaches exactly. You’re actually allowed to take your car to the beach here, it’s very hard packed and drivable -but only one part. The temperature is perfect for a March or April spring holiday.
  • Panama City Beach is for party lovers, if you like long nights, cool drinks and big parties then head to the spring break capital of the world. Have you heard about the Coca-Cola Beach? It’s located here on the South Padre Islands, the Travel Channel called this place the biggest beach party in the world. Great weather, crystal clear waters and sandy beches – it’s the perfect spot for the perfect spring holiday.

Don’t forget about car hire excess insurance to get the peace of mind >>

 

Feb 20

AurigaCrown will cease trading – availability crisis in Spain this summer

[important]Update! May 2012 Auriga Crown Car Hire is now under new management and operating with 2000 cars at Malaga Airport.[/important]

AurigaCrown – Spain’s leading car hire company -will cease trading this summer which will mean that Spain will have a very serious shortage in rental cars this summer.
The loss of 15,000 rental cars will cause car hire prices rise significantly this summer. Due to the bad economic situations last summer, in 2011 Spain has already suffered shortage in rental cars because it was really difficult for them to raise finance to equip their fleet.

It is advisable to book your rental car in advance in Spain this summer because prices can be really high during the summer months. It is not yet known exactly when AurigaCrown will cease trading but it is important to contact your car hire provider or broker if you booked you rental car through AurigaCrown.

Car hire excess insurance for your summer car rental >>