Car-hire customers risk rip-off insurance - MyFinances.co.uk

Car hire insurance tends to be something people just accept as standard when they go on holiday but are consumers getting real value for money? Sarah Routledge investigates. Arriving at your holiday destination, weary after a flight, the last thing ...

Car hire insurance tends to be something people just accept as standard when they go on holiday but are consumers getting real value for money? Sarah Routledge investigates.
Arriving at your holiday destination, weary after a flight, the last thing you want to do is haggle with car hire staff over add-ons which push up the cost of your transport.
Firms may offer excess cover, personal liability cover, loss of property cover and personal injury cover in addition to the third-party cover that is included in the hire price before they hand over the keys.
But savvy consumers know that the helpful assistant offering extras at the point of sale is just trying to wring as much cash as possible by selling unnecessary insurance policies to the unwary customer – right?
Some of the policies on offer may well be unnecessary. Picking up extra insurance to cover the theft of any items left in your car, or personal injury in the case of an accident is pointless if your travel insurance already covers you. However, other products could be very useful.
Car-hire customers who neglect to take out extra insurance on their vehicles risk being hit with huge charges if their car is returned damaged, as rental companies will charge for the excess on the insurance policy.
In order to avoid a traumatic end to a holiday, most car-hire companies will offer additional cover to pay for the cost of the waiver. Yet this cover can vary between companies and can be very costly in itself.
will, in most circumstances, include third-party, vehicle theft and vehicle damage insurance in the vehicle hire price. But if the vehicle is damaged, customers will have to pay an excess, usually around £600.
To avoid the excess, customers can take out Premier cover, at a cost of between £11 and £15 per day, depending on the size of the car. This is charged for the first seven days of rental only, but could end up costing £105 for a week.
In Switzerland, a policy to bring your excess down to zero will cost approximately £21 a day, while in France the comparable charge is around £8 – but only if two other policies are taken out, which may or not be included in the basic rental price.