Insurance Guide UK Car Rental
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
This is a subject which causes a great deal of confusion with customers who are hiring cars in the UK.
The reason being there are many options available to you and you’re not quite sure what you need and what you can afford to refuse.
Seasoned can often get confused with this.
The part I am going to cover relates more to customers arriving in the UK from North America. Regularly credit card companies in North America make available additional benefits with their credit cards. Car rental insurance cover is one of these benefits . Very often car rental customers from North America when booking a car in the UK will request that the car rental company insurance is not included in the price as they have insurance with their credit card company.
The car rental company would only consider this if the credit card was a Gold card or a Platinum card, as these cards can cover, the whole cost of the car.
As a customer you should be aware of this. If you choose to use a Gold card for example to cover the insurance and you are involved in an accident. If the damage to the car was extensive and the car had to be replaced, the car hire company would take the total cost of replacing a car from the credit card.
The customer would have to claim this money back from the credit card companies insurance and hope they pay out.
If you don’t have a Gold card, just an ordinary credit card, you can still use your credit card insurance to cover some of the insurance cost. I am referring to the deductible when mentioning the insurance cost. In North America the damage excess could be referred to as the deductible. Briefly, this is the maximum sum of money that the car rental company will hold you responsible for in the event the car is damaged. The cost is likely to be in the region of GBP 600.00.
In this situation you cannot directly use your card to cover the excess . You would decline the optional insurance that would be offered by the car rental company representative. The representative will authorise your credit card for the total deductible amount. If the car was returned damaged they would deduct the cost of the repair from your card up to the maximum amount of the excess. You would then use your card cover to claim the excess amount back.
Some local independent car rental companies will offer you low cost insurance deals.
See Car Hire Prestwick Airport Low Cost