Car Rental Insurance vs Domestic Travel Insurance

[jasonc]

Hi,

My partner and I are travelling to Broome later this month for 5 days. I will be renting a car and want to lower my $3000 excess.

The car rental company will charge just under $20 a day to reduce the excess. Domestic travel insurance for 5 days will be under $50 if I just insure myself and covers $3000 in car rental excess.

Sounds like the domestic travel insurance would be the better option.

Has anyone had experience claiming car rental excess against their domestic travel insurance? Also, is there any problem with just myself being insured (I'm the only one who will be driving).

Thanks,
Jason

 

[johnsmith]

I believe the travel insurance company will insist that you take every reasonable step to lower the excess, ie pay the extra $20, then after the car hire company has reduced the excess as low as possible. Then the travel insurance will pay the difference less any excess they charge for a claim.
I would ring them to find out.

 

[serfty]

Excess reduction "levies" are money makers for car rental companies. Some agencies really put the pressure on renters to get them to pay these levies; often using scare tactics.

Avoid paying the levies if you can.

Most travel insurance policies will cover you for the standard excess up to a defined limit. eg $2,500, so in these cases there is no need to pay an additional levy.

If you have travel insurance, check this out in the fine print and make a considered judgement on wether you need to pay the car rental company any extra for these levies.

 

[JohnCarrWestwood]

In My opinion the whole rental insurance is a scam .

Ipaay $600 PA car insurance,That should cover me for rentalas well.Ican only drive 1 car at a time..Ok Id be prepared to pay a small premium on my annual to cover rental.

In USA recently I thought I was covered by my CC insurance but on returning and reading the small print I was only covered for the excess IF IF IF I took the rental car top rate comprehensive insurance at $25USD per day. Add to that the rental for a GPS at$14 per day...

that was more than the car itself.

What I want is my own insurance co , in this case RACV, to cover me while I am overseas for a top up premium if they must at a reasonable rate.

This rental car insurance and Travel insurance for rentals is a gouging scam

 

[markis10]

I rent 50-60 times a year, and have just taken up the ANZ car rental excess offer, pays up to 2K after a $350 contribution for $24 PA on any ANZ CC. Piece of mind for a low price IMHO.

 

[oz_mark]

Ipaay $600 PA car insurance,That should cover me for rentalas well.Ican only drive 1 car at a time..Ok Id be prepared to pay a small premium on my annual to cover rental.

I once asked about this, and apparently a lot of it comes to the rental car companies preventing the car insurance companies from doing so (bearing in mind they are generally the same companies). The insurers share in the gouging along with the rental car companies.

 

[jb747]

Use the travel insurance. The car rental companies are basically selling snake oil.

Make sure you document/photograph the car carefully too. Seems to be a quite few people being hit with damage claims quite some time after they return the car. Another scam.

 

[JohnCarrWestwood]

Use the travel insurance. The car rental companies are basically selling snake oil.

Make sure you document/photograph the car carefully too. Seems to be a quite few people being hit with damage claims quite some time after they return the car. Another scam.

The travel insurance is only a top up AFTER you have paid for the fully COMP rental insurance ( in USA ) and taken the excess Cover so basically its parrot poop

Its gap insurance thats all.

Id rather pay an extra $100 on my annual premium to cover me while driving over seas cos I CANT DRIVE MY DOMESTIC CAR WHILE I AM NOT IN THE COUNTRY and no one else can cos Ive got the keys.
UMm I forgot

Insurance is not to protect the policy holder but to deliver a dividend to share holders. Silly me !

 

[straitman]

UMm I forgot

Insurance is not to protect the policy holder but to deliver a dividend to share holders. Silly me !

Good to see another person as cynical as myself :!:

 

[serfty]

For my 10-15 domestic rental per year I employ my Earth Platinum Amex to pay - this has inbuilt excess cover of up to $6500. (My annual travel policy is much less than this and only provides cover if > 1000 km from home)

If you regularly travel overseas, here a product recommended in this post by Dave Noble: (http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/com...sa-car-hire-help-needed-20771.html#post283701)

I would recommend using insurance4carhire.com to purchase coverage against the excess. The annual premium for USA CDW and SLI is GBP109 which works out as AUD198. Covers rentals of out to 31days working out at $6.82 a day

If you just want CDW, I think that the GBP65 annual worldwide policy will cover you nicely ($118) which comes in at $4.07 a day

Dave

Direct link: http://insurance4carhire.com/usa_and_canada.asp?subRefID=&langID=1&pageID=113&refID=100&curID=1

 

[AdMEL]

For my 10-15 domestic rental per year I employ my Earth Platinum Amex to pay - this has inbuilt excess cover of up to $6500. (My annual travel policy is much less than this and only provides cover if > 1000 km from home)

If you regularly travel overseas, here a product recommended in this post by Dave Noble: (http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/com...sa-car-hire-help-needed-20771.html#post283701)
Direct link: Insurance 4 Car Hire | Covers USA and Canada

serfty, the excess cover on Westpac Platinum cards, including Earth, is $5,500, not $6,500. Still more than enough for most rentals!

 

[ethernet]

Mystery Solved.
Insurance companies threatened to sue newspapers for printing insurance 'comparisons' - and obviously this bluff has worked - and always has - Hint the biggest 2 (AIG+Sun) are not generally the cheapest and the online ones are - and an insurance broker usually beats both. Gutless Aussie papers.

Like the imported book scam/protection racket , so too is Insurance for Australians. I found a Thai Travel insurance company - and it is cheap - 10 days for $24. Change my nationality to Australian - $96 please. Played a bit with the nationality tab - Canadians seem to pay even more, but thats it.
We even have Amex telling non-Americans - their same Amex product is the 'wrong sort' - ie lesser or no perks.

The insurance industry has bought out Google, I was lucky to find a trade board for expats that spilled the beans.

For Cheap books - booko.com.au - makes comparisons easy. Wow!
Is there a similar travel insurance price engine ?

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if you have such trouble finding an insurance policy to buy (ie: you giving them money), then aren't you just a little concerned about getting a genuine claim paid by them? (ie: them paying you money).

 

[ethernet]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if you have such trouble finding an insurance policy to buy (ie: you giving them money), then aren't you just a little concerned about getting a genuine claim paid by them? (ie: them paying you money).

Respectable countries like UK,USA or those regulated, no. I'll view the offer with care - but I would like the choice. Unlike books, they are not many other products that charge different amounts based on 'nationality'. Insurance is a con racket. UK insurance seem the most promising.

Presently the Australian Insurance seems 'community rated' - ie no discount for not claimed in last 5 years - so I would be subsidizing the victims of snatch and grabs for instance. The huge margins and padding speak loudly.
It also seems likely I will be in future subsidizing those with waterfront homes.

More on the Insurance Scam:
"We used to buy insurance in for about £3 and then some people sold it for £25!" - thats in UK - suggested number is a pound or 2 per day, per person.

Australians seem to have the most expensive travel insurance in the world( Japan and Canada are higher still, but seem to offer a lot more).
Those with credit card insurance - well those rates are more in line with 'global prices'.

I have found http://quote.insureandgo.com/AMT/compare.aspx
say Annual silver insurance for £54.68 pp (UK Res. Only). I want to find something similar that has car hire insurance, as well, rather than buying a UK policy for that too.

It also underlines how Australians are being fleeced. Gerald Harvey may be whinging about online purchases, but another sheltered 'sector' is about to feel the winds of change.

 

[medhead]

A few interesting comments. Insurance is a bet against the risk of things happening. Risk varies depending on a large number of factors, such as location, nationality, age and etc. Therefore, of course, insurance cost is going to change depending on location. As is travel insurance for people who are more likely to do risky things like Australians.

 

[ethernet]

The price of insurance is influenced, mostly by competition - or lack of it.
When you are redirected to 'partners' - price discrimination jumps right out.

Since HIH went under there is a nice pool of 'collective' taxation, and just to even things up AIG (US) is probably altered the market there too.
Another factor is local .gov taxes or 'stamp duty' - people in SA pay $11 more, plus GST. See https://www.scti.com.au/travel-insurance/online-quote.aspx .

Risk? I don't think Australians are 5X the cost/risk relative to Brits, plus the insurance co's have close medical evac to Australian Medicare. It would be an eye opener for someone in the industry to state the risk difference. Not that age grouping is available. Again, 'Expat' insurance disproves these differences, and points to plan old protectionism.

 

[medhead]

The price of insurance is influenced, mostly by competition - or lack of it.
When you are redirected to 'partners' - price discrimination jumps right out.

Since HIH went under there is a nice pool of 'collective' taxation, and just to even things up AIG (US) is probably altered the market there too.
Another factor is local .gov taxes or 'stamp duty' - people in SA pay $11 more, plus GST. See https://www.scti.com.au/travel-insurance/online-quote.aspx .

Risk? I don't think Australians are 5X the cost/risk relative to Brits, plus the insurance co's have close medical evac to Australian Medicare. It would be an eye opener for someone in the industry to state the risk difference. Not that age grouping is available. Again, 'Expat' insurance disproves these differences, and points to plan old protectionism.

Sure competition will play a part in the price but the fact remains that risk is the primary consideration. Frankly any insurance company that just undercuts without considering risk is quickly going to be out of business once they have to pay out more on claims than they have collected in premiums. (umm, hih)

Taxes I'm not sure how that has anything to do with insurance companies and lack of competition. No need to tell me about South Australia.

You haven't really provided a valid comparison for the statement about being 5x as risky. There is the 55 quid annual silver policy but what is that for? Annual travel policy? Firstly on the pricing 5x £55 is about $460. I've found an annual policy for cheaper than that.
But look at the risk Australia is easily more that 5x the size of the UK. The population is more sparse and the transport options are fewer. So in the event of something going wrong for domestic travel all of these limiting factors are going to make recovery potentially more expensive in Australia.
For international travel Australia is a long way from the rest if the world. Again making recovery potentially more expensive. Compare the potential costs for a UK businessman jetting around Europe with those of an Australian in Europe.

Age- well my latest insurance policy asked my age.