Disputing damage to hire car?

It doesn't. Included in the bill is the cost of their staff's time in making all the arrangements, taking the car to/from the garage etc *and* the loss of hire charges whilst the car is off the road. Ask for a breakdown of the costs and see what they say.

tim

Get them to pull out the last Check-In from the previous person who hired the car. You can be sure that if it was there BEFORE you had the car, it would be itemised on the previous person's Check-In. Happened to me once, and they apologised.

Regards, darren

With summer coming up - thats probably a timely reminder for people to have a good look around the car and get any scrapes-n-stuff marked on the sheet before they drive away .

There was a case on watchdog a few years ago where a company who hired sports cars only really delivered their cars at night & always stung you for body repairs afterwards .

The car got delivered and the aa/rac took it away on a trailer to a rolling road to put some miles on it and then brought it back on the trailer , Several days later the researchers credit card got stung for body repairs that was already on the car .

Needless to say the hire company said the same old things when the researcher phoned up to complain and they refused to budge on the matter until it was pointed out what they did .

Most enjoyable to watch :-)

Easy with hindsight I know, but the moral is next time take out collision/loss damage waiver at the time of hire. I'm assuming of course that UK hirers have this option, like they do in the USA.

Look on the bright side. If you'd written off the car, presumably you'd have been facing a bill 20 times that.

Rgds

Richard Buttrey Grappenhall, Cheshire, UK __________________________

"Richard Buttrey" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

The waiver normally costs about 10 per day and typically reduces your excess from about 500 to about 50 - even if you write off the car you would only risk paying the excess, not the full value of the car!

That's interesting. Are you saying that there is an automatic limit on the XS you can be asked to pay in the UK? If so that's much better than the USA where there seems to be no limit, and hence why CDW/LDW is so vital.

Even so, and particularly for short hire periods, it still seems a good protection to pay an extra £10 / day to avoid a bill of £600.

Maybe Kevin should check the original XS, if, as you say, the normal XS is typically £500.

Rgds

Richard Buttrey Grappenhall, Cheshire, UK __________________________

"Richard Buttrey" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Maybe 10 a day to reduce an excess from 500 to 50 sounds good, but do you expect to have an accident every 45 days, ie 45 times 10?

Mark BR

"Richard Buttrey" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

I don't know whether it is a legal requirement or commercial reality. In the UK (and I think the rest of Europe) normal insurance does not cover you for a hire car and as nobody in their right mind would drive a 15K car with no insurance, every hirer will require it. As it is compulsory for the car to have unlimited third party insurance(not the piddly 10,000 of some US states) it therefore makes sense for the hire to automatically include all basic insurances .

tim

"Richard Buttrey" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

I would have thought that the hire company would be putting themselves at risk financially if they do not insist the car is insured.

They could of course sue their customer for the full cost of the car if it's written off, but how can they be sure the customer would have the funds to pay? A 15k legal claim would lead to bankruptcy for many people who would neither have the money in savings or the creditworthiness to borrow this much.

Unfortunately, it's not always you having the accident. I used to commute with my car into Swiss Cottage. Parking spaces were rare and fought over, and my lovely car was covered in marks where idiots bumped their way into or out of spaces. If someone does that with your rental car, it's you who picks up the tab.

John

Let me guess: Easyhire?

Jon

'Normal' insurance does usually cover you for third party risks doesn't it, the wording is "a car not owned by the insurer and not hired to him/her under a hire purchase agreement". Some insurances don't include this cover but most do.

However this is, of course, only the minumum insurance required by law so you probably want more.

: 'Normal' insurance does usually cover you for third party risks : doesn't it, the wording is "a car not owned by the insurer and not : hired to him/her under a hire purchase agreement".

I checked, and all mine say "hire purchase or leasing agreement". Is hiriing a car for a couple of days technically "leasing" it?

Ian

Another alternative is to take out CDW from a third party insurer. I do this and the premiums are tiny, and the policy has no minimum payment. The insurers advise me to take out the minimum possible insurance package from the hirer, they will then meet any claims made by the hire company. It worked last year when the hire company took £1200 off my credit card for damage caused by hailstones. My insurer then managed to recover all the money they had paid out, but saved me the hassle of having to deal with the hire company.

no.

tim

And the Insurance company are legally required to make sure that it is insured (otherwise they will be guilty of "allowing to drive unisured"). Has anyone ever been asked by a hire company if they have 'normal' insurance that covers them for a hire car? I certainly haven't so as they don't seem to have differential rates for people with own insurance to those without I concluded (perhaps wrongly) that 'normal' insurance doesn't usually cover this.

tim

Kevingr blarted:

Bit late for you, but my advice for anyone hiring a car is to wander round it when you collect with preferably a video camera but make do with a camera phone (ideal these days as everyone is starting to have them as standard). Also whizz round it again when you drop off especially if its at one of these 'self-check-in' drop places at airports where you just park them and drop the keys in a box.

This has got me out of a hole a couple of times.

I did get caught by some small print a van hire place recently tho - the bastards charged me £45 for the tiniest chip in the windscreen (standard charge sir! No its not covered by the all inclusive insurance you took out!) which I'm sure wasn't down to me, and you can bet they wouldn't be bothering to repair. Anyway, I had the last laugh, because of this petty charge I neglected to mention the rip I'd caused in the side curtain and gaffa-taped back together - and since they didn't see it - tough!

When my car went in for body repairs, my insurance company covered the loan car comprehensively under my policy.

The latest Which? has just done an article about car hire firms, and this is one of the common scams. As is not supplying a full tank of fuel that you've paid for, and charging you for fuel after you've filled it to the brim...