Page 10 - demo

First rule of insurance: If you can afford the loss, don’t take insurance. Insurance companies
(and rental car companies) don’t lose money. They make profits by taking in more in premiums
than they pay out in claims. A typical ratio would be to pay out about two thirds of premium
income in claims. That still leaves a tidy margin for costs and profits. Especially profits.

So right from the get-go the odds are loaded against you.

On the other hand, none of us actually likes paying out a couple of grand because of an
“unfortunate” event.

So how can we get protection at a more modest cost? Simple. Take out excess insurance.

There are a number of companies that will, for a very modest impost, cover the cost of any excess
you have to pay.

It works like this: You take out the excess insurance cover. You refuse the hire company’s
CDW. You have a crash. You pay the excess to the hire company. You make a claim for it to the
excess insurer.

An example. For my last visit to the UK in December I paid £57.97 for 12 months cover. Given
that I make three or four visits a year, that’s about 15 quid a time for cover up to £6000 per year.
It’s £39.99 a year as a basic cost but for an extra £9.99 in each case I took lost key cover and
personal accident cover.

Losing an electronic key can be unbelievably expensive and your basic rental car insurance may
not cover it.

The firm I went with is https://www.icarhireinsurance.com/#0 but here are some other options:

http://www.moneymaxim.co.uk/

https://www.worldwideinsure.com/

https://www.carhireexcess.com

http://www.insurance4carhire.com/

It pays to check them all because terms and conditions vary.

icarhireinsurance did a survey and found that on average hirers pay £120 more than they need to
for additional insurance. Check the details here . . .

Rental companies hate these people. Hate with a passion.

Trust me, when you are at the counter completing the hire contract you may well come under huge
pressure to sign up for their excess coverage. Their profit on the deal depends upon it.

They will tell you lies to try to scare you into accepting it.

Like: “That cover isn’t accepted in this country”. Not true.

“Do you realise how dangerous the roads and the traffic are?” Yes . . . but not so dangerous that
a 1:5 risk is involved.