£2,200 SUMMER HIRE CAR RIP-OFF
British tourists face huge rises in insurance excess charges
HOLIDAYMAKERS face a bill of up to £2,200 if they damage their hire car abroad, the Mail can reveal today.
In the latest travel rip-off, car hire firms have hiked the excess charges they impose on customers involved in an accident overseas.
British travellers face an average excess of more than £1,000 on a holiday hire car, with some firms charging more than £2,000. It means holidaymakers face an ‘outrageous’ bill equivalent to a month’s wages if they have a prang – even if it wasn’t their fault.
Drivers are also told that the only way to protect themselves is to pay for costly insurance.
Families already face a string of rip- offs when renting a holiday car. These can include inflated fuel costs, extortionate charges for upgrades or extras such as satnavs, or poor exchange rates if they choose to pay in sterling. But today’s study reveals the costs of a minor prang could be significant.
When a hire car is damaged, the driver must
usually pay the first few hundred pounds worth of repairs – known as the excess – before the rest is covered by their standard insurance.
But experts say excess charges are spiralling ‘out of control’ as car rental desks use the astonishingly high figures to persuade drivers to spend hundreds on additional ‘excess waiver’ cover before they set off.
According to the study by the insurer iCarhireinsurance.com, the average excess charged by the six major hire car companies if you fly to France, Portugal, Greece or Spain this summer is £1,095.
This is £108 more than just three years ago, with charges hitting a high just as millions of families prepare to go away this summer.
The research found some firms have raised their prices by more than 40 per cent in a year.
One firm, Budget, charges an excess of £2,188 if you hire a VW at Faro airport, on the Algarve in Portugal, during the first week of August, compared to £1,538 last year. The excess with Avis at the same airport in the same week also jumped in the past year from £1,275 to £1,779.
At Nice airport, the Avis excess for a VW Golf during the first week in August rose from £800 to £ 1,101 over the past 12 months, the study found.
Faced with huge excesses, many drivers report being pressured into buying ‘excess waiver insurance’ when they pick up their car. But this can cost £170 for a week if they buy it with the car rental firm, rather than the £2.99 a day if they buy it in advance.
Martyn James, of free complaints site Resolver, said: ‘If ever there’s a good example for reading the small print before you pick up your holiday hire car, this is it. Outrageous excess fees are getting increasingly out of control – and there’s no reason for these firms to pass these costs on to you.
‘I’ve seen examples of unscrupulous hire companies hitting drivers with massive bills for replacing bumpers where a minor scratch occurred.
‘Take out waiver insurance where possible, photograph the vehicle before and after the holiday – and if they try to stitch you up, fight back.’ Experts warn that excess charges vary considerably depending on the country and the week, because you are more likely to have accidents in certain destinations at different times of year. For example, Enterprise charges an excess of £593 in Crete but £1,000 in Faro. Europcar charges £698 in Crete but £1,091 in Nice and £1,397 in Faro.
Out of the six major car hire firms, only Enterprise is charging less than £1,000 for a typical excess during a typical week in Portugal this summer, according to the study.
James Daley, founder of consumer website Fairer Finance, said: ‘ Car hire excesses have multiplied over the past few years because comparison sites have driven headline prices down. That has meant rental companies have looked to make back their profit by overcharging their customers for insurance to cover their excess.
‘It’s reached the point now where customers have no choice but to buy excess insurance. Most people buy this from the rental companies at overinflated prices.’
Excess charges vary considerably depending on the week, the resort and the car. Some excess charges in Spain and Greece have actually fallen over the past year. In Crete, the starting excess for a VW Golf in August was £1,107 last year but £946 this year with Budget, while Avis dropped its Barcelona price from £1,400 to £1,186.
Ernesto Suarez, of iCarhireinsurance.com, which sells excess waiver policies, said: ‘Even the best drivers can find their hire car scratched by a supermarket trolley while they’re parked and when a small scratch, a chipped windscreen or a damaged tyre can cost hundreds to fix, travellers need to watch out for high excess costs this summer.’
A spokesman for Sixt said: ‘[Our prices] have been in force since 2015 and have not been increased since then.’ Avis, Budget and Enterprise declined to comment. Europcar and Hertz failed to respond to requests for comment.
The most expensive airport parking costs three times more than the cheapest, while simply dropping off a passenger can set a driver back £8.50, a study has found.
The most expensive parking was at Luton airport, where a two-week stay in the standard park came in at £191, the online investigation by Admiral Insurance revealed. Exeter was the cheapest, where an equivalent space cost just £65.
The study found that Stansted charges the highest dropoff rate at £8.50 for 15 minutes.
Six airports offered a free 15-minute stay.