Need to hire a car on holiday? Remember to pack your plastic
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nnso they also then offered to pay the £605 cost of insuring the Nissan with rivals Elephant for a year.
June said: “I was basically paid a total of more than £1,900 to go away and get insured by someone else.” She then contacted Raw Deal and we asked Provident for an explanation.
A spokeswoman said: “We don’t offer insurance cover for imported vehicles from outside the EU, due to difficulties obtaining parts for repairs.
“In this case, the vehicle was not identified as a Japanese import prior to purchase and, as a result, a policy was incorrectly issued.
“The vehicle’s import status was only identified at the claim stage, when the repairer could not source parts to complete the repair.
“To resolve this, a cash settlement for the repairs was given and the policy was cancelled as we could not continue to cover it under our terms.
“When June initially complained, we thought they had incorrectly declared the status of the vehicle. However, on investigation we identified that this was not the case. “We accept that this was not down to the customer and have apologised. By way of compensation, we have also paid for a full year’s insurance premium with an alternative insurer.” Despite being paid compensation, June is still fuming about the delays to the repairs, almost five months after the accident.
“It has been nothing but a hassle,” she said.
“I would urge anyone who buys an imported car to study the small print when they come to buy insurance.” If you are hiring a car on holiday, ensure you have a credit, not a debit card with you – or you could end up paying dearly.
That is what happened to my girlfriend Mila and I on a recent break in Sardinia.
We had prepaid the full amount of £202 for the hire to international online company Cartrawler.
But when we arrived at the Wow Rent office on the outskirts of Cagliari to pick up the vehicle, things went pear-shaped.
We were asked for a further holding deposit of €500 but were told this could only be accepted on a credit card, which neither of us had with us.
We were told Visa debit cards were OK to pay for cars up front, but they could not be used to put a “hold” on money.
We offered to leave €500 in cash instead – but this was refused, too.
The result was that we could not drive away a car we had already paid for. We were not alone, as two other couples in the queue had ran into the same issue.
At this point we called Cartrawler customer services in the UK but were told we were too late to cancel – by one minute. However, we could not possibly have cancelled earlier as we were busy filling in all the paperwork. Things took a more unusual turn when the manager at Wow Rent then moved to another desk and offered to rent us a car with another of his companies, Joy Rentals. He explained he could not take a deposit via Visa debit card on the first car because it was originally booked through an online intermediary, which insisted on credit cards only.
He said he could accept a holding deposit for the second car via Visa debit card as we were hiring it directly from him.
In the end we had little choice but to take the second car, which cost us another £220 on top of the £202 we had already lost on the first vehicle.
When I contacted Cartrawler on our return to the UK, the company declined to issue a refund, pointing out that customers are informed in advance that a credit card is required at the pick-up point.
We accept we should have paid more attention to the terms and conditions but feel it was not made clear enough that Visa debit cards were not accepted at the pick-up point.
So remember, if hiring a car online, double-check beforehand exactly what method of payment is needed to secure it when you turn up to collect it.