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You can buy car rental excess insurance from another insurer, much more reasonably priced than the rental companies' extra insurance. My perception is that the
by rm445 5y ago
You can buy car rental excess insurance from another insurer, much more reasonably priced than the rental companies' extra insurance.
My perception is that the rental companies are incredibly vigilant about minuscule scratches - my concern would be being charged €hundreds for a tiny scratch caused by a chipped-up stone. I wonder if the companies providing excess insurance are able to negotiate more robustly with the rental companies than the typical private individual?
- curryst 5y agoProbably yes. It's the same issue as class-action suits. If they want $200 for a scratch in the paint that I don't think is my fault, I can either just pay them, or I can hire a lawyer to bicker about $200. It's not worth it as an individual. As an insurance company, I might handle thousands of cases like that a year. It makes financial sense to set up a way to efficiently get rid of those, and once I have that set up, it stops making sense for the car rental place to try to get me to pay. They know I'm just going to sue them. They probably still try, and then voluntarily drop it as soon as they see a response from another insurance company. Plus I strongly suspect part of the reason they're so stringent about scratches is to push people into paying for the insurance. If someone is already using another insurance company, they're going to be harder to convince to use your insurance than someone who simply has no rental insurance.
- vasco 5y agoEven if they charge you €200 for a scratch that didn't do, insurance is usually at least €50 a day, so you'd need a scratch every 4 days or more to justify it.