Looking to rent cars for our summer holidays back in the UK.

16 days in Ireland (renting from Belfast airport) and 15 days from Exeter.

£859 in Belfast vs £482 in Exeter! That’s both with Hertz.

If we go down a size (to intermediate) in both countries and shop around there’s still a £100 discrepancy.

Why is that? It can’t be due to higher crime rates, can it? Supply and demand perhaps but both airports have several big companies renting cars out. Puzzling and annoying.

Crossing my fingers for the free upgrade to an AMG E Class instead of a Mondeo estate again.

Higher insurance costs in NI

consumers in Northern Ireland pay 84% more than those in the rest of the UK.

because

According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the disproportionately high legal costs in NI arise because road traffic accidents are excluded from the Small Claims Court, (about 40% of claims in NI reach the courts; in England and Wales the figure is 3.5%12). This is despite the fact that the majority of claims are relatively straightforward and for small sums, and that these are successfully handled by the small claims track in England and Wales, (where fixed costs are recoverable but not the costs of legal representation). In Northern Ireland, these claims come within County Court; this means that once a claim is issued, costs will automatically attach. For example, if a claim for £100 is issued, the claimant’s solicitor will claim £344 costs (+VAT), even where liability is not in dispute and the claim is settled immediately.

Ah. Every day’s a school day.

Thanks Mac.

Everything is a rip off in NI. Does the insurance aspect of the car hire price really make sense? IIRC last time I hired a car I had to pay for insurance on top of the hire cost.

@jimjam – I think that insurance is to cover your £1000 excess in the event of an accident; you pay that or you pay the full excess up front and get it refunded if you don’t damage the vehicle. I first got stung for this at Dublin airport about three or four years ago, previous trips hadn’t had it

You’re right. Must have been the excess. But even so, the insurance costs for a few days can’t amount to the difference in the two prices.

@jimjam – I think that insurance is to cover your £1000 excess in the event of an accident; you pay that or you pay the full excess up front and get it refunded if you don’t damage the vehicle.

Not quite – sometime you pay a deposit, sometimes you (perhaps also) are ‘invited’ to pay to insure the excess. You’re insured to drive (as in legal third party insurance plus the cover for the value of the car) as part of the hire of the car but the insurance policy has a excess – much like your own car insurance has- gradually car hire co’s are reducing their quoted hire costs by increasing that excess (and therefore reducing their own premiums) then offering to sell you an insurance policy to cover the cost of that excess. They tend not to mention this as part of marketing their service or taking a booking then bring it up when you collect so that you’re frightened into paying it and don’t have time to make your own arrangement (like take out your own annual excess policy for the price of two days cover). So its often not the case that you really know what the cost of the hire you’ve booked is until you actually pick up the car and you then don’t know whether the other companies you could have hired from were actually offering a better deal.

That additional excess premium should’t be part of any variance in costs – the excess cover should be the same anywhere. But a car hire co operating in NI will have higher insurance overheads. National and International co’s might have higher local costs or might not but will just price their own service to the local competition

They tend not to mention this as part of marketing their service or taking a booking then bring it up when you collect so that you’re frightened into paying it and don’t have time to make your own arrangement (like take out your own annual excess policy for the price of two days cover)

Yes, that extra you’re suggested to pay simply gets rid of the frightening excess. A third party, can’t remember which one, was about £25 for 2 weeks last year. I’d imagine it will be the same.

N.I. costs aren’t all a rip of Jimjam. My wife and I were looking at property last night. £220k in Derry gets you a 4 bed, 4 bathroom detached house with a garden in a nice area. A 2 bed terraced cottage in the village (S.W. Devon) I grew up in was £420k.

My brother worked for Avis when he was a student. They don’t fix the cars when they charge you those massive excesses and the front desk people get bonuses for selling those insurance top ups.

Even with the higher costs, nearly double for the same car, same company, arguably the same country seems ridiculous.

makecoldplayhistory

N.I. costs aren’t all a rip of Jimjam. My wife and I were looking at property last night. £220k in Derry gets you a 4 bed, 4 bathroom detached house with a garden in a nice area. A 2 bed terraced cottage in the village (S.W. Devon) I grew up in was £420k.

Ah, good old Derry. Fifteen years behind the rest of the world in art, culture and fashion….light years ahead of everywhere in drugs, alcoholism and senseless brutal violence.

It’s lovely there now jimjam. I’ve been going there for about 12 years (since meeting my now wife) and it’s changed so much for the better. Nearly unrecognisable from a decade ago.

If there were good job prospects for me and my wife there, it would be high up our life if/when we re-pat.

I grew up not 5 miles away from there. I’m there literally every week. They’ve tidied up the city centre, it’s still encircled by some of the most violent dangerous shit holes you could ever have the misfortune to step foot in.

“I grew up not 5 miles away from there”

Well, what’s the craic, hi!

I like it there, but I guess I don’t go wandering around The Bog with my England rugby shirt on.