I always get 3rd party excess insurance when we hire a car and go back to my wife’s home country (NI).

Despite living in ‘the North’, she lives 15 minutes from the border. Rental companies quote a massive premium for driving in the South. Is there a cheaper way of being insured? 3rd party? Is it even necessary? Friends and family who live in Derry do’t specify on their normal insurance whether they’ll cross the border.

Thanks for tips and advice.

I paid £9/ day extra from Belfast International with europcar few weeks ago to take car south to my folks. Turned out good idea as car needed replacement and cost me £0 for this.

Normal insurance ok I think, we never bother declaring but may change after end of march. Given how hire companies are duplicitous and try take the pee I wasn’t willing risk it without.

Thanks.

The best we’ve found is £18. About significant% increase on the cost of the hire for a month.

Avis don’t have an issue with you doing it so we use them. They also operate as Budget which can be a bit cheaper but you need to buy their insurance to avoid the heavy deposit scenario

I did a live webchat on europcar site before booking and got transcript emailed. Got to airport and cheeky shits charged £15/day so just emailed customer services after and refunded extra.
If I was there for longer than the 3 days I was would have probably chanced it as is fair chunk over rental.
I had 3rd party insurance but let relapse prior to this trip as hadn’t planned hire much this year but might renew as gives European cover, might be worth a look – sure our policy for 2 of us was £89 for year.

A quick point to remember is more hire cars now have a tracker fitted so if something does happen they will know where you have been.

So if you don’t declare it and have a problem over the border you effectively have no insurance?

That will be down to the T&C’s it was being used by the big guys in Aus to pick up on gravel road accidents, The car I had this weekend had a tracker sticker in the window so I guess it’s useful for them.

In 2013 I flew into Belfast, drove straight to Donegal town, stayed there a week then 3 nights in Dublin before returning to the airport. Told them when I picked it up where I was going, no problem, no extra charge

Thanks. It seems very confusing.

I don’t have any kind of insurance so the one I buy covers the excess and not the actual vehicle. I usually buy the 1 year European one for not much money. I have no idea where I’d stand legally.

@northshoreniall

What did they say on the web chat?

Thanks all