Hiring a car in Portugal and basically need a policy that means we won’t have to pay anything (including excess) if there is any damage to it or theft.
The hire company we used last year got a bit heavy trying to force us to buy various expensive insurances through them. Are there companies which sell just the excess insurance policies and can anyone recommend one?
As a side note… Why has the car hire doubled in as year?
Seems to be the same price across the board so it’s not just one company. Weird.

Money Saving Expert, the Martin Lewis site has advice and links which I have used.

I have “insurance 4 car hire” had to use it once – very good company to deal with

Do take care tho – without the hirers own insurance if you have a bump of any sort you will have to pay the full excess up front then claim it back from the insurance company and the hire co may well take a large pre charge on your card to protect themselves.

There are several companies that offer excess reduction insurance. I usually do a google and pick one. Prices are fairly similar. I had to use it once about 8 years ago, it was the best 15 pounds I have ever spent. It saved me about £1000! Cant remember who that was through. however. It is normally substantially cheaper than the rip off insurance the hire company will try and flog you. Yes, you do need to do the whole credit card “deposit” thing but that is pretty standard anyway. I just say “no thanks I have other insurance” when they try and sell their insurance to me. One thing to check for is that some policies only cover cars up to a certain age – from memory it’s 10 years old but most hire cars are newer than that. Once we hired a car in Canada through a “rent a wreck” type thing – the car was way over 10 years old and I didn’t see the insurance small print until after the trip. Would have been interesting had something happened!

I’ve always used Questor

I’ve always used Questor

2nd that

£32 for this years renewal BTW

On deposit, don’t use a prepay currency card. The amount is reserved against the card and will reduce the balance until it’s cleared off which could be a month later. Same goes for using those types of cards in petrol stations.

Generally everything they try to sell you at the desk is a rip off. Plenty of third party insurances as there’s a big market in this now. Check they do cover the car properly though.

If you refuse the hire company insurances, they may reserve a higher deposit also.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jun/15/holiday-car-hire-10-ways-avoid-being-ripped-off

Hire prices vary a lot. Aside from fluctuations in markets, exchange rates and economy, they deliberately vary them based on the day of the week and time of the year. https://media.thinknum.com/articles/rental-car-price-trends/

I used carhireexcess.com – seem OK, but haven’t had to claim. Could have been caught out because I hired a 7 seater but the hire company had none and gave us an 8 seater, and I’d forgotten that carhireexcess.com only cover up to 7 seats.