Renting a car (probably from Europcar – as their rates for Easyjet customers seem ok) from Lyon airport for 7 days (but in reality will only be used for 2 of those, maybe 3 at a stretch) to drive up to the Three Valleys area. I know the roads will be ok (going on the word of the chalet company), but I’m a bit nervous about being hit with an approx £700 excess in the case of somebody else whacking me. I’ll be on unfamiliar mountain roads after all. Obviously, Europcar’s rates are a bit ridiculous, nothing in our travel insurance covers us, so I’m looking at Questor who’ll do a 1-week policy for £20 or an annual for £40.

Their description is as follows:

Car Hire Insurance

The most comprehensive car hire insurance product in the UK this insurance covers you as described above in addition we offer personal accident, baggage cover, mis-fuelling, curtailment, drop-off charges, locked out cover, cover for hire agreements starting near to home, road rage and carjacking.

Our policies cover rentals worldwide including those in your country of permanent residence and come as either a daily policy insuring a single rental agreement up to 180 days or as an annual policy covering unlimited hire agreement in the policy period up to 31 days per agreement.

Questor products insures you for loss or damage to the hired vehicle up to £5,000 and this includes Loss Damage Waiver covering damage to the tyres, windscreen, underbody, Loss of Use and Towing for any reason.

Our clients can extend the policy by adding the following optional extras: –

Extended Hire – for annual policies only extends the anyone hire period from the 31 to 60 days.
Dual Lead Driver – for annual policies only allows two named drivers to rent cars independently of each other.
Battery Failure Cover – costs incurred replacing a battery following its failure
Mobile Phone Charges incurred following a Loss under the policy.
Collision Damage Waiver Insurance covers you up to £50,000 for total loss or theft of the hired vehicle available for rentals Worldwide

Seems ok? Does anyone else use anybody else that’s both excellent cover and value?

Cheers.

I’ve used icarhireinsurance before and when we got rear ended they paid up reasonably promptly and without any problems.

Yep much cheaper to get the separate insurance for excess

Just to add – we had to pay the full excess to the hire car company (about 1000 Euros) and then claim it back when we got back. It took a while to get all the documentation (damage report etc) from the hire company, so even though we put it on a credit card – we had to pay it off before we could claim it back from the insurance company.

USed Icar and Halo (I think) seems fine – but never claimed. Seems worth it to me as excess seems punitive, so I always do. Holidayautos often include excess waiver.

But – desk may put a hex on you when they miss the kickback (at least the sharp operators in Belfast do!).

Quidco rebates can be quite high on annual

PITA is if you and other half drive, you must be the lead (only a problem if meeting up after).

Thanks for that BB. I’ll have a look.

but never claimed

🙂

Yeah, I’m kinda hoping for that scenario myself.

Actually, icarhireinsurance is Halo’s consumer site.