Hi, I'm looking for either annual or one trip cover for car hire insurance, to cover the excess. I used to use icarhire insurance, but they've stopped covering for swiss residents. It's to hire cars in Europe, I'm English! Can anyone recommend a company?

Thanks!

Hi, I had the same issue as you. I had a little scout about and found a UK based company called Questor Insurance. Quick and easy and good rates for their annual policies.

I am also interested in a policy that covers the insurance excess. I have the normal 3rd party cover + sometimes driving other cars, but the policy explicitly rules out driving hired cars.

I will be hiring a car in Ireland, cost reasonable, but plus CHF 170 for the insurance, which I find ridiculously expensive for just 13 days.

THANK YOU! Perfect!

When you search you can find it has been discussed before,
Avoiding astronomical car hire additional insurance charges

Questor or White Horse insurance is not loved,
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...s-Ireland.html

I just tried to buy a policy with icarhire insurance https://www.icarhireinsurance.com/get-a-quote#3

and I was refused, as I live here; Switzerland has not ratified EEA membership, after 1992 referendum... (I confirm I am not a resident of Iran, Cuba or Switzerland)

Previous EF threads

Avoiding astronomical car hire additional insurance charges

Excess insurance for rental cars
So I have just taken out 12 months car hire excess insurance (Maximum rental per trip is 31 days)de-luxe, for £45
withBritish companyworldwideinsure.com

.

As before - get yourself a GOLD credit card.

https://www.worldwideinsure.com/car-hire-insurance.htm

Use code WWT10 for 10% discount.

I assume it's the same if you have a PLATINUM card?

One of the worst things about hiring a car is trying to find and figure out insurance. Also, at the moment I do not own a personal car that I'm insured on and to complicate things more I'm renting in Italy.

My US credit card provides CDW, but in the small print it excludes Italy. Next I checked Amex's Premium Protection for rentals - nope, no cover in Italy.

Eventually, I found a insurer that covers residents of Switzerland and provides cover in Italy. It's more expensive than some of the UK sites that sort of suggest they cover Swiss residents, but not when you actually read the terms and conditions it's not clear that they do.

Here's who I am going with: https://www.rentalcover.com

If anyone had a better suggestion please share

PS https://www.worldwideinsure.com/ mentioned earlier in this thread does not cover residents of Switzerland.

Yes, last month July 2017 they changed their rules to only EU residents. I wrote them a complaint that they had forgotten Switzerland, but they never replied.

I quickly took out a policy with Questor Insurance Services Ltd, at Rainham, Kent, UK.

Conditions: age of driver 21 to 84, resident and with driving license in UK, EEA or Switzerland.

They do NOT cover hired cars from Green Motion.

+1 for Quester. I've been using them for years. I usually have annual world wide cover.

So far no accidents but they were very responsive when I once had a puncture. Luckily the rental company never billed me for that so there was nothing to claim from them.

I rented in Italy before as well (in Sicily) and the sales people there were very pushy with their aggressive sales tactics where they try and scare you into getting cover with them. You need to be prepared and refuse it even when they tell you that they will take the maximum excess amount (around €1000.-) from you and then you have to claim back from your insurance.

At the time they also tried to sell road side assistance cover which I was surprised they didn't have, they also tried to scare me into it by saying that if you have a problem there is a €200.- call out fee or something. I just refused it on principle! I also have intertours road assisstance cover which I am not sure covers me in hire cars but they do come out if I am driver or a passenger of other cars. So I would at least have tried that first.

I'm also with Questor for a couple of years now and thankfully have never had to use them. On the face of it they offer the most comprehensive and well thought out service e.g. dual drivers insured where both can rent independently, yearly loyalty discounts and European coverage that includes popular Non-EU tourist destinations such as Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey.

Interesting new exclusion for 2017

• Any claim arising for the rental of any vehicle which has a retail value when new in excess of £50,000 and has a 0-62mph (0-100kph) time of less than 6 seconds.

Thanks for the information on Questor! I probably go with with their annual worldwide option. It seems like a fair deal.

Also, I found a 7 day with 2 days free discount code on Avis's website this morning under the European Offers section. When test booked and selected the Pay Now option, the LDW and ALI (Additional Liability Insurance) are check marked as included and cannot be deselected. My existing reservation for the same car cost more so I'm cancelling it and re-booking.

Between Questor, the LDW and ALI I think I'll have adequate coverage. Thanks again!

Based on your statement i requested a clarification :-

My email question (6 August) :
Dear Sirs,

Please confirm, that as a permanent resident and citizen of Switzerland i am covered for excess insurance for any car rental hire OUTSIDE Switzerland but within Europe

There is some confusion about a wording change i understand.


Their answer (8 August):

Thank you for your email.

You have European Deluxe cover which also includes cover for hires within your home country.

Kind regards,
Jessica

+1 for worldwideinsure.com

I took deluxe cover which includes rentals in Switzerland.

Haven't had to stress test them so far but it has saved me a fortune in not taking out the daily car hire extra insurance when abroad. Following recent press about inflated car hire damage charges also comforted to have this!

+1 for WWI from me also and I did stress test them. A few years back I scraped a concrete pillar in a narrow car park in Spain at a cost of €300. I followed the claim instructions and was reimbursed in full within a couple of weeks.

This thread worried me a bit as I took out the Car Hire excess insurance with WWI on the 31st May. So I emailed them and got this reply: -
"Policies purchased prior to 01/06/17, which is when the schemes changed, are valid until their natural expiry date. I can confirm your policy is in force until 30/05/2018."


So looks as though I got in just before they stopped offering them.


No comment as to why the change though....

I have unfortunately had to claim from Questor twice (both times when the rental company charged for tiny scrapes so small that you wouldn't necessarily notice when picking up the car).

Both times the claim was accepted quickly and with no fuss, though they do require the upload of several documents which does take some time.

I'd fully recommend them.

To reply to TexasT, in Europe car hire often comes with compulsory CDW and liability insurance (this does vary depending on the country of rental and sometimes on the website where you book your rental e.g. the US Avis site might give you different insurance from the Swiss Avis site). This is probably why you could not deselct the options. The CDW has an excess, which can be quite high. So all you're insuring with Questor/similar companies is the excess. There has to be a CDW in place for Questor to cover the excess for, unless you take out the full CDW option, which is also very good value. Note that Questor do not cover for third party liability at all. There's a post here which covers third party liability: https://www.englishforum.ch/insuranc...ntal-cars.html

Questor do cover GreenMotion, but not all of their locations. Interestingly, I couldn't find a list of non-covered locations on their website.

Just an update on WorldwideInsure.com


I was a customer until July 2017 and in June they sent me a message saying "Thank you for choosing Worldwide Travel Insurance to provide your Insurance policy. Your current policy is due to expire and we are contacting you to advise that, due to changes to the scheme that came into force on 1st June, we are unable to offer this policy to customers living outside of the EEA. We are working to get alternative cover in place for our International customers as soon as possible and although we cannot give a firm indication of when this will be available, we hope to resume the service by August 2017."


I checked their website and it now allows Switzerland residents again, their facebook page also says this "To all our worldwide car rental insurance clients we will be able to offer you our CAR RENTAL INSURANCE once again from 1st December 2017."


The discount code WWT10 no longer works, but still much cheaper than paying the charges by the car rental companies!

I got the email from WorldwideInsure too last month, but it was too late for us, so we've gone with Questor for this year.