Car Hire Insurance Explained

Renting a car can be a daunting experience – language issues, local car rental laws, different driving rules, jargon and extra charges can all make life complicated. Tipoa Car Hire clarifies in this document some of the terminology used and offers useful tips on successful car hire.

1. Let’s start at the beginning...Choosing your hire car

There are plenty of car hire companies (suppliers) out there (e.g. Hertz, Avis), there are plenty of brokers out there (e.g. British Car Hire, Tipoa, TopAutoverHuur). In fact if you go to Google and enter some of the key search terms such as ‘car hire’, ‘car rental’, ‘cheap car hire’ you will be bombarded with plenty of options. Let’s start with the car hire companies (suppliers). These are the well-known international brands that we are all familiar with. Hertz, Alamo, Europcar, large multinational companies with a presence in most cities and airports. These also include local outfits, which own cars and operate them at the destination.

2. The Extras

Fuel
If an option, take the car with a full tank of fuel and return the tank with a full tank of fuel. Find out where the closest fuel station is when you collect the car so you know where to go on the way home. The reason that the rental company wants you to prepay for gas is simple. You will always return the car with gas in it. Nobody will take the chance of running out of gas by trying to run the tank empty.

Additional drivers and young/old driver surcharges
Think who will be driving the car and check the costs for adding an additional driver or more. An additional driver can usually cost an extra £3-£6 per day payable locally.
The minimum rental age is normally 21, though if under the age of 25 you are likely to incur an extra daily charge.

Child Seats
Infant/booster seats for children under 12 years are mandatory in most countries in the EU, so should be provided if requested.

Snow Chains/Ski Racks/Snow Tyres
If you are heading for the snow then think about all the equipment that you have and the size of car that you will require.

Late return fees
Check exactly what the late return fees are.

Mileage
Unlimited mileage tends to be the norm.

Excess Waiver
Excess waiver is the additional insurance that is sold to you at the counter when you collect your car to either reduce your excess in part or in total.

PAI (Personal Accident Insurance)
Pays out if you kill or maim yourself or a passenger.

Personal Effects
Covers your personal effects such as baggage if stolen from your vehicle.

3. Insurance Explained

What insurance is included and what is excluded is often the most difficult element to understand when hiring a car, so let’s make it simple.

There are a few ways to reduce your excess to zero

     a) Super CDW

     b) Damage Excess Waiver (DEW)

     c) Excess Insurance

4. Collecting The Car

You have just arrived at your destination and all you want to do is jump in the car and go. There’s a queue, you have the kids with you and the temptation is to just rush everything. It’s quite simple. DON’T.

Once you are in the car...

Familiarise yourself with the vehicle: your seat position, lights, heating, wipers, warning lights.
Visit www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/

5. Returning The Car

The same principles apply when returning the car. DON’T RUSH!

1. Take photographs of your rental car when you collect it and return it.
2. Try to avoid returning the car outside of normal office hours, as just leaving the keys means you have not gone through the full return process, and you are liable for the car until the car rental company opens the following day.
3. Inspect the car with a representative of the car rental company to ensure that there are no problems.
4. Wait for a printed copy of the final report.
5. Take photos of the car when you return it to show that there is no damage.
6. Check the seat pockets and seat wells for any items that you might have left in the car.
7. Finally keep the copy of the car rental agreement and any damage report until your next credit card statement arrives. That way if you need to claim on your insurance or dispute the transaction you will have the information to hand.

For more detailed information, please download our Insurance Brochure:

Source: Daniel Smith from Insurance4carhire.com
Follow Tipoa's travel writer Uxia Olsson's blog

Bergamo Airport Orio Car Hire

Bergamo Orio Airport is a relatively small airport with increasing popularity. Low cost airline companies prefer it as it's a lucrative alternative of the much busier (and expensive) Malpensa and Linate airports near Milan. We planned our weekend journey to cover Bergamo and Milan, and if we have time- the beautiful Como lake. That's the reason we went for the option to rent a car.

Car hire office at Bergamo Airport

Car hire offices are located on the right hand side of the arrival's exit. Our plane landed in the evening and around 8:30 PM we were at the Auto Europe/Dollar/SicilybyCar office. It's a small office with only one personnel inside opened from 7:30 AM till 10:30 PM.

There was another client  before us so we had to wait for his documents to be handled first. It took about 15 minutes till our turn came. Our printed voucher and documents were processed quite quickly. The Italian guy behind the desk gave prompt answers to our questions although he wasn't overly polite :-) The best thing he wasn't very pushy on offering us extra stuff.

Car rental shuttle bus stop

Useful Tip: Bring your own GPS if you have- that will save you a lot and still you'll be able to drive in the foreign land with an ease. 

Our documents were handled for less than 20 minutes and we went out to catch the car rental parking shuttle that was supposed to drive us to our car. The shuttle stop is just in front of the exit- there is an old small sign pointing it.

Inside the shuttle bus

We waited for about 15 more minutes for the shuttle. At least 10 other people joined us in waiting. The trip to car hire parking was very short. As we would understand later- there's a walk-through passage that leads to the parking (in case you don't have a lot of bags, of course).

We found our car easily although it was quite dark (9:30 PM). Nissan Micra @ 50,000 km with 2 small scratches, that were diligently marked on the paperwork we got from the agency. It's a good practice to take a photo of your car before getting it as there might be some hidden scratches.

Our rented Nissan Micra

I mounted my own GPS and we drove out. Bergamo is not a very big town so we found our hotel quite fast (thanks to that precious GPS of mine!). Bed & Breakfast Ciliegio has some great ratings and reviews at Booking.com so it was an easy choice. The owner, Philippo, welcomed us in the late evening and  even managed to recommend us a fine restaurant in the neighbourhood. He was complaining he was still waiting for an Italian (yes, native!) couple who got lost depending on public transport and couldn't manage to the hotel. That was another proof for us that getting a car hire was the right decision. Grotta Azzurra, the restaurant recommended by Philippo, was just a kilometer away. It was full to the brim, we hardy found parking place. (Parking is located in the inner yard of the restaurant- it had at least 60-70 places). Food was very delicious, the "old-school-non-english-speaking" waiters brought in even more charm to the situation- great final for our Italian evening.

Città Alta

If you happen to visit Bergamo, a must see visit is The Old Town. It's called "Città Alta"- a very charming place. It's better to visit it on spring or summer, not like us in the winter but still- the place is very beautiful. We parked our rented car at the parking, just outside the tall Venetian walls of Città Alta and went on walking. (No tourist's cars allowed inside and there are many streets that are so narrow, that two people could hardly walk shoulder to shoulder). There were a lot of offers for guided walks (starting from 10 euro per person) but we decided to go on our own- feeling confident and prepared enough.

Via Rosato in Città Alta

Our journey started at the Piazza Luigi Angelini; we visited the Gombito Tower and some other tower houses. After that we looked around for the Piazza Vecchia and surrounding buildings. We discovered the beautiful Santa Maria Maggiore and the Colleoni Chapel. We had a break at Bar Flora for a ristretto (30 ml of very strong espresso). Refreshed, we went through side streets to the church of San Salvatore. And finally, we couldn't help but testing the famous "funicolare"- a cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tram-like vehicles moves them up-down the steep slope.

The famous Funicolare

Although it was cloudy and raining from time to time, we had a great time in Bergamo. Once again- we recommend summer time to visit those charming cobbled-stone ancient streets with marvelous churches and cozy restaurants.

My next article will describe our visit to Milan- the centre of Lombardia and the main goal of our journey.

For conclusion, a few words on returning our rented car. We had to return our car with full fuel tank in the early morning when was our flight. In the contract, the fuel tank was divided into eights- 1/8, 2/8…8/8. I also noticed at the beginning, the Micra fuel gauge had 8 levels when completely full. So the night before return, I filled the tank to the brim and again it showed 8/8. In the morning, we managed to get to the parking lot.

Full tank fuel on the car hire receipt

A good tip: When getting the car from parking lot, save the exact location to your GPS. That could save you a lot of hassle when returning the car as roads around airports could be very complicated.

We were a bit worried if there'll be a shuttle bus that early in the morning (6:30 AM). A guy at the parking lot showed us a direct walking path to the airport and we were about to go on foot when the shuttle bus came.

The car rental office wasn't opened at the time of our arrival but there was a hole in the window and a lot of car keys on the floor. So that's what we did- filled our return document and dropped the key and the yellow paper through the hole to the floor.


Prego.

Check list for Online Car Rental Booking

1. Print your rental voucher

You will need to present it and the "Terms of Service" pages at the rental desk.

2. Take your full & up to date driving license

Usually drivers must hold a full license for minimum of 1 year with no major endorsements.

3. A credit card with the main driver's name

Although you will be allowed to book a car with a debit card, you'll need a credit card at the rental desk to release the vehicle.

4. Get your passport or any photo ID other than your driver's license

For more interesting tips, please visit Tipoa Car Hire