UKC

I'm going walking in Costa Blanca in a few weeks. I've hired a car from Alicante Airport. Can I arrange insurance in the UK to cover the costs that are not covered by the basic hire car insurance? TIA

In reply to annieman:

I got extra insurance as an annual policy, so I can get cheap hire cars with massive excesses, and not have to worry. Got it from insurance4carhire.com.

In reply to annieman:

Even if you buy extra insurance, if it's not through the car hire company (which is always a rip off) they will want to put a hold on your credit card for the value of their excess (up to £1k) so make sure you have enough available credit on the credit card of the main driver!

In reply to annieman:

Hired 2 cars in Spain last year and used an annual excess waiver policy like 1£ described. Didn't have any problems with them wanting to hold the full excess, think it was a few hundred euros.

In reply to annieman:

Do not touch Goldcar with a barge board! They screwed us for pre-existing damage which we hadn't noticed when we picked the car up having landed at night. I know we didn't do it but even though we reported it when we saw it they said we should have reported it when we picked the car up.

Unfortunately we had declined their excess insurance.

Thereafter I have always used insurance4carhire.

In reply to annieman:

Thank you for your responses. I'll be following up on them.

In reply to annieman:

Another recommendation for a hire company to avoid is Dickmanns (I hired from valencia airport.)

I returned the car on 12th December, and I've still to see my 950 euro deposit. I've now passed this to my credit card company.


I also used insurance4carhire.com as mentioned above.

I went with Solmar and they will try to catch you out. I had my own excess insurance and thought that I'd be able pay for the remainder of hire of the car on my debit card and put the excess hold on my credit card. They refused to do this and said it had to all go on my credit card if I wasn't going to take their full insurance package, bugger was that took me over my credit limit, so the only way to sort it all out was to take out their insurance. I was a bit stuffed as it was approaching midnight and I was travelling alone so coughed up