Wondering if anyone has any experience with or an inkling as to why the CDW rate for Avis out of Barcelona El Prat is so high. I know this is a French living forum but we’re flying into Barcelona and driving north to the Perpignan area in September for a holiday.
We did this trip two years ago and paid about $11 a day for CDW and had a very hassle-free experience with Avis. I was looking at their cars just now for our upcoming trip and their CDW is now nearly $45 a day! This is not the super cover/zero deductible thing which would be an additional cost at the counter on arrival. Shudder to think what that would add.
I did a quick run through of a couple of few companies for comparison and they range between $10-$17 a day. I Googled to see if there was any easily identifiable reason but didn’t turn anything up.
I know there are other options in terms of rental car insurance but I tend to get the vendor’s CDW just for ease of travel. The last thing I need to be dealing with after a transatlantic flight and especially in a language foreign to me is the shemozzle about insurance so the couple of hundred dollars extra is me buying less hassle.
Might be easier until you have a claim, they do not cover as much as 3rd party insurance even on the super CDW. Once you have a policy its even easier as you just say “non” at the hire desk.
That used to be my approach until I was twice in a row left hanging at Dublin Airport (once with Hertz and once with Budget) and - even with my own insurance in hand - was told pay up by one or have a $10,000 hold put on my card by the other or no car. With a grey-faced family behind me I paid up in both cases - way more than I would’ve had to had I pre-purchased - and resolved to never find myself in that position again, even if it costs me. Acknowledging that, in my experience, Ireland has the absolute scammiest car rental companies.
You need to get a separate Car Hire Excess Insurance that covers you wherever you are driving eg Europe. Think it hàs to be sold by a company in your home country in the way insurance works.
Some US car policies you might already have could possibly also cover hire cars in the US but also internationally. This would be accident / CDW / poss LDW cover, but it might not include things like theft or malicious damage to hire vehicle in Europe and there might still be an excess you’re not comfortable with.
Actually in many countries on Europe, in fact all the ones I’ve ever hired in, CDW was included in the hire cost upfront. The Excess insurance, however, is not included most of the time. But some deals and hire companies or car hire brokerage companies do include low or zero value excess in their pricing.
Always either pick a deal with it priced in or get your own car hire Excess insurance either just for the trip or annually for all trips otherwise you are prime target for hire company sticking you up at the counter.
You could check Costco’s current deals if you’re a member.
Someone here recommended this company to me, and I just purchased a stand-alone policy for ~ €90 for my summer rental: RentalCover.com. There were literally no LeClerc/Super U/Intermarché local car rentals within 60 km from me for weeks upon end (I suspect through the summer now) so I had to get a more traditional rental for the summer through Keddy/Europcar. They wanted €25/day - for 60+ days? Insanity.
Thanks, all - I get all that. My original point being that I was curious if anyone had experience with Avis in particular and why their CDW cost was so high, having increased by 400% in two years while other remain at a much cheaper price.