Millhouse

Hello - I want to by an annual policy for car hire insurance. Does anyone know a provider that will cover non-UK residents?

Miss Ann Thrope

You mean insurance for the excess so you don't have to pay the stupid rates at the counter? There are a few - I found some on Google (you are familiar?) when I was dropped by my old insurer who decided not to cover non-EU residents at a certain point. I can't recall names but I think one was Odyssey. Pretty decent coverage was only about 50 or 60 euro a year. I even had to claim once and it was pretty simple and fast (though you have to pay the hire car company excess and then reclaim from the insurance so there is a hassle of form filling, mainly with the hire car company). I was routinely renting cars more than a dozen times a year in different countries so it was a real bargain.

However, I no longer bother as I have discovered that I am already covered by my AmEx card. It's worth checking the fine print on your credit card Ts & Cs as this kind of thing is routinely covered by premium credit cards. Also travel insurance is often included even if you don't pay for the trip on that card - my other half found that his ENBD Platinum visa card covered what's required for Schengen visa for example.

Millhouse

Never heard of google, do you have a link for it?

Via Yahoo, I did find a policy - 125quid for the year which is a little expensive but that's a global policy that seems to cover all acts of stupidity. The previous company stopped providing the cover for expats.

Did the visa office accept the insurance? They wouldn't accept my worldwide health insurance which was a joke - given it covers everything, everywhere and they just wanted to sell their own policy in the center.

csdf

I've always used icarhireinsurance and never yet had a crash, so they must be good.

Millhouse

csdf

Ach, you appear to be right, but this is a new development as I've definitely been covered in the past as a UAE resident.

Millhouse

yeh, they stopped it a few months back when I went to renew. They were by far the cheapest. Now the cheapest I can find for a non EEC resident is 120quid or 125 for the super-cover,

scrubbedexpat141

Since it has become harder to find the prices have gone up. Used to be 50-60 but now I can't find anything south of 100 quid either.

IMG Europe appear to do it but about 130 quid.
Worldwideinsure still do it, 119 or 125.

Millhouse

I went with Worldwide at 125. The extra 6 pounds seems to buy a lot more cover - including more drivers.

It's almost marginal now on buying it or not, but I've got two weeks of car rental coming up in two countries so I decided to go for it.

scrubbedexpat141

I didn't for the last two trips as they were so short, thought about it as had car for 8 days this trip but didn't in the end.

I'd do it every time if they made it more reasonable.

Miss Ann Thrope

Just trawled through old emails and Worldwide was the last provider I used but their annual Deluxe top of the line global policy was just GBP55 in 2015 last time I renewed. That's pretty significant inflation unless you have a dirty little secret...

[and if you do, please, please, please keep it secret]

csdf

That's the new standard policy cost unfortunately. At this level it's almost worth self-insuring, like Millhouse says..

archie159

Worldwide, as already mentioned. I had a policy with them for the past year, and did have to claim against it, and they were very quick at sorting it all out.
https://www.worldwideinsure.com/car-...-insurance.php

jam25mack

Worldwide for me too.Was 90 GBP in April including the 5% renewal discount.

I'd still say its good value as I have put my mum and my sister on there.

Excess at the rental desk is about 15 GBP a day and the third party pay per trip policies are about 4 GBP a day.