Holiday car excess insurance

Nicholas Heath writes
We reserved an organization AA car in Madeira through agent getaway Autos. The 14-day rental expense £135. We in addition bought its automobile excess/deposit-reimbursement security for an extra £81.06.

There was a long queue at Goldcar’s local rental work desk at Funchal Airport. It moved slowly and it also became obvious that some consumers were arguing with all the clerks over their particular rentals. Our clerk, Monica, stated we'd already been allotted a Fiat Panda but attempted to persuade united states to just take a more substantial vehicle for a supplementary €40 (£33). We declined. She took repayment the compulsory tank of petrol, which price €92 (£75).

Monica informed us we also needed seriously to buy insurance to lessen the surplus to zero. We stated we did not need Goldcar’s insurance once we had purchased a surplus plan through Holiday Autos.

She said Goldcar wouldn’t take this insurance whilst was for third-party address just. She stated that if we didn’t purchase Goldcar’s own insurance for €150 (£125) we might need to pay a deposit of €1, 200 (£1, 003), wait until there were no consumers in the table so she could check the automobile, and return it couple of hours sooner than typical so that it might be checked over at the termination of the rental.

If we had any sort of accident the deposit could be came back only when we had a police report to say it was maybe not our fault. And if the car had been taken or written off we'd need to pay the cost of an alternative.

We informed Monica that she ended up being making use of scare tactics. She denied this. We stated she could pre-authorise our bank card for €1, 200 – the typical rehearse – but she attempted to simply take full payment as a result. The card had been declined. It appeared that wanting to simply take this second quantity resulted in the card becoming stopped for a security check.

Monica stated we're able to not need the automobile unless we paid the deposit in cash or phoned our credit-card provider. We'd no choice but to pay the £125 for Goldcar’s own extra insurance.

On our return I reported to Holiday Autos concerning the bullying tactics of the Madeira agent and requested a reimbursement of this Allianz plan. It has been refused. The company claims that i will not have enrolled in the Goldcar policy.

Gill Charlton, customer expert replies

Scare techniques like these have become much more prevalent among European car local rental outlets while they battle to make a profit from their franchises. Your Allianz top-up insurance coverage supplied all the additional address you needed. But since these insurances are designed to reimburse you once you've needed to buy harm, the automobile leasing company does need the protection of a credit-card deposit. Some organizations only pre-authorise, for example. ring-fence, the total amount within account, but other people debit the excess and reimbursement it from the car’s safe return.

Holiday Autos wish to apologise when it comes to behavior of Goldcar broker in Madeira and, as a gesture of goodwill, is refunding not just the extra policy you purchased through the company additionally the entire cost of your leasing. The organization claims it satisfies every one of its manufacturers regularly to examine dilemmas mentioned by consumers and will also be using up your knowledge about the Madeira workplace of Goldcar. If consumers have trouble with intimidation strategies at foreign leasing desks they should mobile getaway Autos’ client solutions on 00 7336.