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Cut the cost of motoring
By Malcolm Rogers
OK, for those of you down the back who haven’t been listening, when you go to collect your rental car at Dublin or Barcelona, whether it’s with Avis, Hertz, you know you’re going to have loads of forms to fill in.
There’s a heavy metal called ‘administratium’ which attaches itself to everything to do with insurance, cars, and airports. Which is why your eyes might glaze over when the words ‘excess’ or ‘non-waiver’ are mentioned. But you should pay attention, because you could easily find yourself £400 (or more) poorer if you don’t.
The ‘excess’ (also sometimes called ‘deductible’ or ‘non-waiver portion’) is what you agree to pay in the event of an accident. In other words if you reverse your car into a wall doing £1,000 worth of damage, you will pay the first £400 of the damage (or however much you’ve agreed on) and the insurance company pays the rest.
Now you might be thinking to yourself, well I’m a fairly safe driver, so I’m unlikely to get into any bother. But remember, even if you break a tail-light, you’ll probably end up paying the full excess. That’s a simple rule of thumb — no matter how little damage is done, invariably it will use up your entire excess. Take the tail-light — you won’t just be paying for the damage, you’ll also be paying for the time the car was off the road.
Having got that clear in our minds, we then address the obvious question — is there anything you can do about it? You can of course pay an additional insurance to cover the excess. Typically this will be in the region of £7 or £8 per day.
Or you can opt for a unique policy designed by Larry Dale Ursich. Larry, who is a former General Manager of Continental Airlines, explains: “It transpires over the last few years that car rental companies have really put an excess on their policies. So when you come to pick up a car you are kind of left to the whim of the company. Some say, ‘OK we’ve got a £500 excess’, another will say, ‘there’s a £600 excess’. No continuity exists between the car rental companies, and there’s no correlation between the size or make of car and what you pay for your excess.”
Suffice to say, that because of the vagaries of the car insurance business, the Montana man found himself as, ahem, unhappy as Larry. Undaunted, he decided to make a few enquiries.
“I soon realised that there was a better way. I went to my insurance company and over the course of the next five months we hammered out a policy — and it’s a unique policy, no-body else does it — that covers you for the excess throughout Europe.
“With my policy you make one annual payment — £49 — and that’s your excess insured for the year. And that includes tyres and windscreens, something not normally covered by normal waiver insurance.”
Just to be clear on how this works, Larry gives a possible scenario. “OK. Let’s say you land in Dublin and rent a car from Avis or Hertz — or one of the smaller companies. You’ll take their insurance — as you’re obliged to — and then they’ll ask you if you want to insure the excess. You’ll say no, you’ve made your own arrangements.”
So far so good. However, it just so happens that in Mullingar you decide to stop for a bite to eat. You park your Ford Ka on the busy Dublin Road and pop into Kwik Bites for a sarnie and cup of coffee. On coming back out you find that some rotter has cleaved your wing mirror off, and scratched the whole side of your door. Needless to say, he hasn’t stopped.
The damage you are later told cost £1,200 to put right (including parts, labour and the time the car was off the road) of which you have to pay £400. You keep the receipt for this, and then send it on to Larry’s insurance company which will then refund your £400.
“The insurance is actually with someone called AIG, which is the largest insurance company in the world,” explains Larry, “so it’s not some fly-by-night company. The claims themselves are handled by Strategic Insurance Claims — and they handle all the travel claims for American Express, Thompsons, Lunn Poly and American Express. So you’re really covered.”
Now just in case you’re wondering why a man from Montana with a Slovenian surname should have such an interest in Ireland, wonder no more. He’s married to an Irishwoman, a lady from Mayo in fact. “I fell in love with Maureen,” says Larry “then I fell in love with Ireland. And then my business brain kicked in. I travel over to Ireland maybe eight times a year — we’re going to be moving back to Ballina in the near future — but in my travels I was struck by the whole car insurance thing. After I left Continental Airlines I worked in the car rental business for about 15 years, so I’m pretty much up to speed in the whole area. Anyway I decided to see if there was a cheaper way of doing things, and I quickly found out there was.”
It certainly looks like a first class deal — and even if you only hire a car once a year you might find yourself saying, hats off to Larry.
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