Car Rental Insurance for Ireland: insurance4carhire.com

You don't say where you are from. If you are from North America, the setup of rental car insurance in Europe may be different from what you are used to.

In large parts of Europe it is standard for car rental prices to include insurance, which is compulsory to take. There will be an excess (so you'll have to pay the first so much of any claim) which varies between car rental company from zero to quite a lot. So if you did take out insurance through another company, it would be to cover the excess.

Lots of people don't bother paying extra to cover the excess, and you may well decide that you dont need this cover. It really depends on how much the excess is.

I use Insurance4carhire.

The way it works is that you have an excess of anything from €700 to €1500 and this negates it to zero instead of paying €10-12 a day.

If you have a bump you are charged and then claim back from them.

abbeyroad

Option for you is either to find a credit card that still covers CDW in Ireland - some do, though most have excluded Ireland (along with Italy) because of high incidence of claims. Even if you find a card that covers Ireland, check the level of deductible. If it isn't zero, you can (I think) take out cover from insurance4carhire and get it reimbursed.
Or you can opt to take the rental company's CDW coverage, and either take their SuperCDW (usually at the time of rental) or insurance4carhire to cover the deductible (called excess in British English).

Remember insurance4carhire only covers the excess (along with certain excluded items on rental insurance like windschields, underside, tires, ignition key) - it's not a substitute for CDW, which must be separately obtained from your credit card or rental company.

#3

CDW is part of the contract for renting the car and cannot be declined and there is no benefit in doing so.

SuperCDW is as you said negating the excess down to Zero but given in Ireand Hertz hit you with €12 a day then Insurance4carhire makes sense.

When Americans rent cars in Europe, their credit card often gives CDW with nil deductible/excess. Many (but not all) rental companies cater to the needs of US customers by negotioating a special, low-cost rental rate without CDW, when the CDW portion is taken over by the credit card company whose card is used for the rental. This is a special deal only offered to US (and Canadian) customers. For Europeans, we are stuck with the CDW offered by the rental company - our choice is how to cover the excess, by opting for SuperCDW or buying cover from insurance4carhire (there are others). Often a broker like Auto Europe offer their own excess/deductible cover for a few euro/£ a day, much cheaper than S-CDW from rental firm. The only downside is while with S-CDW you can just walk away from an accident or damage to the rental car, with a separate insurance cover you have to pay the (considerable) excess first (usually on your card) and get it reimbursed later. When a North American credit card is used instead of CDW from the rental company, several thousand dollars may be charged by the rental firm to the card to cover the full cost of repairs, before it is re-credited after investigation by the card issuer, which can take time. In the meantime, the card is maxed out and you have to use another card for day-to-day purchases.

As an aside you may also require cross border insurance if you are travelling between the Republic and Northern Ireland or vice versa. Please check the small print.

R

You have to be very careful using 3rd party companies for car hire insurance, make sure to read the small print...
http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/smart-consumer/why-should-i-have-to-pay-out-for-my-rent-car-crash-1876688.html

insurance4carhire covers damage caused by driver fault too.

odecar10 (post #4) - I'm afraid you're mistaken.

CDW is not included automatically, I think you're confusing CDW with Liability. Some rental companies may include the cost of CDW in their quote, but others do not because this is an optional insurance.

Liability - is insurance for if you injure someone else or damage someone else's property. This is not optional, everyone must have it.
CDW - is Collision Damage Waiver. This is insurance for if you damage the rental car. This is optional.
Super CDW - is additional to CDW and is intended to either lessen or eliminate the excess (also called deductible). The excess in Ireland is quite high compared to other countries.