Car Rentals in Ireland. Confused on what is included and what is not.

Your best shot is to forget checking out individual co's, go online to a few comparison sites, find the best price(s), then contact the dealer/agent and fire 'All' your questions at them. The likes of Avis, Sixt, Hertz etc. are amongst the most expensive. I don't know any of the others.

I've used Hertz with no surprises (and they've let me get away with a few scratches and marks and almost dents in the case of returning a car in Italy) but things like deductible and all inclusive and excesses and second drivers are all choices you make when booking.

It has been increasingly common for there to be an additional local payment for cross border insurance if for instance you wish to take the vehicle from NI into the Republic. Expect an additional payment of about £24.

Even the full T&Cs may not be explicit about this point and you may wish to clarify with the company or broker.

R

Thanks lennythelion, markfawkner and rodway,

Great advice.
Markfawkner, when you rented from hertz did you do it directly through hertz.com or did you use easytourireland.com with their promotion of a fully inclusive rate? I have read the horror stories of not having full insurance.

Hertz.com

Hi all,

I did some more comparison shopping for my August trip.

I checked with Dan Dooley as another forum suggested and found that their” All Inclusive Rate” still had a deductible (we call it that here in the USA, we don’t use the term excess - that seems to be an Irish term) of 1200 euros for the Ford Mondeo with standard transmission.

I checked the ‘Rental Terms’ link and found a list of car types along with the additional cost required to reduce the deductible.

“All rentals that include CDI are subject to liability excess, ranging from €1,200 to €2,200 depending on the vehicle in the Republic of Ireland and ranging from £600 to £800 depending on the vehicle.” In the Republic of Ireland you may reduce the excess to €100 if you purchase Super Damage Waiver Insurance (SDW). They quote an additional 15 euros per day.

So 7 days in August for an ‘intermediate’ car with standard transmission with Dan Dooley was 658 euros plus the 15 euros a day for seven days (105 euros) and still have a 100 euro deductible. That's 763 euros.

I also checked easytourireland.com (hertz) and compared their ‘intermediate,’ a VW Jetta with standard transmission. They state that they have a ‘fully inclusive rate.’ I checked their terms and indeed they do. From what they say on their site their ‘Super Cover’ has no deductible and is included in the rate they quoted. However they do state in their ‘Terms’ that tire and wheel damage are not covered.

Their quote was 594.29 euros. No extra charges.

I looked at their 'terms' link for their cross border policy and found that there is no fee for taking the car into Northern Ireland.

I also went into hertz.com but could not replicate the easytourireland.com rate. They must have some special deal with hertz.

So far it looks like hertz through easytourireland. I looked at Avis and Budget but they were more expensive than Dan Dooley.

Anyone else out there have anything better than what I found?

I can't comment on better but the term 'excess' is used widely throughout the world (well, where I've rented cars and that's Europe and British invaded countries). The term deductible is an American one.

Best option is to buy full insurance cover from somewhere like this
Insurance bought from car hire companies is ridiculously expensive.

I rented a small car from the Aer Lingus website last week. The rate included the airport charge and one way fee (DUB-ORK) and was cheaper than booking with the supplier direct - in this case Budget.

It cost me 190EUROS for two weeks and I booked it online two days before picking up the car. The rental includes CDW but they did place a 1350EURO hold on my credit card as I did not take the full insurance. They did not push the full insurance as hard as they do in the US - I was in Orlando last week and was practically laughed at for trying to deny the insurance.

I recommend trying the Aer Lingus site for your car rental booking, in my case I saved 28 euro from booking direct with Budget.

Also I am from New Zealand and we use the term 'excess', as do Australia. I think deductible is a North American term.