Car protection for EU car hire- do I need it?

[whitejeanss]

Hi I'm a bit confused about car hire in Europe (Spain), having not done it since last year and I've forgotten what package we ended up with - it's all a bit bamboozling. I'm looking at hiring a car for a forthcoming trip to Spain. Should I be ticking the box for the additional protection (for glass, lights and tyres plus personal accident - increases the cost by £22 a day) or is this not necessary or recommended? Collision damage and theft waiver is included in the basic price, but the excess is obviously astronomical and reduces if you pay the extra per day.

What do other people normally do for family holidays?

Do I just arrange my own insurance policy as my excess protection or is it advisable to pay extra and go with the hire company?

I have an annual Hire top up policy, it costs around the same for a year as some car hire companies charge for 1 trip.
I use Insurance4hire but I think its owned by Swinton now, Google it

Much cheaper to get a policy to cover the excess, never buy it on a per day charge from the rental company

IME fully comprehensive insurance through the car hire company is the only way to go.
Try other companies if you don’t like the price (I normally use Hertz and they’ve never quibbled).
Don’t chance it that your personal policy will cover anything. Having an accident is bad enough and dealing with obtuse staff in a foreign language would make it much worse.
Fully comprehensive means you drop off the keys and leave the problem behind you. Or they find you another car, no questions asked.

But even fully comp may not cover lost keys, tyres, glass and in some cases break ins. Some additional policies will

Ok that's helpful, thank you. Intuitively I got the feeling the hire company packages wouldn't represent a good deal.

I used car hire excess.co.uk recently on trip to Spain. Unfortunately the car had a little chip when I returned it (not sure how) and I had to pay hire car on returning car. Carhireexcess refunded me 100% with no quibble. Very good value and I was very impressed

We use icarinsurance and have a yearly policy. We did have to claim on the policy for a bump my husband had with a local car hire. They were very good. No quibble. Refunded very quickly.

However we have just come back from Mallorca and our car hire there has charged us for the collision damage waiver despite us saying we did not need it. Read what is on the screen.
My husband is raging.

The car hire company is explaining the cost to us. It is the charge plus a percentage for premium location charge.
We said no we did not need it.
They have charged us for something we declined.

To update: we are being refunded.

Read the Moneysavingexpert Advice.

Understand the fuel policy and avoid full to empty unless you plan to do a lot of driving.

Use a credit card for the excess.

Buy your insurance in the UK.

Don't use Goldcar or Record.

Video the car when you pick it up and return it.