Cheaper Car Hire and Insurance (California)

Member Name: richardandkaye

Product:	California
Date:	06/08/01 (178 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Money Saving, Empowerment, Beating the System

Disadvantages: Takes a bit of time

Do you fancy saving Money , serious Money ?

How many people out there reading this Opinion have been to America previously and specifically California , hired a Car with Full Insurance and thought OH MY GOD THAT HAS JUST COST US A FORTUNE ?

The vast majority of you will have either hired a Car through your Travel Company or Alternatively via a stand alone Company such as Autos Abroad.

What I am suggesting works I've done it before but what I am doing this time works even better. It only doesn't work if you book Car Insurance with Dollar since they will not let you take Insurance from elsewhere.

For the purposes of this Opinion , I have used Air Tickets Direct as a UK provider of Car Hire and Alamo.com as an actual Car Hire Company.

Let me firstly give you a worst case scenario for Car Hire , one which many of you can easily relate to. I am going to base it on the Reservation I have just made for a 4 week Hire but it works easily aswell irrespective except the Savings are obviously higher.

We are hiring a Full Size Car for 4 weeks and have two Children who need Car Seats. We always fully insure the car. Both my Wife and I will be drivers. We will take up the Option of a Full Tank of Petrol since this is cheaper than buying off the forecourt.

Using AirTickets.co.uk ,their website quotes £208 Per Week which includes , Includes unlimited mileage, loss damagae waiver, supplementary insurance, handling fees, local taxes, airport fees and environmental taxes plus full tank of petrol, additional named driver, insurance excess and out of hours charges.

This equates to £832 for Four Weeks. On top of this , you need to add 28 days of Car Seat cover at $5.99 per day plus taxes and for two children , multiply this by 2.

Car Seat equates to about $360 including tax which is about £266 using $1.35 : £1 Exchange Rate.

In total , this brings the overall Car Hire to £1,098 a massive cos
t I am sure you will agree.

You can swap between different websites and whilst they may vary by a couple of pounds thats about it.

Alternatively , Book the Car Hire yourself with for example , Alamo.com.

Have a look at their website , go into "hot deals as highlighted at the top of their homepage. Then click on save 25% "Internet Exclusive Rates". This takes you to a quote page with a Rate Code of "YQ" pre-filled signalling an Internet Discount.

Fill in the quote page as necessary , this takes you to the next page where the basic cost of Car Hire is highlighted for each type of Vehicle. We are using the Full Size which shows at $531.84. Click your chosen car and then continue.

This takes you to a more detailed screen now follow my two different examples ;

Example A)

1) One Extra Driver (you will shortly see this makes no difference. There is no charge for an extra Driver in California & Nevada despite the fact that they try and charge you another $5 / £5 per day in this country)
2) Two Car Seats
3) Collision Damage Waiver (a cool $9 per day)
4) Extended Protection (an even cooler $10.95 per day)
5) Pre-Paid Gas $1.85 per Gallon

Press Calculate , take a stiff drink and a figure of $1,534.71 appears. Again at $1.35 : £1 this equates to £1,137.

A £39 increase on booking in the UK. Having said that , at $1.45 : £1 , conversion drops to £1,058 , £40 less than UK booking Price.

I am sure you agree , very little difference.

Now for the magic ;

Example B)

Previous Page now with Alamo.com

1) One Extra Driver
2) No Car Seats (did you know you can take your own , this saves about £266 on 4 week rental or £67 per week for 2 Car Seats. Probably for one child for a one week Holiday I would say use theirs but 2 Seats for 4 Weeks is a different matter.If worste came to worste , arrive anyday of the week and call
in to a Wal-Mart or K-Mart and buy one for about $40 - bring it home with you - still cheaper than hiring.)
3) No Colllision Damage Waiver
4) No extended Protection
5) Still yes to Tank of Petrol

Press Calculate again , figure of $626.17 appears. Back to usual exchange rate of $1.35 : £1 we get a Sterling Equivalent of £464.

Now apologies to Dooyoo as I have now transposed over part of one of my other Opinions which covers Car Insurance. I've amended it to make it relevant for the rest of this Opinion.

CAR INSURANCE

Now I am sure you have all heard that Car Insurance in America is a fortune. It is and more and more of it is becoming compulsory.

You've probably heard of Collision Damage Waiver (CDW or LDW) and Top-up Liability Insurance. CDW is basic Cover for between $40,000 and $100,000 of Cover , Top-up increases this to $1,000,000.

The cost of each of these can easily be $9/$12 per day I repeat for each of them per day. So for a four week Holiday (28 days) you could pay $252 / $336 for CDW and $252 / $336 for Top-up Liability Insurance. So in total , we bare talking of between $504 and $672 plus Sales Tax , State Tax , Airport Tax plus whatever other tax they have invented for that week. At £1 : $1.35 this brings the cost of the Insurance to about £373 / £497 before Tax. Why so much ? Well it is simply because it doesn't really discriminate between UK drivers that are usually very safe and the likes of far east Drivers who can find driving in America very difficult.

I have a solution , it works , we have used it for many a year and Alamo definitely recognise this as valid Insurance.

A company called Lambert Fenchurch UK Group Ltd and underwritten by Lloyds of London. Also involved is Mercury International Assistance which is part of the massive Swire Group (owners of Cathay Pacific). Policy is ultimately underwritten in America.

CDW for California is £
4.50 per day , Rest of USA £5.00 per day (as at 12/2000 last time I used them)

Top Up Insurance is £4.25 per day for first 21 days and £4.00 per day thereafter (drivers aged 25-75) - (again as at 12/2000 last time I used them)

Therefore , this works out at £8.75 per day if cover starts in California , £9.25 per day in other states. A four week holiday costs £245 / £259 with no taxes on the Insurance compared to the earlier figure of £373 / £497 plus tax. I am sure you will agree , a massive saving.

Having said that , hot off the Press , for anyone who has or can get hold of a NatWest Bank Credit Card , they have just launched a new Product called Car Rental Insurance.

It provides Annual (yes I mean annual) Cover subject to maximum 31 days per trip cover for upto 8 named people.

It provides Loss Damage Waiver (another name for Collission Damage Waiver) , Supplemental Liability Insurance (another name for Top Up Insurance)

No Policy Excess

No surcharge for people aged 21-25

How much does this cost ?

I couldn't believe it but it's true , £75 for a full years cover.

So Bottom Line , if you add the Alamo basic cost of £464 to the £75 Car Rental Insurance from NatWest you get £539 against the original quote from AirTickets.co.uk of £1,098 assuming 2 Car Seats hired when you arrive. This generates a total saving of £559 for our 4 week Car Rental.

This is easily enough when converted back into dollars $754 to pay for about 10 nights accommodation.

People who know me wonder how we can afford to go to America each year , the answer is system "KNOW AND LEARN THE TRICKS OF THE TRADE".

Systems are there to be used for your advantage.

My offer remains in that if anyone is planning a self arranged trip to California , Nevada or Arizona , please do not hesitate to drop me an email with any assistance you may require.


P.S.
following September 11th - Fuel Prices have dropped like a stone - over Xmas Fuel priced between $0.85 and $1.20 per gallon (yes per gallon). Some rental company's have not reduced their price on website so just at this moment in time may be worth selecting not to pre-pay gas in your quote until you get to the states.

Summary: