Understanding Car Hire Insurance

Many unhappy car rental stories stem from customers not realizing what they were protected for (the car rental companies don’t exactly make it easy), and end up having to pay for damages they didn’t think they had to.

So first things first – what do all those car hire insurance acronyms and confusing lingo mean? Understanding what you are getting will enable you to make the right decision of the level of coverage you need and are willing to pay for. These are the common terms and offerings you will find:

Once you are ready, be sure to find out how to bag yourself major savings with alternative car hire excess insurance options that give you better protection for a lot less!

Car Hire Insurance: Smarter Alternatives

UPDATE: Car hire excess insurance is an expensive business but we’ll tell you how to save big time. In fact, getting the right car rental protection could cut your costs by $100s.

We’ve revamped this page by popular demand to provide all the information you need to ensure you are well covered. Read more

How Car Hire Insurance Claims Work

Here’s a few more car hire insurance related points to note.

If you damage your rental car, you can expect the car rental company to automatically deduct the MAXIMUM amount you are liable for (e.g. something like $2,750 if you haven’t taken out excess reduction) from the credit card you’ve registered with them. Read more

VroomVroomVroom buys Bargain Wheels: Good news?

VroomVroomVroom and Bargain Wheels, two of the choice car hire sites we uncovered in our research, are now one.

The potential synergy is clear with each comparing different sets of car hire companies: VroomVroomVroom grabs you the live prices from Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz and Thrifty, whilst Bargain Wheels delivers prices from the smaller independent car hire companies throughout Australia. VroomVroomVroom is at the top of their game in our opinion. At this point Bargain Wheels does not display results in a user-friendly fashion but they can deliver savings in particular locations (it is one of our recommended sites for Brisbane, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Perth and Adelaide).

The combined result could potentially be what every car rental seeker dreams of. So let’s hope this corporate buyout translates into advantages for us customers with VroomVroomVroom improving on Bargain Wheels’ usability and developing a search engine that will incorporate both their capabilities into one. We’ll be keeping an eye out on the two for you.

Oodles: A Snapshot

Oodles is a successful newcomer to car hire comparison scene offering up some differentiating features.

Our Verdict: If you are a frequent renter with Car Rental, Qantas Frequent Flyer or Velocity Rewards memberships, or you have Discount Codes from Avis, Hertz or Thrifty, there’s no more convenient place to compare and book your car hire.

Founded: 2007
Based: Melbourne
Companies searched: Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, Thrifty
Prices: Will not be higher than if you went to each of the rental companies’ sites. No extra mark ups, booking or agent fees. ‘Best Rate Guarantee’ will match a lower price on an equivalent car found within 8 hours of booking and add a further 10% discount
Of interest: Allows you to enter car rental membership, frequent flyer details or discount codes so you can automatically collect points or be shown discounted prices in the search results. Where the express pickup service is available, regular travellers can jump the queue

Their unique tabbed search results is well presented and highlights the cheapest available but if you want to see details of other results, you’ll have to click around. You can almost always find the cheapest price for each size category on Oodles, but our other recommended comparison site VroomVroomVroom tends to offer up more search results (e.g. green / hybrid cars).

Selecting a car will reveal all the necessary information from pickup and drop-off details and cost breakdown. Prices are final (but of course, excluding any further add-ons you may request). The booking form requires basic information but no credit card details are required and your reservation will be held for you at no obligation.

VroomVroomVroom: A Snapshot

VroomVroomVroom is a car hire comparison site based in Australia that compares live prices from Australia’s major car hire companies of Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz and Thrifty.

Our Verdict: Simplest and most user-friendly, it is our favourite place for quickly finding the lowest prices and placing a booking without having to go to each of the different sites if you intend to rent a car from any of these reputable global brands.

Founded: 2002
Based: Queensland
Companies searched: Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, Thrifty
Prices: Unless you have an offer code or membership discounts, Vroom will find you the exact prices as if you went to each of their sites. No extra mark ups, booking or agent fees. Their Price Promise guarantees to match a lower price on an equivalent car within 3 days of booking with a further $10 discount
Of interest: Partnering with CarbonNeutral, Vroom offsets the carbon emissions of each car hire at no extra cost to you as a renter

With their real-time car hire price comparison presented as a list, it makes it easy for you as a renter to immediately find the cheapest option for the car size you require. Leaving your mouse to hover over each item automatically displays an image of the hire car so you can picture the car you will getting.

Once you’ve selected your car, you’ll be shown pickup and drop-off details, a description of your vehicle and a breakdown of the costs. The final price listed is inclusive of all taxes and fees for the basic car hire so there will be no surprises upon pickup. Naturally, you have to pay more for further add-ons such as child seats or excess reduction, prices of which are also displayed.

The booking form is basic and simple to fill in. No payment or deposit is required, allowing you to secure a rental car far in advance at no risk or obligation.

Adelaide Airport – Best Independent Car Hire Companies

We’ve filtered through numerous independent car hire companies, but for Adelaide airport rentals, there is only one worth checking – Airport Rent-a-Car. Otherwise you’ll find the best value by simply going with the Big Boys of either Avis, Hertz, Budget, Thrifty or Europcar. See our advice on the best site for comparing these major car hire companies.

Airport Rent-A-Car Go To Site

Cheapest prices for Small to Standard cars. 200km/day

You can find prices that beat Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz or Thrifty here, particularly in the off-peak months where they offer a 10% discount on all their rates. They offer Toyota cars from automatic Yaris hatchbacks up to a Tarago Van. The booking page is rather wordy with its terms and conditions but beyond that, it’s a simple booking form that does not require credit card information. Standard hires come with 200km/day (A$0.20/extra km). Located 5 minutes off-site, they can arrange for a complimetary pickup to/from the airport.

Google Maps Live Traffic Updates

Google Maps’ live traffic updates for Australia is yet another nifty new feature to make all our lives simply too easy. Indeed, now we can plan ahead and make smarter driving decisions. As Murphy’s Law would have it, how many times have we picked a time or route to drive someplace, only to be realize too late that it was precisely what we shouldn’t have done? No longer. Clicking on Google Maps’ Traffic view, this latest technology will display colour-coded lines overlaid over the existing Google Map roads to indicate the flow of traffic. Updated every few minutes, a quick check on your mobile phone and you’ll be able to pick the fastest way home (or to the pub):

• Green – Free sailing
• Yellow – Medium congestion
• Red – Heavy congestion
• Black – Parking lot

Data is collected from motorists with Google Maps for mobile running and with the GPS and “My Location” feature turned on. Google can then use that information (anonymously) to calculate the speed of the devices’ movements and presto, live traffic information at your fingertips. And if being able to check current traffic conditions isn’t good enough, you can specify a chosen day and time of the week. This estimation is based on past information and we can only presume as they amass more data over time, this prediction may even have a good degree of reliability to it.

It is currently rolled out only in selected areas (we’ve included the links to the major cities below) but hopefully in the not too distant future and if it works as well as they intend it to, all of Australia will be enjoying some smoother driving.

• Sydney
• Melbourne
• Brisbane
• Wollongong
• NSW Central Coast
• Sunshine Coast
• Gold Coast
• Geelong

The Dawn of the Car Hire Insider Blog

Car Hire Insider is blogging!

Just how much is there to write about car hire and driving in Australia really? You’d be surprised all the things you didn’t know you didn’t know. Through our blog, we hope to share with you worthy, weird and wonderful updates.

And like our Roo, we’re 100% fat-free. So welcome and enjoy the ride!