When it comes to hiring a car for your holiday, some firms employ a sneaky catch to help them claw money back in the case of damage.

Here’s how it works: You book a car in Europe. Normally, you will be automatically covered for any damage to the car by a collision damage waiver which is included in the price that you are quoted. However, this does not cover the excess on the damage and this can sometimes run to hundreds of pounds. As you are booking the car, the rental company will offer you a damage excess waiver for a small fee each day – typically under £5 a day.

When you come to pick up the car, the hire car company will ask if you would like a cover damage excess – again for a small fee each day. You show them your documents which state that you already have a damage excess waiver however the hire car company point out that the small print says you do not have cover for the windows, tyres or roof – the three areas that are most likely to cause you problems. So, you decide to take out the extra excess waiver and end up spending a lot more money on your car hire than you first expected.

The problem here is that when you come to pick the car up, you will be standing at the car hire desk under pressure to make a quick decision – do you cough up the small amount of money each day, or do you risk taking the car without the extra excess waiver and potentially have to pay out a lot of money for a flat type or chipped windscreen? The majority of people opt to pay the extra charge, and their cheap rental car turns out to be not so cheap after all!

So how can you get around this? It is worth investigating car hire insurance well in advance of your trip. This sort of car insurance gives you cover on hire cars for a small amount of money – normally around the £50 mark – and there is then no need for your to buy any form of excess waiver. You may find that even on one trip alone, the hire car insurance pays for itself in terms of not having to pay waivers, and if you will be hiring more than one hire car in a year, it is more than likely to be the best option.

As ever, the morals of the story are that some things are too good to be true, always read the small print, and prepare in advance!

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