Top Tips: Save Money on Car Hire and Car Club Insurance

I don’t hire a car very often: since going carfree I’ve been amazed how few times it has been necessary. But when I do hire, I’ve noticed recently that, whilst it’s still much cheaper to hire than it is to own and run a car, there’s one car hire cost which is rising – the excess or deductible. This is the bit that isn’t covered by the Collision Damage Waiver, and the likely price you’ll pay for the first portion of repair or replacement costs if anything goes wrong. Back in the day, a minor car park ding meant you’d pay around £60 for a bit of metal bashing and a quick burst of spraypaint.

But things have changed. Just as those unlucky enough to own a car are being hammered by rising costs of insurance, something similar has happened with hire cars, where the excess amount on insurance for car hire typically goes from £500 up to £1,600 - so if your excess is £600 and someone drives into the back of you causing damage of £750, you end up paying £600. Which is why the hire firms are quite persuasive when it comes to coughing up an extra £11.00 a day for excess cover. Either that, or you take the risk.

An alternative is to use a separate insurance policy. Which I did, with a policy to cover the entire excess fee, damage to the roof and undercarriage of the car plus the windows and tyres. I used www.Insurance4carhire.com, a firm with good customer reviews, to get cover for the UK and the rest of Europe at a price of £42.50 for a year. Worldwide including the US is £58.50. For which, you get:

• Covers excess on damage to the vehicle, theft and damage to windows, roof, undercarriage & tyres
• Up to £4,000 per claim & £5,000 per year
• Unlimited number of rentals per year
• 31 days continuous cover per rental
• Cover for you plus 7 additional drivers aged 21-85

Not only that, but it also covers Car Club rentals. So if you hire a car more than one weekend a year, and don’t want to take a chance on the excess, it’s a total no-brainer.

Commonwheels are go

I’ve received an email from Commonwheels , a social enterprise car club. Happy to oblige with a mention. They have cars in the following locations:

• Anstruther - (Wheelshare Franchise)
• Ashton Hayes (Cheshire) - Franchise (Electric Car)
• Carlisle
• Cumbria - Kendal & Staveley
• Dunbar - (Sparewheels Franchise)
• Durham
• Eastleigh
• Gloucester
• High Wycombe
• Lewes
• Middlesbrough - Easterside Electric Car!
• Newcastle & Gateshead - Including an electric car
• Norfolk - Aylsham, Cawston & Reepham
• Northumberland - Prudhoe
• Norwich
• Oxford
• Poole
• Portsmouth
• Reading
• Swindon - (GOCO CAR Franchise)

A Streetcar Named Golf

I’m prepared to admit it: when it comes to cars, I’m not pure. I’m a pragmatist. There are times when only a car will get you to where you need to go, and yesterday was one of them. I needed to be in a location that was about seven miles from where I live, but that was, bizarrely, impossible to reach by public transport, and, being accessed via the A23 dual carriageway, ill-advised by bike. So I needed a car. And I don’t own one. So, two choices: one, a taxi. Very expensive for this kind of out-of-town round trip. Or two, hire a car. As I only needed it for a few hours, I got on the Streetcar website and booked a VW Golf for £5.95 an hour including petrol.

At the appointed hour, I walked for a few minutes to the car’s parking spot, and placed my Streetcard against the car’s windscreen-mounted electronics box. Doors unlocked, I logged in with my pin number, fired up the engine, and set off. At the end of the hire, I parked the car and ran the sequence in reverse. Then I walked away from the car: a free man once more!

Streetcar and Zipcar join forces

Interesting news from the world of car clubs today, as Streetcar is acquired by Zipcar. The deal brings together the largest car club in the US and the fastest-growing car club in Europe. They say that it will bring about a global fleet and a shared vision “to make transport smarter.” Amen to that. Streetcar members will get access to a wider variety of cars, and when the transition is complete, the ability to access cars across Zipcar's network in the US and Canada. With more than 400,000 members, there will be more vehicles, a greater variety of hybrid and other green cars, and more locations. Streetcar will disappear, as the companies will ultimately operate under the Zipcar brand. Streetcar was launched in April 2004, and currently has a presence in more than 1,100 locations across eight cities, including London, Brighton, Cambridge, Southampton, Guildford, Maidstone, Oxford and Bristol.  Zipcar has 360,000 members in urban areas and college campuses throughout 28 North American states and provinces and Europe, and offers more than 30 makes and models of self-service vehicles. Wearing my economist’s hat, the thought occurs that buying up the competition can be a classic way for companies to grow their market without the hard slog of organic growth. And for this type of business, size really does matter: the economies of scale from a bigger operation should be good news for the cost base – and, hopefully, prices. Wearing my carfree customer’s hat, the prospect of getting access to more vehicles in more locations, with the promise of more rapid growth in the future, looks pretty attractive.