Temporary car insurance

Car rental advice on Irish Radio

With school holidays fast approaching in Ireland many people will be renting cars overseas. The Myles Dungan Today consumer programme offered advice on what to do and not to do.
I was in Dublin earlier this week and whilst I was sitting in the car wash, RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Myles Dungan programme and he was interviewing a lady regarding tips for when you are renting cars.

The interview came at a time when many Irish people will be off on their summer holidays as Irish schools (like Scottish ones) end the summer term much earlier than in England and Wales.

The person being interviewed in this consumer feature was warning people that although if they book a car via an online provider that the ultimate responsibility lies with the car rental company itself if there are problems.

She explained that the daily rate quoted would normally have lots of extras like car hire excess\insurance and waiver, insurance for additional drivers, however did not mention that if a renter was staying at home in Ireland, Dublin car hire rental companies normally charge an “airport fee” as well. Maybe this is just peculiar to some cities in Ireland.

Advice was given about checking the car when you collect it. Damage, is full of fuel etc, which was rather interesting as this north Dublin petrol station is also used as a depot for a few rental cars and as my car was being washed a mini bus arrived with two couples collecting their rental cars.

One couple never looked at the state of the car, it was very clean, but did not check for damage and the other couple were more concerned about how to open the boot. The representative helped here, but was already...

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