For years I have been using AutoEurope for my car rentals, as they offered good prices with zero-excess rentals directly from vendors (so you got an Avis car with a zero-excess rate from Avis). Recently they stopped offering zero-excess rates and replaced them with their "Full Protection," which is a refund policy/insurance from them. The description states that you need to report any damage to the car to their affiliated company and to local authorities, and that the rental car company will charge you for the damage, which AutoEurope will then refund. It sounds like a lot of hassle, but maybe I am wrong. Has anyone used their Full Protection and had their money refunded? What did the process look like?
Posted by
Schwerin
4670 posts
I do not have experience with that but want to mention that for example German police would not care for a smaller accident between two cars if no people were injured / killed or no obvious violation of traffic rules happened, e. g. ignoring red traffic light.
Posted by
Bristol, UK
2086 posts
I haven’t used AutoEurope but the product sounds similar to the stand alone excess insurance that I always buy and is well known as the cheapest way to insure rental cars in the UK. I have had to claim on this insurance once. I sent them the bill (from Avis) and the amount was refunded very quickly.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Helen, Autoeurope insurance terms and conditions require to 'notify authorities', which is ridiculous. I understand booking.com does not require that, the bill from a rental company is enough?
Posted by
172 posts
Hello, former AE employee here and current customer. I too historically purchased the zero excess rates. Since AE seems to no longer offer them, I just book under their other business entity Kemwel, who still seems to offer them in most cases.
It’s the same company behind the scenes.
Posted by
255 posts
In 2024 we used AutoEurope for the first time (Dolomites with Europcar) Our policy clearly said zero excess. I was shocked by the Europcar asking if we wanted to buy the zero excess policy. I said I prepaid for the zero excess. She said you have a policy through a vendor (auto europe) we (europcar) will still charge you excess and you must seek reimbursement through them. I was very confused and we did end up just risking it with the prepaid policy. I know when I reserved car for next month in Florence pick up with auto europe it does say full reimbursement, but that seemed to line up with my experience in 2024. I am too hoping nothing goes wrong and if it does I can secure proper documentation for full reimbursement. As we are driving from Florence down to Puglia this was the only policy that included theft in Puglia region.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
acechrist, thanks! This is very helpful.
Posted by
USA
143 posts
This was discussed before on these forums and it was mentioned that the “zero deductible insurance” option could be purchased from AutoEurope over the phone. I have no idea if that is correct or not. If you try it maybe you can report your findings in this thread.
As for the car rental agency asking you to buy even more insurance after already purchasing zero deductible that definitely sounds sketchy to me. I wonder if the counter people are paid a commission on these upsells.
In all cases make sure to examine your receipt. I got charged for “roadside assistance” in PHX despite not asking for it or agreeing to it. I went straight back to the counter, got manager and had it removed.
Posted by
Niagara, Ontario
1987 posts
I've rented with Autoeurope a few times. No matter which rental company, sales at the pick-up counter always try to push the extra insurance.
Authorities have to be notified if damage is fairly significant or worse, caused by a collison or a hit a and run to your vehicle. I don't know how booking.com gets around this.
Posted by
USA
143 posts
Last time I rented in Europe I wasn’t pressured to purchase anything extra. I had already purchased the full insurance coverage.
I was looking at my AutoEurope rental agreement for an upcoming trip and it included a list of things to familiarize yourself with that you may be upsold on. Extra insurance in addition to the “super coverage” I already purchased wasn’t on the list. Instead it included things like GPS, additional driver and child seats.
Posted by
78 posts
We noted that the zero excess option was not offered when trying to book online, so called AEurope. I told them we wanted zero excess, zero hassle, no questions asked, "walk-away" insurance coverage if the car is damaged. They said we could still purchase the higher level through them by phone. The car is booked with Europcar in France, and the confirmation we received does say zero excess. . Our trip will be soon, so we'll see if we are pressured for additional insurance on site, and I'll try to report back.
Posted by
Chicago
1289 posts
If I might piggyback on this thread, I am looking to book a car rental, and Kemwel (a subsidiary of
AutoEurope, I believe) is showing me a rate where the Zero deductible option is substantially less
(like, 20%) than the basic rate (incl liability and fire), and the rate with CDW, etc is obviously even more.
Seems like it would be the other way around. Can anyone shed light on what I'm missing?