Irish Cousin

Never heard of Irish Cousin.

Go with Budget or Hertz and get EVERY bit of insurance possible. Go with the smallest car available and if you know how to drive a stick shift, get one.

I've driven the island twice. Ireland and Northern Ireland. Rural roads are teeny often with hedges and rock walls blocking peripheral views. Always OBEY the speed limits as you might come upon a pony driven cart, bicyclists, owners and their pet dogs, horse back riders, sheep, and more sheep.

Great country Eire. Enjoy the people and the natural beauty that is often breath taking.

Slainte

I'm not familiar with them but they get pretty good reviews on TA so I guess I would probably risk them if the price is right.

Claudia,
I have gotten better deals on Costco’s website, but they don’t tell you how much the insurance is. My Irish Cousin includes insurance which is about $800 for 9 days. It is a mid size car because there are 4 of us. My visa has coverage for car rental in Ireland, but I want to make sure I have full coverage. Thanks for your advice.

Your quoted price of $800 sounds pretty excessive, even with zero deductible insurance included.
Just checked the AutoEurope website for a sample week in May and it's showing less than $400 for an automatic with zero deductible from Dublin airport ... so less than half what you're being quoted.
Suggest that you keep shopping, starting here: https://www.autoeurope.com/.

I've never heard of the company you speak of. If all the reviews are great, especially for a rental company which always have some sort of problem or other, I would be very skeptical. It is worth looking carefully at a batch of top reviews to see if they pass the smell test. TA has been caught with many fake or paid for or bulk reviews all around the world. People are paid in some places to crank out hundreds of reviews on all sorts of places.

Do many of the "reviewers" have a very small number of reviews? Do they go into detail? Do they sound like other ones? Do they include photos? Is there a cluster around the same time? Are they written in good English?

It is just worth being a bit skeptical.

I think I will keep my car rental through Costco. My Irish Cousin wants full payment now and I hesitate paying that far in advance. My credit card company said they cover car rental in Ireland, but I have read some of the problems people have had with their car rental companies in Ireland. Thank you for all your help.

Again encourage to price AutoEurope. We booked a full week through them earlier this year in Ireland, and our car totaled with full insurance roughly $430. The car was actually provided by - wait for it - HERTZ. When you get a price back it will specify the rental company. Pick up was in Dublin and drop in Shannon, and the $430 included the drop fees for a mid-sized SUV/

Love Costco, but sometimes you can find a better deal.

I used Enterprise in and out of Dublin for a week and used my credit card insurance. It was easy with no problems. We didn’t have any accidents or scrapes, though - and drove some pretty small roads.