Rental cars in the Azores

Used https://www.autoeurope.com/, an aggregator, the actual rental for the car I chose was from https://www.ilhaverde.com/.

No complaints with either HOWEVER we buy insurance directly from the car rental agency ( not from a third-party) which avoids a lot of the damage charges that others complain about.

The first time I drove in São Miguel island had several near misses with cows on the road.

Thanks so much. So does that mean we shouldn't depend on the rental car insurance provided by the credit card company (American Express in this case). I always find the whole matter of rental car insurance quite confusing.

At the top of this Portugal forum is a post written by the webmaster. In it is a link to my digital Azores guidebook. There is a free sample you can access that explains everything you need to know regarding renting cars in the Azores, plus much, much more. No one is obligated to purchase the full guide. 👍

You can always send me a private message if you have specific questions.

Carl

The rental contract is between you and the rental agency ( not the credit card company - they're a form of payment instead of cash)

If there are any damage charges the rental agency will ask payment from you ( or just bill your credit card), it's then up to you ask the credit card insurance to reimburse you for those damage payments.

To make things more cumbersome most credit cards provide secondary coverage instead of primary coverage, that means that with secondary coverage you must put a claim first with your own auto insurance company and whatever amount your own insurance company doesn't cover is then claimed on the credit card insurance - hence secondary coverage.

With primary coverage the entire amount is claimed on the credit card insurance without having to go through your own auto insurance first.
Some third party insurance companies ( credit card or otherwise) make the process difficult to try to avoid making payments while others are easier and more generous in their claim payment procedures.

To avoid all that I always budget for auto insurance directly from the car rental agency.
To me it's worth the peace of mind of returning the car and not have damage fees charged to the credit card weeks later.

Whenever we travel anywhere we always use AutoSlash. Not only does it provide the best price out there, but once you've booked with them you select a little button to "Track My Rental" and if a cheaper price comes up they notify you. They're cheaper than AutoEurope or actually any other place we've tried. Their customer service is great. For our upcoming trip to Portugal we reserved a car on the mainland, and on each of 2 islands Sao Miguel and Terceira. The prices were fabulous.

To make things more cumbersome most credit cards provide secondary coverage instead of primary coverage...

In my experience that is certainly not always the case.

It's a basic detail about the card you are using, and just one of the things anyone contemplating doing that should know. There are plenty of cards that provide Primary coverage for car rentals (I have a wallet full of them that do). This - whether or not the insurance coverage is Primary or Secondary should be clearly disclosed in the card's terms, if you just go to the issuing bank's website and search for the marketing materials for that card.

Worth knowing: In some cases, the coverage may or may not be primary, depending on circumstances. For example, I know of a few "business" credit cards whose insurance coverage is primary when used for domestic AND international rentals FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES, but is always Primary when used for international rentals (so for your personal vacation in Orlando coverage would be secondary, but for your business trip to Orlando AND your personal vacation to Portugal, coverage would be Primary).

I have found the insurance provided by my credit card to be incredibly valuable and absolutely no hassles at all. That said, I do pay attention to details and do not find it overly burdensome to find and understand the important details. I'm happy saving many hundreds of bucks a year using this benefit. Others will make difference choices.

About renting in the Azores: I've rented 5 different cars there (on 5 different islands) and had nothing but great experiences each time from Isla Verde, which is the primary local car rental company.

Hint: even if you book a car through the giant international rental car companies whose names you know, when you go pick up your car, it's almost always going to be from Isla Verde. I had cars booked through Avis, Hertz, and AutoEurope. In all cases, the actual agency was Isla Verde. They just had a tiny sign with the Avis, Hertz and AutoEurope logos on it.

Isla Verde was great for us, not expensive, easy to work with, flexible and downright helpful when we wanted to switch a pickup location at the very last minute (from an airport location to a location adjacent to the ferry port where we were arriving) - they even kept their office open late for us when our ferry was running late so we could pick up our car - before boarding the ferry, I asked an agent in an office on one island to contact their office on the next island to make the switch for me, they did so (and went way above and beyond what I would have expected most car rental places to go). I'll rent from Isla Verde again without hesitation.

I've rented from https://autatlantis.com/ twice on the island of Flores. They are also on other islands in the Azores. Easy online booking.

My first time when i got to the airport the vehicle i had rented was not available due to a mechanical issue. they put me in a smaller vehicle (Fiat Panda) and it was big enough and they gave me a wonderful discount for the "hassle" (honestly, it was no hassle, the vehicle was large enough for the four of us!).

But the fact that they so happily gave me the discount (about 40% off what i would have paid for the vehicle i had originally selected) without so much as a peep from me asking for one left a great impression on me that i had no issue booking with them the second time!