We recently spent 2 weeks in Scotland in a rental car through Europcar that was arranged online with rentalcars.com. We opted to take out traveler's insurance with rental car collision included, prior to traveling. When we went to pick up our car at the Glasgow airport, we were not allowed to take it without purchasing additional insurance through Europcar of 22.60 pounds a day - which more than doubled the price of the rental. Additionally, it came with a 1500 pound deductible. It didn't matter than we had a copy of the traveler's policy, or that this requirement was not disclosed in any of the information pertaining to the rental. Since the car rental had been prepaid, we felt that we had no option. We later learned that other friends traveling with us had rented through other companies and had no similar insurance requirements. So renter beware! Europcar has large hidden fees that likely won't be disclosed to you until you are standing in line to pick up your car! I'd also think twice about renting through rentalcar.com, since there was incomplete information about our rental.
Posted by
Truro, NS, Canada
3941 posts
I wonder if it's a Scotland thing...we've used Europcar twice for rentals in France and the counter people never tried to upsell us on insurance...they asked and we just said - no, we used our Amex - which includes rental coverage in France...
Just editing to add that we went thru AutoEurope both times...
Posted by
1221 posts
Budget, I think it was, at the EDI airport has no problems with us declining their coverage in favor of our AmEx 'Super cover' policy a few years back, so not a Scotland thing.
It could have been a rogue counter agent trying to hit their supplemental insurance sales quota who saw an American who probably hadn't used the company before as easy to push around in that matter.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10623 posts
Sounds like a rogue agent, and you should try to get your money back. I can't describe the details of how to do it, but travel consumer advocate Chris Elliott has it all laid out on his website. Go for it and good luck.
Yes, EuropCar has become slightly more aggressive in recent years, but this is outrageous. We recently rented from them via AutoEurope, the consolidator. Indeed, we received several messages from AutoEurope before pick up about not letting ourselves be pressured to buy additional insurance. So lesson number 2 is to use a good consolidator with a track record ? AutoEurope, Kemwel, Europe-by-Car) and not an internet agency.
Posted by
Salt Lake City, UT (Previous Seattle, WA)
315 posts
We used a small consolidator arriving in Madrid. They wanted to up the cost with insurance. This was not a prepaid rental car, we walked away to rent a car from Europcar. Smooth process and CC insurance was adequate.
Posted by
Everett, WA
1299 posts
Thank you for posting and warning others. I have read this experience on the forum before. My post is to tell my story in hopes of helping other avoid what happened to you. I am sorry it is too late to help you.
I had a similar experience in London with National car rental (owned by Europcar). The high pressure sales person was "so nice" (I am trying to help you, etc) but he tried to slip us into several upgrades ("You will need a Navigation system...your luggage will only fit in a larger car") We refused everything. When we got to insurance, he said he could not rent us the car unless we bought their insurance. I had the same thing you did: car rental insurance with my travel insurance. I have used that multiple times in Europe, but he would not budge. Neither would I. We went head to head for about 20 minutes when a light bulb lit up over my head. I use Autoeurope to rent and I called their toll free 24 hour help line. A female answered the phone. When I told her what was going on, she said "We can help you". She transferred me to a male. The first thing he said is "this happens all the time". So what was the solution?
I don't know why, but they continued to refuse my 3rd party insurance. However, because I had rented with my Mastercard, all I had to do was say I had insurance with Mastercard. That was acceptable. (I do have car rental insurance with Mastercard but would have filed any claim with CSA travel insurance.) We signed the papers and were out the door and found a large car with a huge trunk.
My advice to others reading this:
Using an auto consolidator like Autoerope or Gemut gives you a 24 hour helpline. Use it if you run into this kind of problems.
Try to rent with a credit card that has car rental benefits. Even if you have your own insurance, this might get you out the door without having to purchase more.
I am not sure why this happens occasionally. I have read about it happening to others, and my memory is that it is always in the UK. I have a feeling there is some regulation the car sales person can "exploit" to force the issue. What I don't like about it is that there ARE other solutions, but they don't give you the other options. What this does is leave a consumer in a situation where they are at the rental desk and do not have an opportunity to educate themselves about those other options. I am sure the sales person is pressured to "upgrade, upgrade, upgrade". Like others, I have used Europcar in other countries with no problem. (In fact, I had rented a car in France the week prior to this with Europcar. The salesmen there gave us GPS upgrade for free and came out to the car and helped us learn some of the trips of operation). CONSUMERS BEWARE IN THE UK.
EDIT: I went back and read the other responses again. I noticed that everyone that did not have a problem said " I am using my credit card".