DoYouSpain Insurance

Anyone know if the 'extra' insurance offered by DoYouSpain is actually accepted by the car hire companies at Alicante (Record Car Hire, for instance) when you go to the desk ? Do you still have to take their insurance or leave the deposit of up to €800 on your credit card ?

Brian J990

Definitely not accepted you still have to leave deposit on card or take out insurance with hire company

Hello Brian!

We always use the insurance from DoYouSpain! It saves us around 40% of the additional fees!

Simply say No to their insurance. The deposit is just a blocking on your account, no money withdrawn...

Kai & Dagmar

I paid the DYS insurance last October and was told by the rep at the Goldcar desk that it was a waste of money. I had to choose between buying the Goldcar insurance or letting them charge the deposit against my card. I am due to rent cars a few times this year so have taken out an annual policy with UK insurer for about £50 which will be cheaper in the long run. The main downside is that if there is s problem I would have to pay to sort it out initially then claim back the cost when back in the UK. 

Hello , I had a problem with car insurance about 2 years ago with Goldcar. They told me that my Insurance which I had bought from home was invalid and I had to buy theirs ;even though DYS said that the car hired would be covered with their insurance. As we were in a hurry  I paid Goldcar 120 euros as well as leaving a deposit even though we felt that we had been conned.

When I got back to the UK I wrote several times to GOLDCAR requesting a refund and asked them to look at how their branch(ALICANTE) and a particular individual(Jose) was operating their business.

I also entered into a dialogue on Facebook warning others of Goldcar and DYS insurance irregularities.

Within 4 weeks of my initial letter to them they refunded all of my money and I  received a letter of apology.

I would not use GOLDCAR again or Dickmans.

Hope this prevent others from having the problems which we had.

I tihnk it is fairly straight forward regarding their insurance and getting your own Hire Car Excess insurance.

Everything except the wheels, windscreeen, mirrors, lost keys, undercarriage and in some cases breakdown recovery is covered in the car hire cost, those things just mentioned are not (and are the most likely to be damaged during your hire period). If you want to safeguard yourself against these things you can buy insurance from the car hire company at the time of collecting your car. The price will be high, extortionate in fact, but it is your choice to take it or not.

If you decline because you have your own insurance, or just because you think it is a rip off, then you MUST leave a 600 euro deposit (or whatever the cost is). You cannot negotiate out of this, even if you have your own annual policy you must still pay this deposit.

Then, should something happen the car hire company will deduct costs from your deposit. If you have your own excess insurance you would then have to claim against that back in your home country.

Buying your own insurance does not remove your requirement to pay the deposit, you must still put your card down no matter what - the car hire company does not want to get involved in a scenario where they are reliant on you claiming on your insurance to get their car fixed, and why should they? They could not run a business like that.

I had always taked the hire company insurance and had absolutely no problem with returning the cars but last year I did buy an annual policy in the UK and when I hired through Goldcar (who have always been really good, I might add) I also returned the car and my deposit was returned without any problem whatsoever in just a day or two.

These things are just a fact of hiring a car in Spain.

We have always taken out an annual car hire excess insurance , approx. €50.00 for the year for the main renter plus up to 5 named drivers. It covers numerous rentals per year, max rental period of 62 days any one time and a combined total claim in the year of €3000.00. This means you refuse the car hire company extra insurance and accept the excess that they block on you card.

Last year we unfortunately had to use the insurance when we had an accident. Upon returning the car they gave us the bill for the repairs up to the maximum of the excess chargeable (in this case €1200.00) and we then claimed this amount back through our insurance. The money was through from the insurance within a month. Very straightforward. Just ensure that you have all of the documentation required for a claim which includes the car hire company's invoice and a police report.

Much cheaper than paying through the nose for the car hire company insurance particularly if you rent a few times a year.

Your own insurance or Doyouspain usually has a limit of about 3000 euros, the last couple of cars that I have hired have been almost new and pretty cheap to hire, I go for their insurance for peace of mind and no hassle (never used to when the cars were old)
5 days hire for 40 euros is really cheap so dont mind so much the extra insurance

You're only liable for the excess in the event of damage/accident not the full cost, so even at €40 for a few days that is expensive compared to €49 for an annual policy.

A quick update re car insurance with Gold Car - previoulsy GC included bumps and scratches in the standard insurance that came automatically within the rental charge, so buying a UK policy to cover things not covered by the standard policy such as lost keys was a good idea. HOWEVER when I picked up my car today from Alicante GC told me that they have changed their standard cover and it no longer includes bumps and scratches.  As these are not normally covered by a UK CWD policy people may be exposed.  It means that checking the vehicle and making them document every bump and scratch before driving away is vital (the car I got was a wreck so this took a long time). They have also doubled the amount of deposit which needs to be left if their insurance is not being taken out, from 600 to 1200 euros.

Happy motoring.