Tripcover

Max and I are now back in England following our motorhome holiday around Western Australia for the past three months.

I just wanted to thank you for providing the reassurance of your policy. We had no mis-haps but it was great to know you were there to cover us if we had!

We'll definitely be doing more motorhome holidays and will contact you again for insurance.

Kind regards,
Shannan and Max

Cheaper than the excess cover offered by car-hire company, and the cover offered was easy to understand. The two options available from TripCover gave reasonable choice as well. Recommended service.

I've used this insurance several times before to hire vehicles in Australia. It costs about $8 per day and covers windscreen damage etc which gives me peace of mind. The only problem is I needed $5000 excess but the only options were $4000 or $6000.

I only discovered this option of insurance recently on the internet. Easy to use and get the cover. As far as the convenience of been insured this works well. I haven't had a claim to see how that works !!George

I have only just purchaed the policy, not needed to claim at all but customer service was great after an initial little bit of confusion with how long I needed cover for. I contacted the service centre via email to clarify and Des was great. Below is the text from an email that I sent him after he looked after my query.

"You are a legend Des, thank you so much. I was not expecting to get the extra day for free, but I guess this is why Choice magazine recommends your company. I will most certainly be recommending you guys to friends and family and never again will I take out the expensive insurance with the hire car company."

Summary of events and observations...

Purchased Allianz's Plan A “Nil Policy excess” cover through Tripcover. (Had done so several times before, the actual process is very easy and straightforward each time)

Unfortunately, ended up colliding with a Kangaroo in rural Victoria that bounded out onto the roadway from behind some bushes directly into the path of the hire car.

Rental company provided a (IMO what I deem as a rather inflated) repair quote for a cracked bumper and two small dents along the side caused by the Roo. This was challenged by myself, but it felt like to me Thrifty Vic had possibly all the scripted push-backs at the ready lined up to fire back at me one by one. Final Repair charge came to 2435 AUD, Excluding all the arbitrary charges that the Rental Car firm lumped on top. (And in my mind which Thrifty Vic did not adequately detail or disclose in any of their legal documentation)

I submitted the claim to Allianz and got paid out less Thrifty Vic's “Admin Fee”, “Transport (to Thrifty Vic’s nominated panel beater) fee”, and Thrifty's “Claim fee” leaving me out of pocket to the tune of 290 AUD (around twice the cost of the actual car hire by itself)

This further excludes the impact of any Foreign Margin Fees and charges that one's home bank may charge when Thrifty Vic takes out 4185 AUD (not just a "hold", but Thrifty Vic actually took it out from my CC as a full charge). While this is not in Tripcover / Allianz realm to really to deal with, International hirers using foreign Credit Cards need to be mindful of this and the consequential charges they may incur with their home bank when car hire companies do this.

While in the past, the Allianz product alone may have been sufficient to act as a stand in replacement to the Excess reduction offered by most of the major car rental firms, the situation looks to have changed. On this occasion, I'm thinking if I had taken up some sort of excess reduction directly with Thrifty in conjunction with the Tripcover policy, I would probably be out of pocket by a fair amount less than 290 AUD (not to mention NZ bank foreign currency charges on top of that).

I would not be surprised to learn that there may be some sort of Cat and Mouse game played by Hire car firms to discourage people taken out excess reduction cover with a 3rd party by landing the hirer, in case of a collision, with as much arbitrary charges as possible (and then seeing if the hirer’s own nominated excess reduction policy will cover it).

All that said, The Frontline Tele reps at Allianz Global Assist were super friendly to deal with, but they are obviously constrained by company policy as to what they can and can't do for you.

I fully intent to continue using Tripcover going forward as in my mind the premiums are very reasonable, though will probably look to now also combine this with some sort of excess reduction from the car hire firm in conjunction and only call upon the Tripcover policy for any shortfall and should applicable damage fall within the Car hire firm's exclusions.

Update / To Add: After writing my original review, Tripcover very kindly offered a refund of the original premium to help defray some of the out of pocket costs.

Easy to understand information. Better cover than that provided by the rental companies. A little pricey for 2 days cover ($57.56). Bought cover for $6000 (domestic) becuase all the rental companies excess was more than $4000. Website wouldn't accept my Frequent Flyer number.

This is great cover for rental cars clearly explains what you are covered for and all ways a great rate.
Thank you.
Greg

Always nice to feel the security of affordable hire car insurance, makes traveling so much more fun without the stress!

Was very disappointed to see an overseas tax charge on top of this insurance charge. Would not use this again for this reason

I use this product every time I rent a car. Saves about 50% off most rental car Excess Insurance Cover.

I love these guys, We use them everytime we get rental a car. such great value, Thankfully we have not had to make a claim yet, but with everything they cover i have fantastic piece of mind when we use them.

Cheapest domestic standalone car rental excess cover I could find (plus frequent flyer 5% discount ! ) Easy to use website with a breakdown of the number of hours protected (no 2nd guessing) - highly recommend

I didn't realize you could book excess insurance other than through the car hire company until I did a little research and this is a far more economical way to do it. We haven't actually needed to use the insurance (as yet) but I will update if we do.

I am a long term Hertz fan and continue to support their brand whenever I rent a car. When I am not on corporate travel or otherwise covered by Travel insurance I refuse to pay for the rip-off $24/day AER charged by all Rental Car companies, instead I cover myself with this excellent product from Tripcover and Allianz.

Their service is great and the price is reasonable.

Took out excess cover for my daughter as premium was lower than others and easy to set up. When my daughter was "forced" to take out excess cover again with rental car company to avoid $2000 bond , I contacted Tripcover with a view to cancelling. Although it was already the first day of cover, to my surprise and delight they agreed to refund her full amount. I am gobsmacked by this level of service and common sense.Will undoubtedly use again.AAA+

This company gives great price, peace of mind insurance that makes car renting sensible. I would definitely recommend this service.

Like the idea of actually getting car rental cover without the rental company taking a cut..got covered for a lot less than what the rental company wanted. But no claims made.

The claim was paid less admin fees. This is stated in the What we Will Not Pay section of the PDS. But without knowing what these fees could be it's of little use in making a purchase decision. The admin costs to me were more than the amount I saved by using the TC insurance instead of buying from Enterprise. Lesson learned.

Easy to set up on app and always half price of rental company.
Never Had to make claim, but dont hope to either
Always get email with cover, and details