Does renting a car in Ireland have to be a nightmare?
 

We will be renting a car in Dublin in May and returning it at the Shannon airport. We've read several articles that include tips on renting a car in Ireland and compared prices on both the company websites and on the comparison sites such as DiscoverCars. But in reading the reviews of the various rental companies, it seems like it will be a nightmare. So many people have said they were hit with hidden costs, forced to pay for extra insurance they didn't want, and got cars that broke down immediately, etc. One of the tips we read was to choose a company with the least number of bad reviews! What a reassuring recommendation! We are feeling very overwhelmed with which company to choose and how much insurance to get (we have travel insurance that includes $35,000 rental car insurance). The quotes for this rental car are approaching the cost of an airline ticket!! Any recommendations would be very much appreciated.

Read your travel insurance terms closely - many have specific exclusions for Ireland, as do many credit card linked travel insurance policies. If you can confirm that your travel insurance does provide coverage in Ireland, get a printout saying that and present it when picking up the car and declining the usually expensive CDW offered by the car hire company. There's a good chance they will try to convince you that you must buy their coverage, but hold your ground and give them the printed info.

Why is this a problem with Ireland? Is it because in Ireland you drive on the opposite side of the road than in the US and Europe, for example? Is this true for Scotland? I ask because we are renting a car in Scotland this June. Our credit card covers CDW. I haven't checked to see if it includes Scotland; I just assume that it does, but I could be wrong.
Thank you.

Hi sancraig,

Simple answer: Just book directly with Hertz - www.hertz.ie - competitive rates and strait forward. No issues.

Detailed answer: There are two types of costs that may surprise you - both for insurance - these are ‘Collision Damage Waiver’ and ‘Super Cover (different companies may give this different name’. As far as I know, no rental company will let you have a car without having the collision damage waiver (CDW) (I have North American credit card that says different - but ???). The good news is that many rental companies include CDW in the base rental cost - the bad news is that some of the discount rental sites don’t. Rule of thumb - if the listing doesn’t say it includes CDW - suggest skipping, otherwise you risk getting a nasty surprise when you go to pick up your rental (the once time I got caught in this I believe it was something like €22 per day). There is a negligible price difference between the rentals that include CDW and those that may not.

Note: Even if you have CDW (and third party insurance) the rental company will still block off money on your credit card when you go to pick up the car, up to the amount not covered by CDW (amount depends on the company, but I think it’s somewhere around €1500). Don’t worry about this, it’s not a charge and it doesn’t become a charge (unless you break the car), you just have a little less available on you card.

As for super cover - I don’t think you need this as I think you said you have third party insurance - I find this insurance to be a bit of a cash grab and buy third party insurance myself. However, when you go to pick up your car, the rental company will tell you that buying this insurance (I think it costs somewhere around €22-25 per day) is the only way that they won’t have to block off the CDW amount I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Just smile and say no thank you to super cover.

Hope this helps, and enjoy your trip. Ireland is a wonderful country.

Various reasons but not because of the 'wrong side of the road' stuff. Almost all credit card insurance specifically excludes coverage in Ireland, Italy, and Israel. No such issue in the UK (even Northern Ireland is OK).

Thank you all so much for the information! This is very helpful.

Some Chase Bank credit card insurance does not block coverage for any country, thinking Sapphire and United Airlines specifically as both good worldwide but check other Chase travel-themed cards if you have one. The United Explorer card waives its fee the first year, it can make sense to get it just for car insurance purposes.

Note that the credit card terms requirement to waive optional CDW does not cover mandatory basic CDW included in the rental price. In this case you can safely use the credit card insurance to just cover the deductible/excess and waive the super CDW (or whatever they call it) insurance. I my experience it is common for non-international car rental companies (those only located in the country visited) to include some CDW in the base rate of all rentals.

If you are uncertain, call ahead and ask. I have called ahead to Amex for a Mexico rental and they confirmed their insurance is valid for the deductible when the base coverage cannot be waived, ditto Chase with rentals in New Zealand and Iceland, I was told the same thing.

No company is going to give you a hard time for not getting the super CDW when base coverage is paid for. It's when you drive off seemingly with no coverage at all that they can make scenes or demands, although never in France or the UK in my experience.

Thank you janisj! You are always a font of helpful information. Didn't know about Ireland and Italy. We hope to visit Ireland at a future date and we hope to return to Italy so this is helpful information.

I guess some people need to be explicitly shown. Here's the Chase policy without any country restrictions. This is the Sapphire policy but the United card has the same wording.

Attachment 7967

tom_mm: That 'Guide to Benefits' says only this re where coverage is included (emphasis mine): "This benefit is available in the United States and most foreign countries. Coverage is not available where precluded by law, or where it’s in violation of the territory terms of the auto rental agreement, or when prohibited by individual merchants. If you have questions about where coverage applies, contact the Benefit Administrator before You travel."

So basically clarifies nothing, and one has to contact the Benefit Administrator to find out.

There are a few cards that cover Ireland but the vast majority do not.

I also agonized over car rental in Ireland after reading all the horror stories. I found it hard to make a decision.
I eventually went with Hertz figuring they were a large company and I booked through Auto Europe assuming
they'd go to bat if we had any problems.
The coverage came with excess protection and Liability Insurance, Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) with excess
and Theft Protection (TP) with excess.
Our Australian travel insurance has good rental car insurance and being confident we had the appropriate coverage
we just declined the extras they offered.
When we picked up the car we made sure the rep marked a couple of extra scratches and we really had no difficulties at all
We had booked an Opel and got a small Polo which was fairly small but we managed

I don't understand the issues about renting a car in Ireland & why there is this perception that it is a nightmare. If the credit card company insurance doesn't cover rentals in Ireland, just buy it like everyone else has to. As above, book through AE or similar, AE offer two types of CDW, basic or the super CDW which covers the deductible. Or book direct if the rate is better. You can buy a separate car rental insurance policy to cover the tyres, windscreen, undercarriage and other misc things which are not covered by CDW. There aren't any hidden costs if you look at what you are booking properly eg make sure its unlimited mileage etc. The only additionals should be things you have requested over above the basic rental eg additional driver, GPS etc.

You can review poor reviews on anything, I'd certainly ignore them, book Hertz or Sixt or whoever gives you a rate you like the look of.

These country exclusions are quite explicit (ref: AMEX https://feeservices.americanexpress....verage/home.do), and also my main card Capital One Mastercard has these exclusions. It is a stretch to say the language you highlight is the same kind of thing. And notice the New Zealand exclusion in the Amex link, I specifically asked Chase if they covered NZ (knowing that many cards don't) before I went and was told they "cover every country."

As to "a few" cards, the Chase Sapphire cards are two of the most popular travel credit cards, and that 2 of the big 4 US airlines have credit cards that are Chase cards, United and Southwest, together the cards in these 3 families add up to more than just a few cards. Double checking the Chase Southwest Airlines card policy language here is the same wording again, without the country exclusions.
https://cdn.f9client.com/api3/file/1...583c6bfe0da887

My hunch is that specific country insurance exclusions in credit card insurance policies are fading, but I haven't researched it or seen it covered by one of the many travel websites, which write duplicate articles about the same topics, but apparently none on this. Admitting I am not aware of a Mastercard or Amex credit card insurance policy that doesn't have these country exclusions.

Not trying to harp on this, just interested, but another common Visa that doesn't have country exclusions for car rental insurance is the Costco Visa https://www.cardbenefits.citi.com/~/...CostcoCon.ashx
So that's a card from CitiBank too, not just Chase, offering global coverage, for at least this card.

Maybe one of the many travel sites will see this and think it is worthy of research and do a write up.

Ireland has an excellent motorway system to get you between the major cities. The drivers there are also patient and courteous for the most part.

When you get to the parts of the country that are on the tourist trail - Ring of Kerry, Dingle, The Burren, Connemara etc then the roads are generally well paved, but extremely narrow. Did anyone mention twisty? The locals also drive extremely fast.

I’m feeling much better after reading all of your responses and we’re going to use many of your recommendations. Thank you all very much.

I have always wondered why Ireland also.

Both Ireland and Italy could have dangerous roads, but so could other countries. So I have always wondered about that and wonder if it is some type of legal issue between the countries that makes that coverage difficult. Such as Ireland car rental firms won't accept pay from the US or something, who knows but I am sure there is some reason. In fact, the Chase Sapphire terms don't tell you which countries are excluded, maybe Ireland is one those countries where it is forbidden by law, etc. But Amex doesn't exclude Ireland but does Italy. These are my Amex terms exclusions on that benefit

any vehicle rented in Australia, Italy, or New Zealand or any country subject to comprehensive sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control

However, I have a free Amex card and pay extra for the premium car rental insurance ($25 per rental, includes deductible payment) and its terms specifically DO exclude Ireland. I got that to include the deductible and I think that makes Amex first payer, also, it's a cheap addon if you rent cars a lot for more than one day.

Since the roads are very narrow there seem to be many instances of hub caps being lost. Our tip is to either wire tie or remove the hub caps. Our group rented 2 vehicles and were lucky to find a "replacement" hub cap in the bushes before we returned our cars. We noticed other rentals just put all 4 in the trunk at the start of their trip.

You need to do your research, call to talk about any specific questions, but get an email from them to print out and present at the car rental location. On our recent trip, we needed a written confirmation, dated less than 3 weeks out and it needed to specifically state they cover the Republic of Ireland. We have Chase Sapphire and were happy we had everything in order before we left with our car because we ended up with $600 dollars in damage to our car, from scratches on the passenger side. They paid for all of it.

I've rented cars in Italy, Germany and Ireland. The last being the only one that was not covered by my credit card ( rental car insurance) for the reasons listed above, I suppose. I agree with the advice given and I too declined the coverage that they pressured me to get and then I drove very carefully. HA I would like to add the following: The last time we were there was '19 and I walked out without getting that very expensive coverage. I was rolling the dice. Thirteen years ago, I was warned that Ireland rental companies also look under the car and at tires for damage and wear. I thought that was the craziest thing I'd ever heard. When I turned in our car in '10, the first thing they did was grab a long pole with a mirror hinged to the end and started looking under the car for...scrapes, I guess. i've always opted for a smaller vehicle there as the roads I find myself traveling on are slender with no paint. If they did paint the road, it'd look like bike lanes. The hedges represent the vertical plane of the side of the road and there's a grove from side mirrors mowing the plant material in some areas. It can be a bit claustrophobic at times. The highways are lovely so, no worries there.

As for Italy - I've never had a problem renting a car without purchasing extra insurance. They did put a $500 hold for incidentals on the card in '19 but, no charges ever hit. I hope you have a fabulous time in Ireland. It's such an easy country to visit and (I"m going to generalize a whole country now) they're all so nice.