I think quite a few of us rent cars on a recurring basis. If you do, there are basically only two options the rental companies give you:
– Buy total damage coverage from the rental company (quite expensive, 5-15 eur per day), with no excess amount. This means in case something happens to the car, you don’t pay anything.
– Leave a deposit (800-2000 eur), which they will return to you once you return the car, deducting money if there was damage to the car.
Most frequent renters go for option 2, but we buy Excess Insurance separately. This can be found for 50-70 eur per year. You still have to leave a deposit when renting, but the insurance will reimburse you if you don’t get the deposit back.
I personally rent a lot, and I think most travellers do too, so I think it would be a nice incentive for the Premium card, if feasible. Personally I’d like it more than the health insurance thing, because most of us already have health coverage.
this would be a key fact about the premium account.
Here in Spain some premium credit cards include it if you pay the rental with it, but this could be a problem for revolut since most car rental companies don’t accept debit cards. But as standalone insurance, like the health insurance, would be very attractive for most users.
True, in Spain most car rental companies either don’t accept debit cards or do accept them but claim that they cannot “block” the deposit on them (I have no idea whether that really is a technical limitation, or just a sales tactic) so they make you take out their insurance if you want to use a debit card.
Just to be clear, Excess Insurance would be a perk like Health Insurance, something that you get with your Premium card but don’t have to use the card to trigger, just like you don’t have to pay for the travel or the hospital bill with Revolut in order for the travel health insurance to be valid.
A guy working for a bank told me that blocking should work just perfectly on debit cards, as long as one has sufficient funds. But a security deposit for rental cars can be quite hi, depending on the car one rents. Another nuisance: with some rental companies, it can take forever until they release the money.
I’m just about to renew my annual excess insurance policy. I’m not on Revolut Premium because I don’t need the health insurance, but adding excess insurance would probably bring me into the fold.
Have you ever had any trouble using the revolut for car rental?
I’ve also noticed, that prepaids aren’t ok with the Spanish rental agencies. Taking their full coverage than solves the problem and no excess is reserved? Or do they tend to complicate anyways?
Thanx in advance.
Othervise, I also like the idea, that premium would include the rental excess insurance, rather than the health insurance
I have never tried to use Revolut for car rental in Spain (I rent a lot there but with my normal credit card).
“Taking their full coverage than solves the problem and no excess is reserved?”
I would not call it a solution… I mean if you only rent once per year or for short periods, maybe, but buying full coverage is very expensive if you rent multiple times in a year or for longer periods. The yearly excess insurance I buy from a third party costs me in the region of 50 euros per year… the car companies often charge you something like 10 euros per day for full coverage.
hey Croato, I didn’t know there were annual cdw policies, so thanks for the tip! I’ve just bought one from worlwideinsure for less than 50 EUR, but eventually I would have bought it from Revolut if they offered it!
+1 for the car rental excess insurance. Much more useful than the pretty-much-useless travel insurance.
As it stands, I have 2 free gold cards issued by more traditional online banks, they both cover the car rental excess and even the full CDW in some cases (eg US).
I have Revolut Premium, and it doesn’t cover anything.
Also agree that car excess cover is a great idea, and much more useful than health insurance (as most people would surely take out fully featured travel insurance).
Totally agree, as a matter of fact this is what a lot of banks including N26 offer with their premium cards and adding this to your premium extras would really make it more attractive!
I just want to express my support for this idea as its a major component of a travel insurance for me.
Most credit card companies and banks (n26) offer a basic rental car coverage and it is VERY important to me and many other people in my circle to have such included. It will also put Revolut on par in Europe with other competing banks such as N26.
Would be lovely to hear from a Revolut admin if there is an option of getting this in the future and if anybody has been looking into this already.
Even if not INCLUDED in the price it would absolutely be an option I would purchase on a “daily” basis similar to the additional health insurance coverage.
Now it is included in the metal tier, but just read the conditions and what it is not covered is a lot. For instance it is not covered “ Any claim for scratches or damage to the external paint, bumper, or body of the rental car”, don’t really understand where is the point on having an insurance that does not cover if someone scratch your car… makes no sense
Hi Surfinwaikikk, could please share the link with revolut car hire excess conditions? I am interested in it but cannot find the conditions anywhere. Thank you
