For those that love Ireland, but have had car rental problems, drop the director of Bord Failte (their Tourism bureau) an email about the need for change.  shaun.quinn@failteireland.ie

Trung,

What great advice. Thanks so much.

Michele

Steve, 

Welcome to my forum. The car rental debate goes on and on. I rented from Budget last year and was hit with the 2,000 deposit because I declined CDW insurance. Evidently they had just added it to their website between my booking with them and picking up the car. Mind you, it was not a "hold" on my credit card, but an actual charge. Since I was in Ireland for so long I had to pay that on my credit card bill halfway through my trip. It was credited back to my card at the end of the rental but it was a terrible surprise and inconvenience. If I can be blindsided then anyone can! 

I will not rent from Budget in Ireland again unless they change their rules. 

As you can see from this three page discussion, the car rental companies in Ireland all make up their own rules. That is why it is so complicated. If there was one set of rules for them all it would be easy. Unfortunately you must look at each one on an individual basis, read all the fine print, add up all the various charges to get your total price and then make your decision. 

There is also a problem this year with reduced fleets at the car companies. Those going in high season may have some problems if tourism goes up this year. 

On my last trip I used Dooley. It is one of the very few companies that give you all charges up front. There were no surprises. The price quoted is what I paid with no extras. I was happy with the whole experience. I have also heard of people who were not happy with Dooley. I suppose no company can have a 100% success rate.

To sum up, there is no one best car company in Ireland. You must find the one that is best for your purposes and pocketbook. 

I suggest you call Dooley to ask them your questions. Their operators are helpful and will walk you through the process. Phone number on their website: http://www.dandooley.com/

Bob is right that all the insurances can easily double or triple the cost of renting a car in Ireland. Those in the know and who have the time try to get a World MasterCard (in the US) that covers insurance in Ireland. But your time is short and you will probably have to pay the CDW and Super CDW. 

Michele

Michele,

So do you recommend Dan Dooley Car rental as the best rental? I will be traveling from US to Ireland later this week and want to rent a car for 7 days and almost booked on the thrifty site before I found the 2000 Euro CHARGE so I canceled and found your site. If you can recommend or share what service most members prefer I would greatly appreciate it.

Also, if you recommend Dooley, when booking the CDW w/ the Excess means that there is no 2000 Deductible correct?

I wrote to the ministry of tourism as you suggested early on in this threa, Michele. I just receieved a very nice reply. It seems that the national consumerism group has been reviewing complaints from the last two years and are currently reviewing practices and websites of various companies to get a clear picture on what has been going on. I found that very hopeful!

The insurance4hire site seems to have a tiny glitch in the ordering process. The forms come up in French. I sent in an email and it may already be rectified, but just a head's up. Also be sure you understand that their coverage does not take the place of the CDW, it just covers the supplement "excess" portion so if you have a problem you don't end up eating the entire $2000 deductible required with the CDW. From reading the fine print, the company sounds sound. I'm sure thankful to have an option to save us a little moola at any rate! : )

I'm curious if anyone has used "insurance4carhire", a company in Great Britain that covers excess on damage to the rental vehicle including the undercarriage, excess on theft, and damage to windows and tires. They have a policy, Europe 31, that includes Ireland and costs only $49EU. Any word how good this company is if one has to file a claim? It's much less than the car rental company's cost. Thanks.

Bridgeman 

I want to thank you too, Monty. I had a car reserved through Avis, but decided to cancel it and go with Dooley. It sure seems to be a better bet.

Rosa:

Have used Hertz out of Shannon before, and although things were OK, there were a couple of things that made me go another direction the next time.

First of all, their fleet at the time I used them was chock full of older vehicles.  Since their rental lot is so close to the airport, do not hesitate to go back to the desk and request another car if the first one they give you looks too beat up.

Second, there will be additional charges presented as you show up to get the car.  No question -- it will occur.  I would love to see you post on here later that the charges were indeed $365, however Hertz and its history tell me that will not be the case.  I had to battle them over our previous agreement before they would remove a couple of uncalled for charges.

Let's keep fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly! I've been to Ireland five times and the only company that doesn't pull a fast one when you check in for your car is Dan Dooley.

Hertz and AutoEurope look for every angle to pile on stuff at the airport.

Also, many travelers fail to do this, but make sure you take photos of all four sides of the car, the roof, the hood, tires, and windows. If there is any question on something turned back in, those images will be really helpful as you deal with the agency.

Have a great time -- confusion regarding car rental is one thing we all agree on ... it is often a challenge.

Monty

-- Edited by Monty on Tuesday 16th of March 2010 02:20:01 PM

Travelingirl,

Happy to help. You are right about the motorcycles. It is just in recent years that they began renting them to tourists. It is more of a novelty and as such the prices are very high. You are better off with a car in rainy Ireland.

Michele

Thanks, Michelle, for the link to the company that provides the "excess" or super CDW. It looks like that would cost $75 and even covers tires, windows, and undercarriage. It sems like a good deal and that would at least save us about $125. I surely appreciate all your help.

OK. I have been doing some extensive research on this whole issue. I found a couple of companies the include car insurance with their trip insurance. When I called them for further info, I was told that coverage was not available in Ireland. One company told me it was because Ireland requires liability insurance and they couldn't provide that (I noted that most of the companies say they include liability insurance in the rental but that seemed to make no difference). One company not only wouldn't insure in Ireland, but it wouldn't cover me because I reside in Oregon (go figure!). In one related article I read, it said the reason for excluding Ireland was the left side driving and the narrow roads with rock walls "that seem to move". Then why isn't England a problem I wonder????
I read a news article that Geiko car insurance covers rental in other contries. I checked that (which took three separate calls) only to finally learn that Geiko now only extends to Canada and that's it. I was all ready to swith to Geiko if they would be the answer to this mess---but no.
I contacted Capital One to see if any of their personal cards provided coverage in Ireland. One rep I talked to assured me that the prestige card did and I could find more info about it online. When I went to the site, the brochure I downloaded said that it did not apply in Ireland.
I may try other sources for a world mastercard, but am almost at the "I give up" stage.
Here are recent quotes I got for a Nissan Micra automatic for two weeks:
Kemwel $392.52 basic with liability insurance only, $932.06 with CDW ( $2000 deductible)
Dooley $671.73 basic (inc. liability & theft), $903.41 with CDW ($2000 deductible), and $1141.18 with super CDW ($150 deductible).
So....a car that basically would cost be around $400 to rent would cost over $1100 with reasonable insurance coverage! It is just unbelievable!! I guess the bottom line is to bite the bullet and hope for the best. Does anyone have a better alternative???

I think the travel insurance that just covers the car would be similar to World Master Card CDW.  The car rental company would bill you for the damage, and then it would be up to you to get the travel insurance to reimburse you.  Rental Car Gurus, correct me if I am wrong!  Some travel insurance companies  may be  willing to reimburse the car rental company direct.  Be sure to ask lots of questions, read all the fine print and hopefully you will make a good decision.  I do recall that when we bought our trip insurance, there were a few companies out of the 20 or so insurance companies that would package up car insurance as part of the deal.  Some however, if my memory serves me correctly, excluded Ireland.  Our trip insurance company treated us fairly on my wife's accident and broken arm/shoulder.  There again, we had to pay for everything out of our pocket except Airfare, and then were reimbursed many weeks later, after much paper documentation.  If you decide to do travel insurance on the car, save ALL the documents, and have all documents in duplicate.     Again read all the fine print.
Good luck!  Dan

WORLD MASTER CARD CDW NEWS!
It has been about 7 months since our NW Ireland trip last August. We had declined the CDW due to having a World Master Card. I did end up having a little fender bender, and have been worried for a long time about how it would turn out. The damage was rather minor, I thought: a cracked tail light lense, and a scratch about 18 inches long on the drivers side rear bumper. I figured possibly $300-500 damage.

We gave notice of the accident at the desk of IrishCarRentals/Europecar/National and they noted it on my final papers. We had filed a police report in Ennis, and were not able to stay to get paper copies due to it being close to the end of our trip, but they insured us that with the case number, we could access those documents later, if needed.

We finally got paper work from the Rental Car Company in late Sept. There were several documents from them, and the charges....a whopping $1849.00.  I made copies, and sent the originals on to Master Card.   We also soon received a letter from MasterCard. They asked for several documents from me, and several from the rental car company. I complied immediately, and sent them all the documents they asked for that I had in my possesion.  They indicated that they were going to contact the rental car company to get the remainder. 

Also MasterCard had a form to fill how on how I wanted the reimbursement handled. I was given a choice of having MasterCard Insurance pay the rental car company directly, or for me to be reimbursed. I chose the later, and soon wished that I hadn't.

It wasn't long, my World Master Card was billed for the entire $1849.00 damage amount. Then I got a letter from Mastercard saying they needed more documentation to process the claim, most of it was needed from the Rental Car Company. They wanted photos (I failed to take pictures of the damage). They wanted a police report. They needed the final paper work. (I had disputed 4 charges, but  the 90 Euro PMA charge and the 45 Euro Northern Ireland Cross Border Fee were denied) so my $600/2week rental car ended up costing close to $900.  I had never received final paper work that showed the 2 items that were resolved and the 2 that had not been.

I started to panic, because now the rental car company had their money and no incentive to get the required documents being asked for by MasterCard.  Master Card sent me monthly letters, saying that they still had not received any documents that had been requested from the rental car company.

I then began a 2 month long e-mail and paper chase, to try to get all the documents.  This wasn't working, so resorted to long distance phone calls to Ireland.  I ended up calling the Ennis Police Department, requesting a police report be faxed or emailed directly to Master Card Insurance, followed by an email to the department, detailing all the instructions, claim number etc. I also ended up calling the rental car company at the Shannon desk, and requested photos, final contract, and a few other missing documents, to be faxed or emailed directly to Master Card Insurance. Of course all documents had to have the claim number on them, and all the i's dotted and t's crossed!  By this time the 180 day time limit was drawing near, when the case would be closed.  On day 179 I got a letter that they were still missing the police report.  On day 182 I got a letter stating that the case was closed.  However, they said if any more requested documents came in, they would reopen the case. 

I feel very fortunate that the rental car company was finally cooperative, and scanned and sent all the documents including photos, to Master Card insurance.  However, I was getting ready to call the Sargent at the Ennis Police department this week.   The police report must have finally come in, because today I got a check in the mail for $1879. They said they denied the $118 for "loss of use" because it wasn't documented. However, they did waive the VAT tax, and that was more than $118, so came out a little ahead. Whew! what a relief! I had visions of this rental car costing me a total of $2700 when it was all said and done.

Moral of the story....World Master Card CDW works, but it is a lot of hassle, and am not sure if I would do it again.  I would probably just bite the bullet and pay the CDW and SuperCDW up front for peace of mind, which would allow me to enjoy the trip more, instead of being worried about a fender bender.  It is ironic, the CDW and Super CDW would have cost me about what the extra charges turned out to be anyway.  Does anyone out there know about "Murphy's Law"    Dan