I am struggling with the same problem right now for an Aug 5th 2 week trip to Ireland. I have noticed some rental car web sights ask you to check a little box if you want to "decline" cdw. So I assume, with them it would be an option to use World MasterCard. In fact on a couple of them, I did check the box and a pop-up box appeared on the left side of the screen that went into a quite lengthy discussion of all the short-falls of declining CDW including Credit card coverage or lack thereof.
I also had trouble with the MCassist web sight, and was able to get a 800 number to a MC customer service rep who gave me a list of banks that offered World MC. Not one of our 4 banks here in this smaller town offered MC World card. A bank 30 miles away did, but required that you have a checking or savings account with them. Anyway, the banks that do offer it are: Barclay, Chase, Capital One, and Citibank. I called Citibank today 1-800-950-5118 and was able to do an on-phone application for an Advantage AA MC World Card...Bronze. They assured me it covered CDW in Ireland, and said I would get written documentation with my card. They said it would arrive in 4-12 days. I have had a VISA card for 20 years, and an AM EXP for 5 years. I guess I have them all covered now! Wanted to have a back up for my main card, VISA, as Am Exp is not as widely accepted here in the USA, but not sure about how it is accepted overseas. We used it for our back up card 3 years ago but didn't try it as we wanted points on the Visa. The MC phone application was a fairly painsless process, taking about 15-20 minutes, and I was approved for a Five Thousand Dollar line of credit, before I hung up, with no annual fee, and for every $2 spent will get me 1 airline mile (maximum 25,000 mi) for American Airlines only, and a 2,500 bonus points for signing up as a new customer . We are flying with 1 free ticket this time on our VISA rewards points, and flew with 2 free tickets 3 years ago on the same Visa rewards. I hope the "Bronze" card does the trick, as a silver or platinum was available, but they had no annual fees the first year, but $89/year there after. It seemed like the cards with the annual fees tended to have better rewards, than the one I got.
I plan to decline CDW, and get a policy for 0 deductable that also covers tires and glass from "insurance4carhire.com for about $100 that is good for 1 year world wide. Also I may research: "daily excess.com", which is suppose to have suprerCDW for much less $'s. Others have said that the car rental hassel is the most stressful part about a trip to Ireland, and I have to agree. Incidently my bids on 6 web sights for 15 days Shannon to Shannon came in ranging from $449-$2085. I have yet to sort out what all is included in each quote, and determine which ones will allow you to decline CDW. My goal is to have the car booked within a few days, as we are now under a month, and am concerned the price will go up as the inventory goes down....Good luck....and I'm open to suggestions too!

Vickie,

There are lots of interesting discussions about CDW in Ireland on many different forums. Can you believe everything that everyone says? Since much of the info is contradictory, probably not. Only by calling 1-800-MC-ASSIST can you get the info you need. Even I cannot tell you if your MasterCard will cover you. I am not privy to that info.

Keep in mind that people at call centers can be making minimum wage and may be newly hired, overworked, tired or ill-informed. Their answers will only be as good as the training they have received. We all know there are different levels of service from different clerks. That is why it is always best to ask to speak to the department handling insurance issues rather then the clerk who answers the phone.

Michele

Thanks Roy. That eases my mind. The company that gave me the best quote, requires that I pay a deposit, but that deposit will need to be with my new citibank world card...which I will not receive for 5-7 working days. So I guess I will have to wait till I get it, and then book the car. Cheers! Dan

Michele, I also noticed that this morning when I got on their web sight. For a 15 day rental charged @ 5 Euro/Day, from dailyexcess.com it came to 79 euro(about $110.00) and the quote from insurance4carhire.com was in GBP 49.00, which computes to 114.00 USD. However, this policy is good for car rentals up to 31 days in length, and is in effect for 1 calendar year. If you had a short term rental of 1 week or less, it would be more economical for the daily excess. If my world MC comes through for me, I don't think there will a need for an "excess" insurance, as I havn't heard anybody say that there is any kind of deductable or excess with WorldMC coverage...they should pay down to $O?

On another topic, I called for some travel brochures, and the customer service person informed me that there is a scheduled Music, Language, and Cultural Festival Aug 10-14, located about 30 miles south of Sligo, in Tubbercurry. Our B&B hostess at Westport said that it may end up being questionable whether they will even have it, due to the down economy. Since Trad music is one of my main reasons for going to Ireland, I thought it would be a great way to hear a lot of music without a lot of driving! Any information would be appreciated. Dan

Thanks Michele!
Oops, I meant to start a new topic, separte from CDW! sorry about that...maybe your web person could move it? My Dad and I did manage to get to pubs with Trad music 9 out of 10 nights during our trip 3 years ago! My Mother and Wife didn't manage to keep up with us every night, but seemed to tolerate it anyway! It sounds like the Gurteen area is another good smaller village with lots of Trad music...It was stated that almost all the residents were musicians! Since my occupation is "Music Teacher" it is really exciting to see how the evenings unfold....sometimes total strangers getting together and perfoming like they were playing together all their lives! The down-side is the Guiness consumption.....and functioning the next day. LOL which is also is hard on the travel budget! Dan

Dan,

You might be able to make the World Fleadh in Castlebar, Co. Mayo. It runs through August 8th.  Feakle has a festival, as well, which you might enjoy. There is also usually a Fleadh in Kilcar, Co. Donegal during the second week in August.  You can email for more information on any of the three.

Slan Beo, Bit

It sounds like we picked a great time for music festivals....thanks all for the suggestions. This trip it will just be my Wife and I. Our nights in Westport will be Aug 6,7, and 8. I will do some research on the three fesitval that you mentioned, Bit. Dan

Bit
I did some research on the 3 music festivals that you suggested. The Feakle festival might work out on Aug 7 or 8, we are actually going to be in Galway (not Westport as in previous post). Our plans were to get to the Aaran Islands one day, the 7th or 8th, but if weather is soft, the Feakle festival might be an alternative option as a day trip out of Galway, or is that too far to go for a day trip?  Since my Wife and I both tend to get seasick, we are leaning towards a flight to Inishmoor instead of a boat trip.  Of course a flight would be more subject to the weather.  
      The Kilcar festival would work out great for us on our northery trek from Westport. I am having trouble getting information about the Kilcar festival, 2008 information is still all they have on their websight. We will actually be in Westport Aug. 9th and 10th and the Westport festival appears to be mostly Country Music...I like Country Music, however I am more interested in Traditional Irish Music, so we will probably move on north!  Incidently, our B&B hostess at Westport heard that the Tubbercurry Music festival as well as the  may be cancelled   Thanks Bit, for your help!
    Michele,  Achill island does look like a good day trip for Aug 10th!   cheers  Dan

I realize that I am responding to an old post and my info will be to late to help Vickie but for anyone traveling to Ireland after mid September 2009 there is still time to secure a Bank of America World Mastercard with MasterRental Insurance that will take the deductible down to zero IF you decline the rental companies CDW. The card can be applied for online,  and comes in mail in approximately 3 weeks. Once you get the card the Guide to Benefits explains that you "may not be covered in Ireland" but really it is up to the car hire company.  I called them myself (Avis at the Shannon Airport) and they said that will be fine. I am also taking a letter (which I requested from Bank of America after I receceived my card) stating that the insurance is good for Ireland. We are renting a car for 5 days in Ireland and another for 3 days in Scotland. All told, this little piece of plastic which has zero annual fee, is saving us $600. in insurance. I just hope we do not have to use it because I understand it is a big hassle settling up with the rental agency giving them the dozen or so pieces of info they need in case of a claim being filed. I will drive 30 or so mph and watch for potholes since tires and rims are excluded.

Beachcomber