When we go on holiday we take time to relax from the hassles of working life, forgetting the various paperwork and reports of working life in favour of sitting by the side of the pool sipping an umbrella drink. It can be the highlight of the year for most people stuck in the workplace from nine to five, and rightly so since most people these days are being more adventurous with their holidays and discovering new and different locations.

A part of this desire to discover more may involve hiring a car whilst on holiday to see the most you can within your precious two weeks in the sun. The trouble is with a potential language barrier to battle through it can be a risky task trying to get car hire but specifically it can be tough to get car hire that is safe and covered for any accidents.

The first thing to be aware of is whether the hire company provides rental insurance, since you are driving a foreign car and in a foreign land it may seem a basic point but your car insurance back home will not cover you out there, believe it or not some people have believed this and got a nasty shock in the event of an accident. Whilst many car hire firms will cover Collision Damage Waiver and Theft costs you will still be held responsible for paying the initial costs or the Excess. Keep this in mind when cruising through the twisty mountain roads or the crowded city streets!

There are some firms who offer a separate form of car insurance specifically for people who car hire abroad, this involves a sketchy process where by you refuse the rental service’s Excess cover and pay with your credit card. Later claiming the sum back through your rental insurance company instead. This process sounds a bit problematic as the process for claiming back from the insurance company may be drawn out and means you’re left out of pocket for quite some time.

Aside from this there are still a number of factors to consider with regards to car hire safety, some are pretty obvious ones you’ll be aware of form driving in this country but some others are factors that come into play when driving abroad or simply because you are hiring a vehicle.

The first one is that remember the condition the car was in when you received it, nice and clean hopefully with a full tank of petrol, this is important as some renters may insist you bring the car back with at least half a tank of fuel. Also it’s incredibly rude to return the car with empty drinks cans, beach sand in the foot well and ice cream smeared on the back seat. No one expects you to vacuum the inside and perform a full valet but make sure you return the car in as good condition as you’d like to get it back.

In the second part of this car hire guide I will cover more safety tips for when driving abroad such as awareness on the road and looking after the hire car.

By: Andy Adams

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