Car Hire prices on the face of it easy enough to understand a price is quoted and that is the price paid. However it is sometimes worth delving a little further to understand what it is that you are getting into.

Understanding terms and conditions when it comes to the Car Hire Excess is important. Our focus here is renting a car with a low excess.

What is an insurance excess?

An excess is your liability in the event a vehicle is damaged. In the event the vehicle is stolen. In the event you damage someone else’s vehicle or property. Essentially this is your maximum exposure. Whenever viewing car hire prices you will note that insurance is included. This Insurance is fully comprehensive with an excess / liability of ‘x’, that ‘x’ can vary from country to country and supplier to supplier. We have a comprehensive guide to Car Hire Insurance feel free to browse this post.

How can I hire with a Low Excess?

If you are one of the many that would like to hire with a low excess then a little research is required in advance of booking. Depending on this pick up location depends on the level of excess that applies. To give a guide the typical excess when renting in the UK is £1000.00. In Australia the average excess comes in a $3000.00, Spain averages out at 1300.00 EUR. Indigo works with a large panel of suppliers ensuring we can pick the perfect rental package tailored to our customers requirements. We offer Car Hire packages with a low excess liability by increasing the levels of insurance included. There are 2 ways of approaching this.

• By making your reservation with reduced excess insurance included. This options involves paying a slightly higher rate for the rental package. This package is refereed to as the Super secure package
• Protect your excess via a third party. Having this product in place does not reduce or eliminate your excess it protects against it on a claim back basis. This package is known as Excess claim back insurance. This does not suit everyone, however it tends to offer better value. You can arrange an excess claim back policy on this link – Insurance for Car Hire

Our team can happily explain which option best suits you, the below form can be completed or view our get in touch page.

Car Hire Northern Ireland for young drivers can be a little challenging. There is also no getting away from the fact that it can be more expensive than doing so if you were 25 or over. However If client needs to be mobile they need to be mobile. Indigo Car Hire is one of the few operators in North Ireland who offer services to those that are under 25.

We talk in this post about the requirements and inclusions and how to go about securing under age car hire in Northern Ireland.

What are the requirements for drivers aged under 25?

Drivers are to be 21 or over and are required to hold either a UK or EU drivers license. Drivers need to be in possession of their licence for at least 3 years. For new license holder information surrounding services can be located here. Drivers who are under 25 must have a licence free from endorsements.

Which Vehicles can I rent?

Drivers are slightly restricted in terms of the size that can be rented. This service extends to our mini sized category of vehicle.

How much is the deposit?

For drivers who are under 25 a credit card needs to be presented for the security deposit. The amount held for the rental period is £12000.00. Options are open to clients to reduce their excess and therefore reduce their deposit. Topping up your insurance cover to minimise the excess is an optional product. Our rates include fully comprehensive insurance as standard. For clients wanting to use a debit card for the deposit the excess liability must be reduced by paying an extra fee, for further info contact us. For clients wanting to protects against their excess through a third party we work with Insurance 4 Car Hire (I4CH)

Can I drive into the Republic Of Ireland if I am a under 25 year old?

Vehicles hired by under 25 year old’s in Northern Ireland can cross the border to the republic. Hirers require written permission to do so. We provider a form upon collection giving this permission and a small daily fee applies when taking the vehicle over the border.

Car Hire Northern Ireland for young drivers can be located directly on our website. Simply input the age of the driver when selecting your package. Our rates will display inclusive of the young drivers fee.

There can be a few things you need to think about. Therefore, to ensure for a stress free experience we can happily provide clarity to anyone thinking of renting prior to them making a booking. Our highly motivated (towards your satisfaction) team of agents can happily clarify any points. You can reach us by calling 0113 2899 281 or emailing directly at sales@thealternativeagency.co.uk

For those clients needing Car Hire Dublin Airport with a Free 2nd driver this offer and information will be welcome news. There are a variety of reasons for needing more than one driver on your rental car. Some come out of necessity and some for convenience. Often the cost of adding an additional driver can outstrip the rental of the car itself, making for a tricky call as to who should be the sole driver.

No need for such decisions now, Indigo Car Hire now offers Free 2nd driver car hire at Dublin Airport. No catches, no strings attached, we simply ask that you make contact with our offices prior to making your reservation. By contact us it ensures we can add the promotional code allowing the free 2nd driver at Dublin Airport.

Key Points about our Free Additional driver offers at Dublin Airport.

Below we list some of the most frequently asked questions in relation to this specific offer at Dublin Airport

• Where are you situated at Dublin Airport? Our supplier has a desk based in terminal who operate a free shuttle bus that runs from outside the terminal. You can view the details by clicking here.
• How old do you need to be? Our minimum age to take advantage of this offer is 25
• What is your upper age limit? We have no maximum age limit when renting a car at Dublin Airport
• How long do I need to have held my license for? There is no minimum experience required when hiring a car at Dublin Airport. Further information re our new driver car hire offer can be found here.
• How much is the deposit hold when I collect my car? When renting at Dublin Airport our deposit hold is 250 EUR. Held on the drivers credit card and released when the hired car is returned

Potential hirers may have other questions that need answering prior to renting their car. Our team is committed to ensuring we create a path for a stress free car rental. Therefore, we encourage clients to make contacting with our team and we will happily clarify anything you need us to.

Our telephone number is 0113 2899 281. Email is sales@thealternativeagency.co.uk. You can always chat to us live via our chat box on the bottom right hand corner of our website.

Valencia Zero Excess Bundles

We are pleased to announce we’re now offering Zero Excess bundles in Valencia straight on the website! This means you can get the full on-site cover with just a click, so there’s no hassle on arrival.

Zero Excess – Zero Risk

We thought we’d answer some of the most common insurance questions we get below.

What is excess? Excess simply refers to what your liability on the hire is. For example, if you’re renting a vehicle with an excess of £1000, this just means that if anything happens to the car the maximum you’re liable for is £1000 – no more than that.

What are the benefits of having zero excess? The obvious benefit is that zero excess means zero liability. With zero excess, you are free to drive with complete peace of mind that you are fully covered if anything happens to the car. Not only that though, often taking zero excess means your deposit is greatly reduced or eliminated completely, as with zero risks there’s no need to hold it on your card.

Can’t I just add it at the desk on arrival? You certainly can, if you’re not 100% sure about adding it at the moment. The benefit of taking the bundle though is you have the full price laid out from the start, and then have nothing left to pay when you get there. The insurance at the desk often varies in price and is generally more expensive than paying for it in advance.

Is anything excluded from the Zero Excess Bundle? Generally no, though occasionally there might be exclusions for wheels/windows. If you’re unsure though just ask us and we can clarify – the majority of them do have wheels and windows included.

Other Insurance Options

Zero excess cover isn’t the only way to protect yourself – a lot of people prefer to take what’s called damage refund cover instead. This works a little differently as it’s essentially unrelated to the rental company. For example, if you completely total the car you would still be charged the excess initially by the rental company. You can then just claim this back in full from the insurance company. Here are some of the main differences and the pros/cons compared to standard zero excess cover.

Pros

• The biggest pro is that damage refund insurance is often quite a lot cheaper, as you can add it on from just £5 per day.
• You also don’t have to worry about being covered for specific areas such as wheels or windows.
• Reimbursement is a guarantee, no matter how or why the car is damaged.

Cons

• You do have to wait a couple of weeks maximum for the reimbursement process to complete. Definitely not as useful for people who can’t afford to be waiting for a refund.
• Damage refund cover also doesn’t lower the deposit like zero excess cover does

If you’d rather go for the damage refund cover option, you can just add it on when checking out on the website, or you can just click here to arrange a separate policy.

Contactless Car Hire in London

With the pandemic still ongoing, and looking like it will be for the foreseeable future, we’ve started to introduce contactless car hire locations in London as a way to minimise contact and reduce the possibility of spreading the virus further. Whilst the virus isn’t stopping just yet, life does go on, and car hire is very much a necessity for many people. So if you want to make travelling as safe and sanitary, especially over Christmas, then contact Indigo for completely contactless car hire.

How does it work?

The process is very straightforward, and we have a quick step by step guide to follow below:

1 – Contact us on the link here to arrange the rental first of all, we’ll sort out the location, price, and initial payment.

2 – The branch will then contact you directly and process ID/licence information via Zoom to complete the rental.

3 – Collect the keys from one of the secure lockbox collections, with the location and password provided by us.

4 – Pick the car up from the arranged collection point with no contact from the branch employees.

5 – Lastly – enjoy your hire! The return will be a similar process also, outlined in the initial collection.

It’s also worth mentioning that currently all cars are fully cleaned and sanitised between rentals, even on non-contactless rentals. Here is a link to the government website also for further advice on how to travel safely during the pandemic.

Where can I collect?

We have 6 branches across London currently set up for contactless pickup:

• Marble Arch
• Ilford
• Fulham Broadway
• Waterloo
• Pimlico
• Queensway

With a fairly wide-ranging set of locations, we should hopefully have somewhere convenient for you.

Other services

Here are some of the other services we offer in London:

• NEW DRIVER CAR HIRE
• CAR HIRE WITH ZERO DEPOSIT
• YOUNG DRIVER CAR HIRE
• CAR HIRE WITH UNLIMITED MILEAGE
• CAR HIRE WITH FREE ADDITIONAL DRIVER
• DEBIT CARD CAR HIRE
• car hire with towbar
• MPV AND 7/9 SEATER RENTALS

Just contact us on the link here to take advantage of any of these offers!