As a regular reader of Guardian Money I consulted your pages before arranging car hire for a recent family holiday in Rome. We shopped around and chose Maggiore, a firm with a good reputation according to online reviews. Instead of signing up for its expensive excess insurance cover, we bought a policy with WorldWideInsure.com for £19.20.
Driving in Italy is always challenging, and my husband smashed a wing mirror against a tree. When we returned the car at the airport, Maggiore charged us €600 (£430) for the damage plus a €65 (£46) processing fee, which we paid by credit card.
We filed an insurance claim when we got home, but WorldWideInsure is refusing to pay out on our claim until we can provide a copy of the final repairs invoice.
We have sent repeated emails to Maggiore and ClaimEz (the claims handling company used by WorldWideInsure) and have also tried to contact them directly, but so far they have not replied. As we have not been able to provide the documentation, ClaimEz has advised us it will be closing the claim.
We are now £476 out of pocket with no sign of a refund, and wishing we’d bought the policy straight from the car hire company instead. JF, Marsden, West Yorkshire
You did the right thing in buying a standalone collision damage waiver policy; however, you did not use the firm that Money recommends, and found yourself with an unpaid claim.
Since Insurance4Carhire.com came up with this product in 2003, plenty of other insurers have copied the idea and now sell rival policies that, in most cases, are cheaper.
However, buying a cheaper policy can be – as you have found out – a false economy, particularly if the foreign car hire firm refuses to play ball. Car hire firms rarely repair all the damage charged in such instances, and will often not produce an invoice.
We asked why your claim was not paid, and WorldWideInsure director Kevin Bonner-Williams now accepts that the firm should have handled this matter better. He says his claims administrator kept you informed while it continued to chase Maggiore.
“Unfortunately, the emails the customer received were not as clear as they should be, and we have now changed the content accordingly to better explain.
“We are also very willing to act on our customers’ behalf should they have any problem or issue with a policy. It’s what brokers do,” he told us, somewhat contradicting most customers’ experience of car hire-related brokers.
Happily, the company has re-examined your claim and it has paid in full.
It should be said that when we personally buy this cover we use Insurance4Carhire, and feel confident that your claim would have been paid by that company – in the first instance.
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