Looking to rent a small car from Cairns for 9 days.
Best price I can find is $290 for the 9 days…but, add on insurance per day and it goes up to over $430, or just under $50 per day.
Is this just Cairns and FNQ pricing, or excessive?
What's the best way to have insurance coverage on a rental car for this time?
Thanks in advance
Cairns Car Rental Help
Spending2Much on 17/05/2018 - 04:25
Comments
Double check the car rental insurance coverage - your insurance covers the excess if you get the car insurance, as far as I can remember. Make sure you read the terms
and don't crash.
Highly recommend this advice.
$15/day is actually not a bad price for insurance if its directly with the rental company. I've seen as high as $40/day
It would be slightly cheaper through someone like tripcover.com.au
I definitely paid way more than that for a rental when I was up there a few years back (but then again there was an event on at the time - iron man)
Those rental charges are not excessive. I’d say it’s cheap if it’s a good company
Thanks. With Budget.
The rentalcover company did very cheap insurance of only 20 or so per day and cover pretty much anything including extra driver in your rental contract. but 15/ day is vey cheap. Which one is that?
And also if you want to pay for prepaid fuel option, which don't ask you to refill the tank when returned, because the rate is cheaper compare to fuel price in the station.
Also so bring your own GPS, because if you drive into the jungle your phone might not work.
Lesson from my last trip :(
If you take out Australia Post travel insurance for the driver/hirer you will get cover for . $3000 Additional Expenses
$10,000 Amendment or Cancellation
$4,000 Luggage and Personal Effects
$4,000 Travel Documents
$3,000 Rental Car Insurance Excess
$1,000 Travel Delay
$10,000^ Disability
$10,000^ Accidental Death
$5,000,000 Personal Liability
For a cost of around $65 (i got the quote for 15 days)A lot cheaper than the hire car companies excess insurance with a lot more benefits https://auspost.poweredbycovermore.com/
In the Auspost policy you can also increase the rental car insurance excess amount in increments up to an additional $3000 ($6000 total). This is worth considering because although most car hire companies have an excess of anything between $2000-$4000, there is usually an additional single vehicle accident excess on top of that which applies not only if you crash into a fixed object but also if someone does a hit and run on the vehicle and you cant identify the culprit.
Ive also heard, dunno if this bit is true though, that it can be applied when a collision occurs and joint liability, where both drivers are considered equally to blame, is accepted by both insurance companies.
My credit card insurance only covers up to $1250 on car rental for 'interstate coverage'
The excess on the car, without the car hire insurance, is $4400
Google Flyertalk corporate codes for the companies you are looking for. saved about $500 on a 4wd with one of the codes.
That price is the going rate from Cairns, if its from one of the big companies on site at the airport its cheap.
I just booked 10 days rental through through Apex for $292.
Excess is $2750 with no extra insurance.
I read lots of good reviews about them but confuse them with Atlas, I read mainly bad reviews on them.
Apex are not at the actual airport but right where the airport access road joins Sheridan Street which is the main road running north and south through Cairns.
They run a free shuttle to and from the airport, if you dont want to hang around waiting on them you can also use the airport to city shuttle bus. Theres a deal Cairns city have with the private bus company to get people to and from the airport to the nearest public bus stop, which is close to Apex. Its $4 or $6 return. Its called Airport Connect.
https://sunpalmtransport.com.au/online-booking/Best with apexrentals.com.au was 393$
Without any extra insurance.
We also rented with Apex… Compare whoever has the cheapest rate…
And add a separate insurance policy to reduce your excess to NIL if you wish (ie tripcover with a 10% promo).How we did it, was walk from the airport to city (after the 1st km, the view was really nice, and simple). Then explored the reef, center of town, etc on foot for the first few days. We also took a few Ubers, botanical gardens, etc, as cheaper than car hire, less stress).
We rented the car for the last few days (half of the trip) for exploring further areas, and used their included shuttle back to the airport. That way you only pay for what you're actually using.
Unbelievable how the prices have gone up now. Can't find cheaper than $100/day at airport.
Don't add insurance.
Get travel insurance that covers car rental excess - and don't crash.