23 November 2012

Plan ahead for your Christmas car hire.

Drivers are urged to book early and be flexible when booking car hire over the Christmas period and take savings where they can.

Planning to go away over Christmas and hiring a car? It could be very worthwhile spending a little time comparing car hire quotes, being a little flexible on dates and not leaving it too late.

Car hire firms set their prices according to demand and Christmas is a busy period. As stocks run low of particular classes of car, the remaining ones go up in price.

A six day hire of standard size car from London Euston Station currently costs £548.10 for a hire period starting on the 21st-23rd. Starting the hire on Christmas eve instead increases that price to a whopping £1742.40. Hiring from the 24th of November takes the price down to £270.00 so there's certainly a premium to be paid hiring over Christmas.

Hiring an economy car triples in price between now and Christmas going from £130.69 hiring from the 24th November for 6 days up to £369 starting Christmas eve.

Some savings can be made by not taking up the hire-car companies offer of additional insurance to cover excesses but using MoneyMaxim's car hire excess insurance. For example, an economy car from Budget from Euston comes as standard with collision damage waiver and theft protection but carries a £650 excess. You can take out their "Super CDW” at £12.50 per day which reduces the excess to £100 and further take out windscreen protection for an additional £2.50 per day.

Using the MoneyMaxim car hire excess insurance comparison service, you can currently get up to £2000 excess covered, including protection for windscreen, £500 of cover for each of misfuelling, lost keys and breakdown/towing recovery costs. All for £1.96 per day or an annual policy covering Europe for £39.15 or Worldwide for £47.85.

Using MoneyMaxim's combined car hire and car hire excess insurance hub gives you access to both car hire and excess insurance quotes from the same site.