Speaking on the BBC’s Martin Lewis Podcast, he said: “One of those real hard sells that many people will experience is you get your car hire, you’ve booked it, you’ve been on a comparison site, you’ll have done it early to bring the price down.
“When you arrive at the desk they say ‘oh hold on’. First, they will talk about the fuel you’re going to have to fill it up yourself or you’ll pay a lot. And then they will say ‘have you got insurance?’.
“You say ‘I thought it was covered’. They say ‘well if you have a scratch, if you have damage, it’s very expensive, it commonly happens, you won’t be covered by the breakdown policy and it could cost you hundreds of pounds but if you get this insurance policy you won’t have to.’
“They give you a really hard sell on getting car hire insurance, I’ve watched many people at car hire desks over the years pushed in and get scared into it.”
He urged road users to secure a standalone car hire insurance policy before setting off on a trip.
Those who travel regularly can secure an annual policy which will cover the cost of car hire on multiple trips.
He added: “If you were to have a problem you would have to pay the excess but you could claim it back from one of these standalone policies.
“Now when you do have one of those policies many of the car hire firms will say ‘no, that’s not good enough, it still won’t work’.”
Martin adds that some car hire companies could then require drivers to leave a hefty £1,000 (€1,200) deposit to secure the keys to their vehicle.
Firms will demand this is paid on a credit card which usually has to be the same details as the lead booker or the designated driver depending on company policy.
Martin concluded: “If you’re going to do this you need to make sure you’ve got a credit card.
“Generally I would always have the person who booked it and the person who is driving being the same person and they should be the ones with the credit card.
“And that way you’re able to use your standalone policy that might cost you £2 per day and not £20 per day.”
