A nasty surprise greeted us at Hobart Arport. Went to the Avis desk to pick up our hire car. Was confronted by a laminated sign with badly chosen cartoon art and fonts that the choice for dealing with claims excess was, as they say in Victoria, “buckleys or none!”. Choice was: a) pay the excess if you have an accident (regardless of fault) of $3200-ish, or, b) insure against it for $30 a day. For an 18 day trip, that means almost $600 in insurance. Car hire fees only come to $700 for the trip. Not covered by credit card insurance, which only covers OVERSEAS rental car excess fees. Overheard someone else being told they could drive into town, find a travel agent, buy a travel insurance policy that covers DOMESTIC rental car excess. But NOT at the counter that sells hire car services. Wasn’t the only one steaming quietly about not being fully informed at the time of booking!!
