The excess, before you sign anything
Everybody compares day rates because day rates are what the booking sites show. The number that decides whether a hire was cheap or ruinous is the excess, and it is usually three screens deep.
Two people at a table going through a hire agreement, pages spread out and one of them marked up.
The number that matters more than the rate
The excess is what you pay before the insurance pays anything at all. On a standard South African hire of a small or mid-size car it commonly sits between R15 000 and R30 000, and on a double-cab or a large automatic it can be higher. That is the figure at risk if a shopping trolley rolls into a door at a centre in Westville, if a stone off a truck on the N3 stars the windscreen, or if somebody reverses into you in the parking at Suncoast and vanishes.
Run the arithmetic once and you will never shop on day rate again. Seven days at R640 with a R25 000 excess, against seven days at R790 with a R3 500 excess, is a difference of just over a thousand rand on the hire. The gap in what you stand to lose is twenty-one and a half thousand. We are not insurance salespeople and we earn nothing from this, but the cheaper booking is only cheaper in the weeks when nothing happens, and in Durban traffic in December something happens quite often.
What the reduced option actually buys
Most companies sell two or three tiers above standard. The middle one typically brings the excess down to the R3 000 to R6 000 band for around R120 to R220 a day. The top tier, variously called super cover or zero excess, takes it to nil or near nil for roughly R250 to R400 a day. Read what each tier excludes rather than what it includes, because the exclusions are where the money hides and they differ between companies in ways the marketing never mentions.
A tier that drops your excess to zero on bodywork while leaving tyres, glass, the undercarriage and the key at full liability is not zero cover; it is partial cover with a confident name. Ask the counter for the wording, and if they cannot produce it, ask for the document reference and read it on your telephone before you sign. Thirty seconds of friction at a desk is an acceptable price for knowing what you bought.
Tyres, glass and the underside
These three are carved out of the main cover with impressive consistency, and on our roads they are the most likely claims. A tyre destroyed by a pothole on the way to Howick after a week of rain is a tyre you pay for, commonly R1 800 to R3 500 depending on size, and the replacement will be charged at retail with a fitting fee on top. A windscreen on a modern car with sensors behind the glass is worse: R4 500 to R12 000 is a realistic band, and a chip repair is often refused because the company wants a new screen.
The underside gets damaged on driveways, on the concrete lip at the entrance to older Berea garages, and on the first fifty metres of any farm track. Several agreements exclude undercarriage damage entirely unless you bought the top tier, and a few exclude it even then. If your trip includes anything unpaved, this is the clause to find before the one about fuel. Buying the separate tyre and glass waiver, usually R60 to R110 a day, is the one optional extra we reliably recommend for anybody going inland.
The card hold, and why debit cards cause arguments
A hire company will place a hold on a credit card at collection, typically R3 500 to R8 000 on a standard car and up to R15 000 on something large or on a hire with a high excess. The hold is not a charge, but it is money you cannot spend, and it can take seven to twenty-one working days to release after the car goes back. Plan for that if you are travelling on a card with a modest limit.
Debit cards are where people get turned away at the counter. Policy differs by company and even by branch, and the written rule is often that a debit card is accepted for payment but not for the security hold, which means you cannot take the car. A cheque card in your spouse's name will not do either, because the card must match the driver named on the agreement. Confirm this in writing when you book, not at the desk at ten at night, and take a second card if you have one.
Claims, and the month afterwards
If something happens, the sequence matters. Photograph everything at the scene, including the other vehicle's registration and the surrounding road, get a case number from the police within twenty-four hours for any incident involving another party or a theft, and telephone the hire company's emergency line before you move the car if it is not driveable. Skipping the case number is the single most common reason a claim gets reduced to a full excess charge, and no amount of reasonable conversation afterwards repairs it.
Expect the paperwork to arrive slowly and read it when it does. Damage assessments are sometimes generous to the assessor, and a dented door that a panel shop would do for R4 200 can appear on a statement at R9 800 with a loss-of-use charge attached. You are entitled to ask for the repair quotation and the photographs the assessment was based on. Ask politely, in writing, and keep every reply. That file is what settles the matter.
Three things to take away
- Compare excess exposure first; the day rate is the smaller variable on any hire longer than three days.
- Read the exclusions in each cover tier, especially tyres, glass, undercarriage and the key.
- Confirm in writing that your card type is accepted for the security hold, not merely for payment.