• Only 59% check hire car for damage on pick-up
• 35% found damage on a hire car that was not highlighted on the checkout sheet
• 15% have had a rental company try to charge them for existing damage
• Only 27% take pictures of hire car at pick up. New SNAPs addition to iCarhireinsurance.com travel app can solve this.

Business travellers hiring cars should check the car for damage at collection and drop-off or face potential charges according to a new YouGov survey, commissioned by iCarhireinsurance.com, the leading provider of stand-alone excess car hire insurance.

The survey found that over one in three (35%) business travellers said they found damage on a hire car which was not highlighted on the check-out sheet and 15% said that the rental company had tried to charge them for damage, which they are sure was already there.

However, according to the survey, only 59% of business travellers bother to check their hire car for existing damage, and only 41% check the condition of the wheels and tyres, despite these accounting for approximately one in five insurance claims, according to iCarhireinsurance.com*.

Any damage incurred to a hire car, even if the car is stolen, can lead to the hirer having to pay the first part of an insurance claim, up to the excess amount, which can be up to £2000.

Almost one in three business travellers (29%) have damaged a hire car, with 9% of these admitting that the damage was their fault, while 20% said it wasn't their fault.

In spite of this 30% admitted that they had driven a hire car without being sure what insurance they had and what they were covered for; however, as only one in ten (11%) had read the terms and conditions of the rental agreement, this is hardly a surprise.

Excess insurance can be bought to protect drivers from paying for damage, but the rental company policies cost up to £20 a day**, six times more expensive than a policy from iCarhireinsurance.com (from £2.99 a day). Rental desk policies also often exclude damage to windows, tyres and undercarriages which are included in an iCarhireinsurance.com policy.

We found that only just over a quarter (27%) of business travellers take photos of existing damage to a hire car, said Ernesto Suarez, CEO and founder of iCarhireinsurance.com. The time taken to take a few snaps could save businesses hundreds in their travel budget when it comes to fighting wrong charges. iCarhireinsurance.com has also just launched a new, free travel app with 'SNAPs' ™ technology - a first for the travel industry – which includes a camera and GPS to securely record auditable images and upload them to the iCarhireinsurance.com cloud.

Regular business users can also buy an iCarhireinsurance.com annual car hire excess insurance policy from just £37.99 which allows them to make an unlimited number of trips each year, and use it for leisure travel too.