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Maps, Sat Navs and Forgotten Underwear insurance4carhire.com survey reveals insight into driving essentials and embarrassing items left in hire cars - April 2010...

Award winning online excess insurance company, insurance4carhire.com, has recently conducted a light-hearted survey of over 900 of its customers. TThe responses include some handy suggestions on top travel necessities when driving on holiday and provide a humorous insight into some of the most embarrassing items left behind in hire cars.

Proving that good-old fashioned map reading is not yet dead, atlases just beat Sat Navs in popularity as a top travel item when driving on holiday. One man was slightly more specific, demanding ‘a good map and a passenger to read. Not my wife’! Most travellers clearly cannot do without technology though, with mp3 players, mobile phones and cameras all common choices. Money and water are seen as essentials, as is insurance, and some just can’t travel without their golf clubs. .

While more than a third of customers surveyed claimed that they had never left anything behind in a hire car, the remaining two thirds had some interesting secrets to reveal. Underwear was by far the most common item forgotten, with condoms the second highest on the list. Other common objects included keys, wallets and mobile phones, and a rather alarmingly large number of wives! There were also a number of other bizarre responses, such as ‘a dead crab’ and ‘a certificate for winning a naked karaoke show’; fortunately both were not left by the same person.

The survey should act as a warning to absent-minded car hirers not wishing to leave an incriminating surprise for those ne t in line for their vehicle, but also supply some handy tips for travellers planning on driving abroad. At a time where every penny counts though, the best advice for those hiring cars abroad would be to take advantage of insurance4carhire.com's award winning, low cost alternative to the e pensive e cess charges of car rental companies.

Founded in 2002 insurance4carhire is an innovative online insurance company whose core business is the provision of car rental Exess insurance. The business was born out of the high costs being charged by the car rental companies for Exess cover. Insurance4carhire strives to bring customers annual Exess insurance products offering customers convenience, peace of mind and very significant savings when they rent cars. The business has grown rapidly selling almost 500,000 policies.

In 2005, for the second year running, insurance4carhire.com received the accolade of “World’s Leading Innovative Ecommerce Travel Product” from The World Travel Awards. These annual awards celebrate achievement in the travel industry and are based on votes cast by travel industry professionals throughout Europe.

To reflect the increasingly global reach of its products, insurance4carhire changed underwriters to AIG UK Ltd, a member company of American International Group, Inc., (AIG) in December 2007. AIG is one of the worlds leading insurance companies with operations in more than 130 countries. Insurance4carhire is now part of the Towergate Partnership the largest independently owned insurance intermediary in Europe.