The Albania car insurance mistake we nearly paid twice

Of everything we planned before going to Albania, nothing saved us more money than carefully researching the car insurance situation ahead of time. And even with our homework done, we nearly fell for the trap right at the pickup counter.

We'd read that the insurance included in an online booking usually carries a pretty high excess, up to €500-1,000 in case of damage, and that many companies, once you reach the counter in Albania, push you to buy a second "full coverage" policy to cover that excess — effectively paying twice for exactly the same thing.

To avoid that, we booked directly through a comparison site that already included zero excess from the start, instead of settling for Booking's basic insurance or whatever the rental company's app defaults to.

When we got to the counter, the employee insisted just the same on offering us "the good insurance." Showing him the printed policy shut the conversation down in under a minute, almost with a look of annoyance on his part.

Even so, at the counter they insisted, with that tone of someone who does it twenty times a day and knows it works sometimes. Having the policy printed out, not just saved on the phone, shut the conversation down in under a minute — without it, we probably would've hesitated and ended up overpaying just to avoid an argument.

If there's one practical piece of advice I'm taking from this trip to share with whoever goes next, it's this: look into the insurance before leaving home, and bring proof on paper. It saves you money and, above all, that uncomfortable feeling of not knowing whether they're trying to scam you or whether you actually need what they're offering.