28 Oct 2016

A question about : Cheap car hire article discussion

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  • Wow, that generated a massive response!
    Just one major point to add. Always compare the quotes in the currency you will eventually be paying. One website is currently using €1.35 = £1 in converting its euro prices into Sterling! Understating the true cost by 7 or 8%.
    Oh yes ..... and if Kayak's coverage at Alicante is anything to go by, it's not worth bothering with.
  • Hi.
    Thanks for the useful article on car hire. Using car4lessholidayautos got an economy car for 5 days in France for £143 instead of about £280 via Hertz/Ryanair.
    Even despite the very helpful article still fairly confused!
    The complete waiver via that the hire company came in was £22 vs about £18/19 with Questor/Dailyexcess etc. Ours doesn't cover the underside (doesn't exclude it in T&Cs but that's what they are saying on the phone) . However Questor/Dailyexcess etc all seem to be underwritten by AIG and seem to limit to £2000 or £3000 which wouldn't be enough for a write off. Also Questor etc seem to cover the policy holder only and not 2 drivers unless you pay for another policy. So balancing that all up went with holidayautos own.
    So far so good.
    BUT third party liability doesn't seem to be covered. It says it is under T&Cs but 2 operators we've spoken too say that that is just the other person's car not injury/death. My own holiday insurance doesn't cover it. Questor etc don't cover that either.
    So will 3rd party (i.e. death/injury to a third person) be offered at the car hire? Will it be massively expensive?
    Are the operators wrong and is it already part of CDW (i.e. should it be part of any basic insurance policy that you take out??)
    Don't really fancy the fingers crossed option in a foreign country not speaking the language!!
    Any help much appreciated.
    Thanks very much in advance
  • Think the original document should include companies outside of the scrapers such as fifteen02.com and usrentcar, both often offer free upgrades and for us tend to be the cheapest.
  • Has anyone got any experience with citrox.co.uk?
    It comes out cheapest on a carrentals.co.uk but I have never heard of them and cant find any feedback on the web?
    They don't provide a contact address on their wesite.
  • Why do the insurance companies charge you more if you are hiring within 150km of your home address? I am a student and don't have a car, but am thinking about hiring one for a weekend away, so would need to pay this surcharge. I know it's not much, but still - t seems so strange to charge more for a close-to-home rental.
  • Hi all, anyone got any advice on paying for damage?!
    I put a large scrape in the front bumper of a car from Enterprise recently. I hadn't paid for the DEW (sometimes I do, sometimes I don't - it about doubles the cost of rental for a weekend so for short trips I don't always). So, fair enough I expected to pay for repairs, possibly (given how hire companies work) even a new bumper. The car had a Ј150 deposit on it so when I took it back in they took the rest of the Ј500 excess, also fair enough. However I've just got a cheque back for the "unused" excess - of only Ј116! So they've charged me Ј384 - and this was on a Toyota Aygo which isn't exactly an expensive car.
    There weren't any details with the cheque so I'm going to phone and ask for them - but a. does this sound reasonable and b. have I got a leg to stand on in challenging this? Is there anything specific I should be asking?
    cheers,
    Steve
  • The repair charge may include an element for Lost revenue - the amount of rental income they couldn't earn by renting out the car whilst it was being repaired.
  • Hi all
    Has anyone got any experience of long-term car rental in the US?
    I'm starting off with a week in San Francisco for which I don't need a car, then I want to pick up a 4x4 in San Francisco around Oct 1st and drop off in Las Vegas about a month later, spend a week (car-less) in Vegas and then hire a convertible there, to drop off back at San Fran about another month later. All unlimited mileage, as I'm going touring.
    I'm starting to deduce that my best bet is to trawl around the car-hire offices once I get to San Fran, rather than try and book something that complicated over here.
    Anyone done a long touring trip like this, who can offer any advice?
    Thanks.
  • You may find it better to rent a single car for the entire period.
    Depending on the rental company you could be hit with 1-way rental charges that exceed the cost of keeping the car for the week in Vegas (and you may wish to escape from Vegas during the week). 4x4 and convertibles will be much more expensive to rent than normal cars.
    If you rent from this country CDW and SLI will normally be included in rental rates while renting in the US they are expensive add-ons. You can get annual policies from Insurance4carhire which would be much cheaper for you (but check for maximum rental length restrictions).
    I would definitely shop around before you go - the web and phone is likely to be better than trawling the offices.
    Choose off airport locations since they have lower facility charges.
  • Just rented a dodge caliber https://www.whatcar.com/car-review-summary.aspx?rt=846 for 10 days in Florida for Ј158 including - Unlimited number of drivers over the age of 25, CDW, SLI, UMP, Unlimited Mileage, Airport Fees, Local Taxes, Free Tank of Fuel. No excess.
    I used fifteen02-https://fifteen02.com/ as recommended by other mse. After shopping around I am happy that I have a good deal.
  • This Co appears as the cheapest car hire on several websites, but be careful, as I was presented with a bill for 27.22 Euros when returning a cat to Avis at Pisa airport yesterday. This was for 14 days "Road Tax" and came as a bit of a shock at the end of the holiday.
    The (very) small print does say this is excluded, but is very easy to overlook.
    Avis said they had received "several" complaints about auto-europe for the same thing.
    Cheers
    The Dame
  • We are off to Ireland early next week and I need urgent help please.
    We are hiring a car from Dan Dooley in Belfast, mainly because we will be going into Southern Ireland for a couple of days, and that seems to cost a lot more with some companies, we want two drivers, i thought I would get the separate CDW cover short period from company mentioned in Martins article, Worldwide Travel or similar, they charge Ј15.75 for the 7 days for us both, incl cover in UK.
    dan Doolet were charging Ј8 per day to waive cdw = Ј54
    When I told Dan Dooley we did not want their cover they said they will have to take a Ј2000 deposit from our card. I am rather worried about this, can anyone tell me, is this standard practice?
    My husband is saying lets just pay with the car hire company, but just not sure what to do, also the separate policy seems to give more cover, ie windscreens tyres.
    any help much appreciated, thanks
  • Hi everyone,
    I really need your help. We're going to Spain for just 4 days at the end of Oct and have hired a car. However, their policy states that we have to pay for a full tank of fuel on arrival (approx 50-80 Euros). We're really annoyed about this as there's no way we'll get through that amount of fuel in 4 days. It also probably means that we're paying over the odds for the fuel! However, having looked at other comparison sites, this seems to be the case for most of them. Does anyone know of a reputable car hire company that doesn't do this?
    Really hope you can help.
    Thanks,
    Anne
    x
  • Hi There,
    Does anyone ahve any experience of car seats when using Carhire 3000? On the website it's covered under special requests but then goes on to say they cannot guarantee the availabilty? I would hate to arrive and there be no seat??
    Many Thanks Doug
  • On a cheap trip to Spain last summer i used www.economycarhire.com. Completely hassle free, cheap (under Ј90 for a corsa for the week) no massive deposit or messing around.
  • Was just checking out car hire for my summer hol, and spotted a great deal with Expedia. If you are looking for a larger car, you can get a free Ј60 voucher to spend on expedia flight+hotel bookings.
    I'm travelling with 3 kids, so this is perfect!!
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