The worst car hire charges and catches
If you’re hiring a car abroad this summer it makes sense to compare prices and find the cheapest deal before you go. Unfortunately there are all sorts of charges and catches that you may not see...
In theory it’s much cheaper to shop around and book a hire car in advance than when you arrive at a foreign airport – but confusing and unclear charges make it virtually impossible to identify the best deal.
From excess charges, excess waivers, super collision waivers, damage collision waivers, fuel charges and fees for sat-navs and child seats, comparing car hire deals can drive you mad.
Unclear charges
In what sounds like the job from hell, Which? Travel researchers went through the booking process 120 times on 10 of the most popular car hire rental websites, and said the total price was not clear for more than half the bookings.
Of the researchers who had a compulsory fuel charge to pay, 75% said they did not know how much it would be. Nearly half (44%) the researchers didn't know the cost of the optional excess waiver to reduce the amount they’d have to pay if the car was damaged – even though it can add more than £100 to a week's rental.
The excess
One of the biggest issues holidaymakers have with car hire firms is the level of excess they have to pay if the car is damaged while it’s in their possession.
Forget the £150 or so that’s the norm on a car insurance policy – excesses on hire cars can be eye-watering. £500 or £600 is standard but you can fork out more than £1,000 on some models.
And don’t expect the car hire firms to be particularly forthcoming about the level of excess either; you’ll need to check the small print in many cases.
Collision damage waivers
To counteract high excess charges car hire firms offer insurance to reduce the amount you’d have to pay in the event of a claim. Often they’ll only flog you this cover when you arrive at the rental desk to collect your car.
This insurance is normally called “collision damage waiver” or its big brother “super collision damage waiver” or simply “damage excess insurance”.
You might think from the name this cover would waive your liability in the event of an accident – but think again.
In many cases you’ll still have to fork out an excess in the event of an accident. Typical small print on policies states that this insurance won’t cover damage to certain parts of the car such as tyres or windscreen, or lost keys.
As well as not being as comprehensive as you might expect, buying excess car hire insurance from a car hire company can significantly add to a traveller’s costs.
Research from icarhireinsurance.com found that excess insurance for a week’s car hire in Nice, France, could be as much as £128 from Hertz, adding 66% to the cost of the rental (£195). Even then the cover excludes the car’s tyres and windscreen. But without the cover you’d face forking out up to £1,163 excess in the event of a claim.
Buy separate cover
A top tip for travellers is to buy stand-alone excess car hire insurance before they set off. Companies such as icarhireinsurance.com and insurance4carhire.com offer policies that reduce your liability to zero and also cover parts of the car other policies don’t include.
Annual policies cost about £40 and cover an unlimited number of rentals per year.
Fuel
Different car hire firms have different policies regarding fuel so make sure you know what you’re agreeing to before you drive away.
Some car hire firms expect you to return the car with a full tank of fuel; if you don’t they’ll charge you well over the odds to fill the tank up. So before you leave the airport make sure you know where the nearest petrol station is so you can fill up before you return the vehicle.
And, whatever you do, check whether the car runs on petrol or diesel. Fill it up with the wrong type of fuel and you’ll be on the receiving end of the bill for the damage.
Extras
Car hire contracts typically involve extra costs for things such as sat-navs and child seats. In many cases it’s cheaper to simply bring your own.
It’s worth checking the car hire firm’s policy on drivers’ ages too. Some car hire firms won’t hire to drivers under the age of 21 or 25 or, if they do, they’ll bump up the cost.
More on holidays:
What you need for a perfect holiday
The worst types of holiday fraud
Easyjet: claim back the difference if prices fall before you fly
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Comments
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Yes, isn't the UK a wonderful place. Anyway, back to car hire. I don't want to sound rude, it sounds like the author doesn't rent many cars. You highlight two large rip-offs, but fall short of making the most cost-effective recommendations. 1. Excess - Yes, the excess is normally very high, in order to scare you into buying the excess reduction. However, you only have to pay this if you damage the car (and the car hire company even notices when you return it). >> Seeing as the risk of damage is low, and the costs of the excess reduction are high, my strong recommendation would be to NOT take excess reduction, NOR to buy any additional insurance. This has been my strategy for years, and although I've had the odd scratch etc. and had to pay up, I've saved hundreds by not taking out insurance the rest of the times when nothing has happened. Of course, if this will cause you sleepless nights worrying, then you may want to take out separate insurance. However, some credit cards offer insurance on car hire as standard, so if yours does, you are covered automatically if you charge the car hire to your credit card. 2. Fuel: The hire car companies usually offer you the choice of buying a tank of petrol to bring the car back empty, or to bring it back full. >> You should ALWAYS refuse the offer of the tank of petrol and bringing it back empty: For one thing the petrol price they sell at is extortionately high, and for another they make money on any fuel left when you bring it back ... and you try returning a hire car with no petrol left in it! Yes, so you should therefore make sure you bring it back full. But the definition of this is that the fuel gauge shows a full tank: Depending on the make of car, you can drive for at least 15-20 minutes without the meter going down at all, so you can visit a petrol station further away and drive the extra distance "for free". This only came back and bit me once when I hired a Z4 with a 2.5 litre engine, the problem being that the fuel consumption was so high that if you kept the engine running while filling up, you'd never catch up... You'll have no problems with any 'normal' hire car. Apologies for the partially mercenary comments, but we're talking about money-saving here, and you can be sure as hell that the car hire companies will try to wring as much cash out of you as possible, using some quite underhanded conditions, so fair's fair. r.
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We manage to satisfy all of our holiday needs in the UK, so that's yet another hassle that we manage to avoid on top of all of the other stresses involved in the lemming-like craving to get away from our shores. Plus all of our holiday moneys get fully recycled in the UK economy, which complements the other satisfactions that accrue from fascinating & interesting destinations available in the UK.
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interesting
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28 April 2013