Cheap car hire article discussion

Bunnymoney

Why is this so confusing?

I've found what I think to be a good car hire, with Hertz. It's £194.35 for B category car, for a week in Austria. This is what the itinerary says:

Included in the rates
Location Service Charge (LSC)
Collision Damage Waiver (Excess Applies)
Theft Protection (Excess Applies)
Winter Tyres
Vehicle Licence Fee (VLF)
Tax
Unlimited Free Kilometers Included

Do I need a stand alone excess insurance, or is this covered here??

Thanks for any advice. Who knew hiring a car could be so complicated!

NiftyDigits

Bunnymoney wrote: »

Why is this so confusing?

I've found what I think to be a good car hire, with Hertz. It's £194.35 for B category car, for a week in Austria. This is what the itinerary says:

Included in the rates
Location Service Charge (LSC)
Collision Damage Waiver (Excess Applies)
Theft Protection (Excess Applies)
Winter Tyres
Vehicle Licence Fee (VLF)
Tax
Unlimited Free Kilometers Included

Do I need a stand alone excess insurance, or is this covered here??

Thanks for any advice. Who knew hiring a car could be so complicated!

You need Excess Insurance. It even tells you that an Excess Applies

gorgeoustasha

Hi - after advice please.
Booked car hire in France with Thrifty online but when arrived to pick up car in middle of night was told the price was over double that quoted as the "optional" insurance was not in fact optional in France. We were forced to pay an extra €280 or no car!
Since home they've now taken another €50 for "traffic offences" but have not provided any information as to even what these are meant to be and as far as I'm aware no offences were committed.
I've complained about all this plus more (state of vehicle etc) direct to Thrifty but all they're doing is offering £40 refund as goodwill!

They are point blank refusing to give me head office or a senior managers details and apparently all I can do about traffic offences is ring some random company in America!

Help!

NiftyDigits

gorgeoustasha wrote: »

Hi - after advice please.
Booked car hire in France with Thrifty online but when arrived to pick up car in middle of night was told the price was over double that quoted as the "optional" insurance was not in fact optional in France. We were forced to pay an extra €280 or no car!
Since home they've now taken another €50 for "traffic offences" but have not provided any information as to even what these are meant to be and as far as I'm aware no offences were committed.
I've complained about all this plus more (state of vehicle etc) direct to Thrifty but all they're doing is offering £40 refund as goodwill!

They are point blank refusing to give me head office or a senior managers details and apparently all I can do about traffic offences is ring some random company in America!

Help!

Did you have a credit card on hand to pay the Excess Deposit, likely to be 850 Euros to 1200 Euros?
If not, you are liable to take Thrifty's Insurance.

gorgeoustasha

Yes they held €1000 on a credit card too

NiftyDigits

gorgeoustasha wrote: »

Yes they held €1000 on a credit card too

That doesn't seem right. They either take one or the other.
Do you have the paperwork to back up your assertions?

It doesn't make sense that they would charge for the Excess Waiver and then take an Excess deposit.

broadbean13

I regularly hire standard cars in Vegas but on this trip to usa am hiring from Atlanta airport and travelling to Nashville and back. Just searching prices and seen a Mustang or similar is c£20 a day when Economy & Compact are £22.

Prices quoted for 4 days in November through kayak/sixt and also with argus. Is it simply that it's a colder time of year and less demand for convertibles or am I missing something? Many thanks

nnik

I don't know if anyone can help with this but here goes,
We are going to Tenerife on Tuesday and really wanted to hire a car (last minute booking). I have searched everywhere for the information I need but just keep getting confused! I have not got a credit card, does this mean I cannot hire a car? Some of the sites say that even if you pay the extra excess insurance a credit card may still be neccessary for the deposit! Does anyone know if it would be easier to wait until we get there? I can speak a little Spanish.

NiftyDigits

nnik wrote: »

I don't know if anyone can help with this but here goes,
We are going to Tenerife on Tuesday and really wanted to hire a car (last minute booking). I have searched everywhere for the information I need but just keep getting confused! I have not got a credit card, does this mean I cannot hire a car? Some of the sites say that even if you pay the extra excess insurance a credit card may still be neccessary for the deposit! Does anyone know if it would be easier to wait until we get there? I can speak a little Spanish.

Previous thread

JPears

Its only a few years since I last hired a car abroad, but there seem to have been considerable changes, not to the advantage of the consumer!
I have hired a Golf size car for a weeks ski holiday in France, thru Citer ( 6 days of which it will be in a garage :doh:)
On reading the very small and unclear fine print, trying to decipher the umpteen bits of documentation I will need to take with me, I noticed that they intend to block two separate fees on a credit card, of E1000 and E850, one a deposit and the other an excess?
Is this normal? Seems totally disproportionate for the length of car hire. I have my own car hire excess policy.
I tried to contact Citer several times but no repsonse.
I contacted HolidayAutos who i did the booking through and to be fair did get a prompt repsonse. They said just the E1000. So I asked for an email confirmation I could take to the car hire desk. So the next reply would be E1850. Are they just covering their backs as they don't actually know?
I queried it again, asking for justification of such a massive excess and why this is NOT made clear and obvious at the booking stage. No repsonse other than they said it was visible at the booking stage before confirmation. It isn't. I did half a dozen different quotes , with different car types, no details of excesses and deposits.
It would seem that car rental comparison websites have gone the way of car insurance, ie deceiving, economical with the facts, corrupt and next to useless in reality.