Cheap car hire article discussion

WAYT

Ashers92 wrote: »

Just thought I'd double check my plans here to make sure I've not forgotten anything.

My girlfriend and I are travelling to Alcudia, Majorca from October 5th-9th this year and I'm looking at taking out the following via Skyscanner:

Collection - Oct 5th @ 12:00
Return - Oct 9th @ 17:00
Provider is ClickRent, via GotCarRentals.com

Looking at the Audi A1 or similar for £33 (There is cheaper at £27, but we intend to do some driving through the mountain ranges one day so a slightly nicer car would be nice)
Full to Full fuel policy
Theft Protection (£1500 deductible)
CDW (£1000 deductible)
Third Party Liability
Free Cancellation/Amendment upto Sept 30th
C/C Deposit of £1500
I'm 25 so no young driver charges.

I'll be taking out separate excess insurance elsewhere for around £7.
So all in its looking to be £40, before fuel.

Is there any additions I should look out for? Obviously we wont need the hire companies insurance so will have to take the £1500 deposit on credit card so I need to increase my credit limit before we leave.

Any one had experience with ClickRent in the past?

Any advice/pointers appreciated.
Thanks

Are you joking? Are you actually expecting to pay £33 for 5 day rental of an Audi A1?
If that is the case, then hand your passport in to the Passport Office.
I don't even need to look at their T&C to know that there will be caveats.

Puts me in mind of the old Southern saying:




Read their reviews. You might get away with it or you might not. No one here will encourage you to do so. Good luck.

DJP_Lindfield

Having followed the hints and booked a 'Full to Full' hire, arrived at Alicante just after midnight last Tuesday to find that Centauro had decided to give us a 75% full car and to return it at 75%. It is difficult to get this right and we ended up returning with 90%, so costing us more and contributing to Centauro's income. The staff member acknowledged that we had a 'Full to Full' contract but stated that the company often change this at pick up. Centauro have not so far admitted that they did not fulfil the contract, merely re-stating that we should return the car with the amount of fuel it came with. Unable to tell whether Centauro are the only co who arbitrarily change the contract...

statesidemanc

Just to update everyone on here on the outcome of car hire/ insurance with Thomas Cook - and to thank WAYT for the great advice.

See post above for full details that Thomas Cook wanted (on top of their "free" car hire)

Thomas Cook rep said insurance package had to be bought from TC or Alamo (or pay the full whack when you get there).

I checked with Alamo direct, and now have written confirmation that they except third party insurance cover - CDW and SLI (LP).

I got this from BetterSafe for 2 week trip - £63.17 (+airport taxes)
Cost from TC - £392 (alamo all inclusive) or £476 (alamo gold)

Incidentally, go direct with Alamo and choose the Alamo gold option, and you can get the full car hire for £330 - over £100 less than "Free" car hire with Alamo gold insurance from Thomas Cook!

So - saving of OVER £300 by getting standalone car hire insurance!

Thanks everyone.

WAYT

statesidemanc wrote: »

Just to update everyone on here on the outcome of car hire/ insurance with Thomas Cook - and to thank WAYT for the great advice.

See post above for full details that Thomas Cook wanted (on top of their "free" car hire)

Thomas Cook rep said insurance package had to be bought from TC or Alamo (or pay the full whack when you get there).

I checked with Alamo direct, and now have written confirmation that they except third party insurance cover - CDW and SLI (LP).

I got this from BetterSafe for 2 week trip - £63.17 (+airport taxes)
Cost from TC - £392 (alamo all inclusive) or £476 (alamo gold)

Incidentally, go direct with Alamo and choose the Alamo gold option, and you can get the full car hire for £330 - over £100 less than "Free" car hire with Alamo gold insurance from Thomas Cook!

So - saving of OVER £300 by getting standalone car hire insurance!

Thanks everyone.

Would have been worth getting the annual policy via Quidco for around £76.50 if you were likely to rent a car again with the 12 month period.

statesidemanc

WAYT wrote: »

Would have been worth getting the annual policy via Quidco for around £76.50 if you were likely to rent a car again with the 12 month period.

Yeah I looked at annual - but very unlikely to rent again within the next year, so figured I'd save an extra tenner. Used Quidco anyway, so £6.32 back, bringing it down to £57

Cheriton

ADDITIONAL DRIVER CHARGES These seem to be the new stealth money spinner for UK car hires. Why does the article not go into more detail on this? I have not been able to find a search engine which has a filter to bring this into the quotes.
There are a few opportunities to include your spouse without an extra charge. However I recently hired a car in Northumberland and had to pay £72 for 6 days Economy bracket car, but an additional £78 to include a friend as an additional driver. This is ludicrous.
Does anyone know where I can go to suggest directly to MSE that this issue (and also child seat charges) needs to be in the Search engines like fuel policy and so on?
Thanks

EssexExile

This is the overseas section.

[Deleted User]

Thank you MSE as ever. Over the years, as well as savings, you have stopped me falling into pitfalls, given me ideas and changed my behaviour most beneficially. When it came to car hire however, I had given up trying to understand the relationship between the expenditure announced and my final bill.

This time, under the pressure that the "last ticket at that price" would go, I hired a car at the same time as I booked an air ticket, but cancelled after securing the flight ticket and switching on the thinking mode with a visit to the MSE web site.

So, following your recipe step by step, the announced hire price was reduced by 70%. A visit to moneymaxim resulted in a yearly excess insurance for about half the price announced for a one-off 10-day hire. Little did I know that when returning the car, it would also save me another £156 as the "Car Vehicle Condition Report Form" stipulated that "Excess excludes wheels, tyres, glass, the roof and the underneath", which I hadn't noticed.

Of course, one had to stay clear of extras, or the "local rental conditions", both expensive (e.g. GPS £16.80 GBP per day, or DVLA checking fee £15). In actual fact, it was not clear whose T&Cs applied, agent's (CarDelMar), or hire company's (Green Motion) or both. However, the paperwork requirements of the agent, confirming the booking on behalf of the actual car hire company, appeared to me excessive (2 utility bills, as well as passport, driving license and credit card).

Then, when I sought to extend the booking, Green Motion quoted a punitive price retroactively, for the totality of the booking since the beginning. I declined, went back to the MSE method and found a much cheaper continuation hire without problem.

When I returned the Green Motion car. A scuff on the passenger front wheel was found and an invoice for £156 issued. Well, I made the corresponding claim to the excess insurance (Eversure, operating via a claims agent) and although this required 2 rounds of paperwork, it resulted in the promise of a refund.

The last disappointment came when checking my credit card statement, I noticed a discrepancy between the booking fee charged by Car del Mar and the invoice by Green Motion. Another email to Green Motion elicited the reply "the amount that is displayed on our Invoice is the amount we shall receive from your broker and the amount charged is the amount that your Broker is charging you for the rental cost".

As you can see, there are still quite a few corset hooks to be undone in car hiring. Yet again, it was an unpleasant experience full of stress and wasted time.

Wings_of_Ambition

[Deleted User] wrote:

Thank you MSE as ever. Over the years, as well as savings, you have stopped me falling into pitfalls, given me ideas and changed my behaviour most beneficially. When it came to car hire however, I had given up trying to understand the relationship between the expenditure announced and my final bill.

This time, under the pressure that the "last ticket at that price" would go, I hired a car at the same time as I booked an air ticket, but cancelled after securing the flight ticket and switching on the thinking mode with a visit to the MSE web site.

So, following your recipe step by step, the announced hire price was reduced by 70%. A visit to moneymaxim resulted in a yearly excess insurance for about half the price announced for a one-off 10-day hire. Little did I know that when returning the car, it would also save me another £156 as the "Car Vehicle Condition Report Form" stipulated that "Excess excludes wheels, tyres, glass, the roof and the underneath", which I hadn't noticed.

Of course, one had to stay clear of extras, or the "local rental conditions", both expensive (e.g. GPS £16.80 GBP per day, or DVLA checking fee £15). In actual fact, it was not clear whose T&Cs applied, agent's (CarDelMar), or hire company's (Green Motion) or both. However, the paperwork requirements of the agent, confirming the booking on behalf of the actual car hire company, appeared to me excessive (2 utility bills, as well as passport, driving license and credit card).

Then, when I sought to extend the booking, Green Motion quoted a punitive price retroactively, for the totality of the booking since the beginning. I declined, went back to the MSE method and found a much cheaper continuation hire without problem.

When I returned the Green Motion car. A scuff on the passenger front wheel was found and an invoice for £156 issued. Well, I made the corresponding claim to the excess insurance (Eversure, operating via a claims agent) and although this required 2 rounds of paperwork, it resulted in the promise of a refund.

The last disappointment came when checking my credit card statement, I noticed a discrepancy between the booking fee charged by Car del Mar and the invoice by Green Motion. Another email to Green Motion elicited the reply "the amount that is displayed on our Invoice is the amount we shall receive from your broker and the amount charged is the amount that your Broker is charging you for the rental cost".

As you can see, there are still quite a few corset hooks to be undone in car hiring. Yet again, it was an unpleasant experience full of stress and wasted time.

So you saved 70% on the hire car and £156 on the scuff by using the excess insurance, but it was an unpleasant experience because of 'wasted time'? I think you did very well out of it. I appreciate the excess insurance is a hassle, but having just (and I mean this evening) completed a similar claim myself, I think it was definitely worth the effort.

Cafe del Mar were the agent, so whatever they quoted you initially would be what you would have paid. No idea why Green Motion provided you with an invoice, but the Cafe del Mar price would be what you agreed to pay initially.

Wings_of_Ambition

Just wanted to say how pleased I was with using the Car Hire Excess Insurance method through MSE. I bought a 2-day policy and had a bump in a car park while away on holiday earlier this month. Max excess was 800 euros and the repair bill, rather conveniently, came to 796 euros!

Spent an hour filling out the relevant forms this week and received confirmation of full payment this evening.

Cost of car hire excess insurance - less than £5
Full claim amount being refunded - in excess of £700