Spain Car Hire Cross Border Charges!!

FatDickie

We're flying to Spain for a holiday in France

We're landing in Girona airport just over the spanish border as it's closest to where we are going to in France.

Looking at car hire.... not only do they all seem to rip you off with charging €60 plus on top of the hire fee for a non refundable tank of fuel, there seem to be hidden cross border charges...

If you "visit" another country i.e. France, you will be chaged €7 per day extra insurance.

I have looked at 5 different budget hire companies and they either say this or that an extra charge is payable and to check for details at hire desk.

It's ok going to Sixt or holiday autos etc and undercutting the larger companies by £40 to £50, but then be charged an additional £49 to use the car within a 50 mile radius of where it was hired seems a little excessive....


Does anyone know of any companies that do not charge this fee?

pompeyrich

Hertz certainly and possibly Avis will allow the car into France for no additional fee, they also offer full to full fuel. However their prices might be slightly higher and their excess will be around 600 Euros.

Ebookers do an ebookers selection which is slightly cheaper but you would have to phone them to see which hire company they use and if they allow travel into France.

dzug1

That's why they are budget companies - they cut out all the unnecessary 'extras' and charge them only to those who want them

spiro

dzug1 wrote: »

That's why they are budget companies - they cut out all the unnecessary 'extras' and charge them only to those who want them

Same applies here with your car insurance and AA/RAC cover. The cheaper companies will charge you extra if you want a green card. The hire companies are doing the same because if you break down or have an accident 'abroad' it costs them more to deal with.

PolishBigSpender

spiro wrote: »

Same applies here with your car insurance and AA/RAC cover. The cheaper companies will charge you extra if you want a green card.

Green Cards are all but redundant these days in vast parts of Europe.

dangers

We flew into Barcelona a few years ago for a holiday in France - I wasn't aware at the time that you had to mention it to the hire car companies. We booked with Avis that time.

nw_man

dangers wrote: »

We flew into Barcelona a few years ago for a holiday in France - I wasn't aware at the time that you had to mention it to the hire car companies. We booked with Avis that time.

Just hired a car at Girona and drove it to France. The reason that they charge you the extra is in case they need to recover the vehicle in France due to breakdown, or at least that is what they told me when I was cursing them

Annoying I agree.

elephant-astic

FatDickie wrote: »

We're flying to Spain for a holiday in France

We're landing in Girona airport just over the spanish border as it's closest to where we are going to in France.

Looking at car hire.... not only do they all seem to rip you off with charging €60 plus on top of the hire fee for a non refundable tank of fuel, there seem to be hidden cross border charges...

If you "visit" another country i.e. France, you will be chaged €7 per day extra insurance.

I have looked at 5 different budget hire companies and they either say this or that an extra charge is payable and to check for details at hire desk.

It's ok going to Sixt or holiday autos etc and undercutting the larger companies by £40 to £50, but then be charged an additional £49 to use the car within a 50 mile radius of where it was hired seems a little excessive....


Does anyone know of any companies that do not charge this fee?

As others have said this might actually be one of those times when it works out cheaper to go with one of the big name companies, rather than a budget outfit; The cheaper operators are ideal if you just want a basic package without any complications, but as soon as you start to want anything other than the most basic service they'll start charging all sorts of extras for the privilege! The bigger names have higher basic charges but these tend to include more of the extra little bits & pieces. *shrug*
Best of luck with finding something affordable!