Spanish car hire unknown transaction

solfer

Hi, any suggestions on how I should go about querying this with my bank?

In August I hired a car from Econorent in Spain, all paid on my RBS credit card there and then. Today I've just noticed they debited my CC account yesterday by £118 - no warning or explanation whatsoever..!

There was NO damage whatsoever to the car when it was returned, and no-one there to check the car over. The company have a policy whereby if there isn't a rep on site you leave the keys in a post box.

Can't find a contact number for them anywhere to query it with them (it was booked through an agent) :mad:

Can I dispute this with RBS, or do I not even have a leg to stand on?

TIA

gnaril

Yes you can dispute the payment.

Chargeback Mastercard Reason Code 4859 rs7.
Your disputing an additional charge applied to your account for car hire.

Couple of things, first of you need to contact the merchant to satisfy this, you need to see if they can explain what this is for,

Your bank should send a form out for you to complete, The merchant has acted incorrectly from Visa/Mastercard regualtions. if there is any additional charges to be applied they should provide you an invoice before billing your card, or invoiceif there is damage, When they charge it back, the merchant will have tosubstanciate the charges applied. IF it comes down to it the bank can push for a "pre- compliance" a tecnicality if you like, because they have broke the card scheme rules.

NEVER NEVER NEVER with car hire leave the car without it being signed off and checked. you are leaving yourself wide open to bled dry:P

Merchants phone number [FONT=&quot]0044 2392 554200[/FONT]
Alll the best mate

fawinds

They seem to have an UK website: http://www.econorent.co.uk/

At the contact us page there are phone numbers: http://www.econorent.co.uk/contact-us/

Not sure if they are the same company anyway.

solfer

Thanks for the info gnaril, much appreciated.

Didn't find out about the fact that there may not be someone there to sign the car off until the day we collected.. And I'd been worrying about that since!

fawinds, ta for looking - I found that too but it's not the same company unfortunately. Hoping the agent will get back to me with their details as there's nothing at all on the web.

solfer

Update... just got a number and phoned them up - now waiting for them to look up the details & call me back...

vwman_3

I'm in a simular position, I hired a car in Canada and paid up front for it months ago.

Checking my credit card bill yesterday and I have been charged an extra $167 Canadian dollars.

I phoned them, to be told I used a toll road quite a few times.

I visit Toronto every year so I know the area, and avoid the toll roads like the plague.

The car hire company namely National are unable to provide details of this use but refuse to refund the payment.

So any advice that is forth coming to the OP will benefit myself as well

solfer

I've just had a reply to the email sent about the transaction and they're telling me it was payment of a speeding fine incurred while I had use of the car. I'm not disputing the speeding fine itself - that did land on my doorstep about 5 weeks ago, but the fine itself was for 100 Euros, had no English description, and only had a link to the Spanish Transport website. (which again doesn't have any English version).

I managed to translate the website with Google, and there's no way of paying online unless you're a Spanish resident (which I'm not), so I've been hitting brick walls trying to find how to pay.

So, it seems they've gone to Econorent as they've got my CC details, and had them take the fine out of my CC account. But how 100 Euros equates to £118 I don't know! Plus I've got no proof that the fine has actually been paid!

TFD_2

solfer wrote: »

I've just had a reply to the email sent about the transaction and they're telling me it was payment of a speeding fine incurred while I had use of the car. I'm not disputing the speeding fine itself - that did land on my doorstep about 5 weeks ago, but the fine itself was for 100 Euros, had no English description, and only had a link to the Spanish Transport website. (which again doesn't have any English version).

I managed to translate the website with Google, and there's no way of paying online unless you're a Spanish resident (which I'm not), so I've been hitting brick walls trying to find how to pay.

So, it seems they've gone to Econorent as they've got my CC details, and had them take the fine out of my CC account. But how 100 Euros equates to £118 I don't know! Plus I've got no proof that the fine has actually been paid!

It probably stated in the fine that they charge a handling fee for any speeding tickets received - I've seen this in the T&C's for a lot of hires. I'm guessing it would be around 30 Euros - add that to the fine, and that would be about £118.

fawinds

Three years ago I was fined in Italy and the car hire company charged my credit card for a €50 admin fee. But that was not the fine itself. The fine arrived in the post a few weeks later and was €92.25 which I didn't pay anyway.

I am not sure if they would have charged my credit card for the fine amount because as soon as they did charge the €50 admin fee I cancelled the card and got a replacement one.

If you need help in translating the Spanish letter, let me know.

This is the address to make the payment online, but as you mention unless you are a resident, it will not work as it ask for tax ID number: https://apl.dgt.es/WEB_Sanciones/jsp/sincertificado/identificacionPagador.jsf

Anyway, if you find the £118 are just an admin fee, I would not take the trouble to pay the fine. If it already includes the fine and the admin fee, the it is cheaper than the Italians!

fawinds

TFD wrote: »

It probably stated in the fine that they charge a handling fee for any speeding tickets received - I've seen this in the T&C's for a lot of hires. I'm guessing it would be around 30 Euros - add that to the fine, and that would be about £118.

But there is something here I don't like.

If the car hire co. has paid the fine... why on earth are the Spanish authorities sending him a letter with the fine...?

The usual scenario here would be that they send the fine to the car hire company, the car hire company identifies who was driving the car and sends the details to the authorities whilst at the same time charge the driver an admin fee. Then the authorities send the fine directly to the driver abroad and the driver bins it. Fair enough.

TFD_2

Many years ago I got caught running a red light in Hollywood. They sent me through a picture of me driving a Mustang. What you couldn't see was me arguing with my then GF, hence running the light!

The fine was something like $200! I ignored it, and it grew quite a bit. Then it all went quiet. I've not hired a car in California since, but I might have a date with Big Bubba if I do!

But never got a fee billed to me from the hire company...