Saving a few ££ on your US car hire

Murphy_The_Cat

As ever, check that this would fit your own circumstances, but if it does, it should leave a few pounds in your wallet.

On my upcoming US trip, I've done the regular trawl of car hire sites to see who can come up with the best offer for me, and as per usual USRentacar have come up trumps for me.

They have offered me the usual 3 pricing options
Silver £443.00 unlimited mileage, full insurance etc
Gold £501 as above plus 1 extra driver and 'free' tank of fuel
Platinum £531 as above plus the optional supplementary insurances for things like tyres, windscreen etc.

I'm not interested in the Platinum option, so I took a closer look at the difference between Silver & Gold.
Extra driver + tank of fuel for £58 initially sounds quite good, but is it ?
The price quoted above is for, an Alamo car, booked via USRentacar, but if you go to Alamo UK, via this link, you get exactly the same quote, but this time with a free driver included.

So now your looking at paying an extra £58 for a 'free' tank of fuel.
The car I'm looking at has a 18.8 US gal capacity, petrol is currently $2.67/£1.64 per US gal, so a full tank of fuel would cost £30.83.

In short, booking the 'Gold' package from US Rentacar would cost about £28 more for the same car booked via Alamo UK on the link that I previously gave (please bear in mind that if you use the 'normal' Alamo UK link they'll sting you for about $140 plus local taxes upon arrival in the States).

It may work for some people but not for others, but its worth having a look.

A similar arrangement can be found with National with this link.

The only down side that I can immediately see is that US Rentacar will let you secure a car for £50 deposit and then pay the rest 8 weeks before going, whereas Alamo & National will both want payment in full at point of booking.

emmatthew

Try http://www.alamo.co.uk/brits

This is a fully inclusive + package and includes:
Collision Damage Waiver Full
Extended Protection
Airport Concession Fee
Customer Facility Charge
Tourism Fee
Sales Tax
Unlimited Mileage
3 Additional drivers
+ 10% discount

Its cheaper for my trip than both your links above and you can pay on arrival

Murphy_The_Cat

emmatthew wrote: »

Try http://www.alamo.co.uk/brits

Its cheaper for my trip than both your links above and you can pay on arrival

cheers matey

Thats a great find and its just trimmed another £37 off my Alamo rental (extra drivers were of no interest, but the 10% discount certainly was).

Even the 'pay on arrival' price is is only about a fiver more than the 'pay now' price although with that price being paid in $$'s, you'll be at the vagaries of the currency exchange system)

headpin

Are you ok with your Gas price of $2.67? Looks a little bit on the low side. However, gas prices can vary by up to almost a full $ depending upon state. Nonetheless, your price is at the very bottom end of realistic prices. Where are you going to?

Murphy_The_Cat

headpin wrote: »

Are you ok with your Gas price of $2.67? Looks a little bit on the low side. However, gas prices can vary by up to almost a full $ depending upon state. Nonetheless, your price is at the very bottom end of realistic prices. Where are you going to?

its less than I thought than it would be ! I got the prices from gasprices.com & I'm starting off my trip in Utah.

Evan at $2.70 in salt Lake City they're achieveable

cubegame

I've never personally found an Alamo car cheaper than when booked from Holiday Autos using a combination of the One Account 15% link and cashback (this has always paid).

Murphy_The_Cat

cubegame wrote: »

I've never personally found an Alamo car cheaper than when booked from Holiday Autos using a combination of the One Account 15% link and cashback (this has always paid).

hi cubegame

Do you have the one account 15% link to share with others ?

cubegame

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

hi cubegame

Do you have the one account 15% link to share with others ?

http://www.holidayautos.co.uk/cgi-bin/liveweb.sh/QSearch.w?ctryref=GBR&lang=EN&aff=xoneaccount

I actually thought I had posted it earlier! :cool:

claire16c

I booked a car with Alamo for the US this year and found if you typed in random things in google like alamo 10% off, alamo free driver, alamo 2 free days, you would find a link.

And the free driver price was the same as the '10% off' price anyway! Its like the prices are just conjured up.

Murphy_The_Cat

cubegame wrote: »

http://www.holidayautos.co.uk/cgi-bin/liveweb.sh/QSearch.w?ctryref=GBR&lang=EN&aff=xoneaccount

I actually thought I had posted it earlier! :cool:

cheers cubegame

I had a go at that link, but sadly it came out at £93 dearer than emmatthew's suggestion, PLUS the extra driver charge, plus the rather ambiguous insurance excess charge.

Murphy_The_Cat

claire16c wrote: »

And the free driver price was the same as the '10% off' price anyway! Its like the prices are just conjured up.

Hi Claire

emmathhews link gave the extra drivers, PLUS 10% discount, which seems to be a spanking deal (there one way hire charge is $50 + taxes & charges more than National, but it still pips National on the grand total)