Warning: Europcar Norway

OlaNess

Hello,

For anyone wanting to hire a car in Norway, here comes a warning:

Toll stations are a part of life in Norway, and it can be very tricky to avoid them and they can be very expensive, particularly if travelling in Western Norway. For example, driving from Bergen to Kristiansand would set you back over NOK 500 (£42.50 today, according to Google) in tolls alone. This is done through a chip you fasten in the windscreen - there are few, if any, toll stations that accept other means of payment.

Europcar clearly see this as a way of cashing in: nicely hiding in their small print an extra charge of NOK 70 plus VAT at 25% per day for hiring this chip (NOK 612.50 for a week), on top of your car rental. They made no effort whatsoever to highlight this to me, and when I contacted their "customer service" all I received in response was a carefully crafted sales pitch over how convenient this system is.

So: if travelling to Norway and renting a car, do your sums first, and add a pretty decent chunk of money to the rental (30%) as an assumption of renting more kit than you expect, or just avoid Europcar full stop. Probably the best course of action.

As if Norway wasn't expensive enough as it is!

Mr_Wang

OlaNess wrote: »

Hello,

For anyone wanting to hire a car in Norway, here comes a warning:

Toll stations are a part of life in Norway, and it can be very tricky to avoid them and they can be very expensive, particularly if travelling in Western Norway. For example, driving from Bergen to Kristiansand would set you back over NOK 500 (£42.50 today, according to Google) in tolls alone. This is done through a chip you fasten in the windscreen - there are few, if any, toll stations that accept other means of payment.

Europcar clearly see this as a way of cashing in: nicely hiding in their small print an extra charge of NOK 70 plus VAT at 25% per day for hiring this chip (NOK 612.50 for a week), on top of your car rental. They made no effort whatsoever to highlight this to me, and when I contacted their "customer service" all I received in response was a carefully crafted sales pitch over how convenient this system is.

So: if travelling to Norway and renting a car, do your sums first, and add a pretty decent chunk of money to the rental (30%) as an assumption of renting more kit than you expect, or just avoid Europcar full stop. Probably the best course of action.

As if Norway wasn't expensive enough as it is!

Good to know :beer: