Cheap Car Hire: Slash £100s in hire and insurance costs

richardw

Be careful with avis AWD numbers, some need the relevant id or other documents to get the rate and if you don't have these at the desk they won't give you the rate.

seftonsun

koru wrote: »

The Capital 1 cashback card (the one with 4% cashback for 1st 3 months) gives free insurance for the excess on your car hire insurance.

Airline Network gives you a free option which adds in insurance, additional drivers and a tank of petrol. The CDW has zero excess. Even though TravelSupermarket listed other companies that were ostensibly £20 cheaper, this was by far the cheapest after adding on the cost of these extras. Not sure if the same offer applies to every Airline Network rental - mine was in Denver, Colorado.

Edit: With car seats, it is often cheaper to buy out there, rather than pay someting like $10 per day to hire. Plus, the hire ones are usually dirty and may not be suitable. Obviously, cheaper still to take with you, but not if you have to pay extra on, say, Ryan Air, or if you have too much luggage to handle. In Florida and Colorado, car seats are not compulsory for age 6 and over.

Be careful with zero excess CDW. Whilst it will cover you for an accident it is unlilely to cover you for damage to:

1. tyres and wheels, including punctures;
2. windscreen and other glass;
3. lost keys;
4. damage to the underside of the vehicle; &,
5. damage due to driver negligence including drink driving and the like

Even with most no excess CDW cover included you will still be liable for the above items to a stated figure (often 500 - 600 Euros or the equivalent thereof). You can buy Super CDW or similar that will often cover all of the above except the negligence one. Additionally, as stated above you can buy separate insurance to cover all of the above (look for the links elsewhere in this topic) and that will reimburse you any excess you end up paying including 1 - 4 above no questions asked and at a fraction of the cost most car rental companies will charge.

Indeed, if you hire a car many times a year you can get an annual excess waiving policy for about £50. You will often pay this for less cover when renting a car from a car rental company for more than a week.

acwalters

richardw wrote: »

Be careful with avis AWD numbers, some need the relevant id or other documents to get the rate and if you don't have these at the desk they won't give you the rate.

Wal-Mart Customers (i.e. anyone) can get up to 20% off rentals at Avis. Use AWD/discount code B021615.

AWD/discount code K199060, which comes from a major Florida tourism organization and can be used by anyone.

Save up to 10% off your standard car rental with Avis! Just use K765100 when booking to receive this discount.

Avis AWD discount code C031529 Unlimited, No Underage Fee & Insurance Free

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A514100[/FONT]

acwalters

Try joining the American Pool Players Association. One of the benefits is discounted rentals from Dollar, with underage fee waived. See http://neapapoolplayers.com/benefits.htm

eamonn

U Save have no underage sur charge but must be over 19 years old with 1 additional driver included for free, unfortunately depots are off airport, take a look at http://www.fastcarhire.co.uk/ their rates are normally in the ballpark plus you can select an actual car rental company based on their fuel policy etc as they give this information up front.

z1000000

I’m just trying to sort out some car hire problems, so I re read Martins article and thought I would add a few comments. I rent a lot of cars and even by following Martins tips; I shop around, use Quidco and Cash back Credit cards, and Insurance4carhire, I get plenty of expensive and time consuming problems. So I hope this helps someone. And yes, most of these problems happen in the UK with the large well known rental firms. Annoying as they are in the UK, just think how frustrating they would be in a foreign country when on holiday with your family.

Dangerous/Damaged cars.
It seems all firms, even the big names don’t mind renting out damaged or even dangerous cars. In the last month one car had been in an accident, (wing and front damage), and another was not safe or legal, large dent in front rim and deeply split sidewall of tyre where the wheel had obviously been kerbed very hard. When I refused to take the dangerous car I was made to wait an hour for a suitable replacement. Anyone could have taken that car and had a front wheel blow out at speed on a motorway. I’m sick of being told it’s a new car, only to walk round it and find nearly every panel scratched or dented and trim missing. No one likes crawling around a car in the dark and rain, but do it. Make a game of it, see just how many dents and scratches the family can find.

Free upgrades.
Surely it’s great to get a higher group than you had booked. Not if you use their insurance or pre pay for fuel. Larger cars have higher insurance charges and naturally a larger fuel tank and use much more fuel. So it can be a bit of a shock filling a big car before returning it, if all you wanted was a little hatchback.

Windscreen chips.
Check for chips carefully. After checking my credit card statement I found I had been charged £40. The firm didn’t bother to tell me why, I had to chase them up, only to find it was for a chipped windscreen. I didn’t notice any chip when I picked the car up or when I returned it. Well a month after returning the car when I was in a different country, there isn’t much you can do. And no, I couldn’t claim against my insurance as 31 days had passed, plus it would have taken months to try and get all the paperwork together. Now I check for chips very carefully, and get the paperwork marked for the slightest damage.

Pre purchase fuel.
Most firms let you pre purchase a tank of fuel. This is very handy as it saves searching for a petrol station near the airport when you return the car and are probably running late. They even say their prices are cheaper that the garages, bargain! They forget to mention that some add VAT on top of the cost of a tank of fuel, making it very expensive.

No Road tax.
I was told it was in the post, but it would be me hit with the fine for driving a non taxed car.

One way fees.
Surely that’s why car rental firms are at airports, so people can rent at the airport and drop it off at/near their home. Well not without being hit with a charge of £30 to £50 plus.

Car not as expected.
There is no logic to car hire groups, other than a group A is probably a cheaper car than a group F. I’ve booked what I thought was a suitable car, (A Fiesta), and the booking form confirmed a Fiesta Type car, but when I go to collect it, it’s a much smaller car. So either suffer or pay extra for an upgrade. Why can’t rental firms standardise car groups, or give you what you expect? Because it benefits them to sell you an upgrade. And why can’t I specify an estate or Diesel, even though there are plenty of small diesels or estates about. Well I can, but as an upgrade.

Good luck!

-1-

Going to U.S. for first time in June 08.

Already nervous about the "wrong side of the road" driving, but all this car hire stuff is confusing.

Never hired a car in the UK or abroad before SO I'm lost.

If I go to a site like Alamo what should I be looking for that is a must to be included ?.

Does it matter if it's a big car ? like an SUV if petrol/deisel is cheaper over there ?.

Will be 4 of us with 4 suitcases max, possibly could share cases to get a smaller car.

Totally lost....

LesD

acwalters wrote: »

It's also worth getting a wizard number (like a frequent flier number) (free from Avis - other companies offer the same thing with a different name). Apart from the convinience, I am upgraded 8 times out of 10 because of this. It also knocks a massive 90% off the one way fee - from £110 down to £11, and in the USA

Can you tell me more about this? I'm thinking of doing Route 66 and this would help the cost.

I've checked the Avis 'wizard number' page but can find no reference to reduced one-way fees.

LesD

bump.....................

Any help on this would be appreciated.

cranezoe

do I NEED a credit card to rent a car in Italy?? Im getting so confused!