How to avoid being ripped off by a car rental company?

jimi_man

Lavendyr said:

eDicky said:

Lavendyr said:

you will need to tell them that you have car hire excess insurance,

Why will you need to tell them? I disagree - if you don't want to buy the hire firm's extra insurance just politely say 'no thanks', and nothing else, as would an experienced hirer.

OK, you don't need to, but it can be helpful if you do. 

I agree with eDicky. It just gives the car hire company an opportunity to come up with a list of reasons as to why your insurance is no good. Less is more in this situation and they are used to people saying no and that’s it. 

531063

Stay away from Goldcar, look up their reviews

Bluebelle_28

Hi i was looking into hiring a car at Glasgow Airport, to plan to travel and stay on the isle of bute and isle of arran, these islands are within easy access to mainland by ferry. Would anyone know what the t&cs are with rental companies (Europcar and avis). It doesn't seem to be very clear on their t&cs. I just noticed something about mainland uk, them having trackers if i go over boarder in Ireland and be afraid this would occur extra hidden charges?

My other question... has anyone hired a car (in uk) without a credit card before and who was this with? What is the process? I only have a debit card, no credit card. 

Many thanks 

user1977

Bluebelle_28 said:

Hi i was looking into hiring a car at Glasgow Airport, to plan to travel and stay on the isle of bute and isle of arran, these islands are within easy access to mainland by ferry. Would anyone know what the t&cs are with rental companies (Europcar and avis). It doesn't seem to be very clear on their t&cs. I just noticed something about mainland uk, them having trackers if i go over border in Ireland and be afraid this would occur extra hidden charges? 

I am pretty certain that when Europcar talks about "mainland UK and Northern Ireland" they don't literally mean the geographical mainland of Great Britain, just "the UK minus Northern Ireland" i.e. England, Scotland and Wales (including their respective islands) and that the prohibition is taking it outside the UK.

No reason why they ought to care about you going on Scottish ferries (though you may wish to bear in mind whether the fares make it financial sense to take your car with you, and booking availability on the ferries, as well as problems with reliability because of weather or ferry breakdowns - it's not unknown to be stuck on Arran if your ferry is cancelled, and the next x crossings are fully booked).

NoodleDoodleMan

There are ongoing issues in respect of the ferry to Arran - best check it out in detail beforehand.

The normal route is from Ardrossan, however there is a stopgap service from Troon due to problems, reportedly to end in the not too distant future.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0m8078j49yo

There is hardly a week goes by that BBC Radio Scotland's "Good Morning Scotland" doesn't have a feature about ongoing ferry issues - a big headache for the Scottish Government. 

Tigger73

Green motion have a scam running.  I was given a car that was at least 6 years old with 122,017 km on the clock.  It was battered with bumps and scraps on every panel and a damaged interior. When I asked for a better vehicle they said they had none available even though I could see many clean white vehicles in their lot and it was the end of the season so clearly not ever car was booked out. The staff seemed charming and checked the car and I thought had marked up all the damaged panels (28 in number on the sheet).  Unfortunately I didn't notice that they purposely hadn't marked the scratches and scraps on one part of the car.  When I returned the car they went immediately to the part of the vehicle not marked on the sheet and said I had damaged that part.  I took a photo of the corner and there were 25 scrapes and dents, some which had clearly been there for several years.  I have photos.  They then charged me 391.55 euros which was their computer generated repair costs.  There was no empathy from the staff and I suspect they probably receive a bonus for every time this scam works.

I have an ongoing annual insurance excess cover and so thought I could make a claim from iCarinsurance.com. When I downloaded their Product Information Document to make my claim I found out that rentals from Green Motion are not covered. That information can only be seen when you have bought the insurance. I've subsequently found out that many excess insurance companies won't cover Green Motion vehicles due to the high claim rates.  This is clearly a common practice.  
Looks like I've been done over twice!