Cheap car hire article discussion

marksyx wrote: »

We managed to do San Francisco to Vegas last year without a fee - just can't remember who it was with! Frustrating!

Hern wrote: »

We travel widely each year to different countries and no, we're not business travellers but a retired couple who don't have an expense account to fund the extortionate prices of the likes of Hertz and Avis.

Years ago now, we were involved in a European investigation into car rental companies from which it became blazingly obvious that foreign operators can get away with whatever they wish because they know that no UK resident has ever yet brought a successful civil action in a foreign court over a car hire scam. Not one.

It's that fact which accounts for the racketeering at -- for example -- Malaga Airport, and the presence of disreputable car hire outfits whose existence is owed to an utterly supine regional tourism office and equally supine law enforcement. Both could easily work together to crack down on blatant, widespread fraud but oddly, despite a bankrupt Spanish economy that desperately needs the visitor Euro, neither seem to be that interested. One can only wonder what possible reasons there might be for such inertia.

All the usual fraudulent practices that apply in Europe are to be found at Malaga:

* provision of barely road-legal or even non-legal vehicles which on breakdown will require the hirer to make further payments because the insurance "doesn't cover this" (including, deliciously, the cost of the breakdown rescue itself);

* rip off customers with after-rental credit card charges for 'damage' that never occurred but which the credit card company has to pay because you're the one who was gullible enough to give a car hire firm you've never previously heard of the authority to take money from your card;

* small-print insurance exclusions of which the hirer will be entirely oblivious -- it's not unknown, for example, for an exhaust system nearing its end-of-life to be loosened by the hirer to the point that a section will drop off and the hirer will be billed the cost of a full replacement system because their insurance doesn't cover underside damage;

* 'fuel policy' extortion which boost hirers' profits to astronomical levels thanks to massive charges for fuel that was already in the tank: it's estimated that around 85% of all cars hired on the basis of full tank out, bring back empty, are actually returned with fuel in them which, of course, is then charged -- plus 'administration' -- to the next hirer;

* "loss" of Internet bookings made without any deposit taken so that on arrival, a customer is forced to pay a much higher rate to rent a car because no contractual arrangement actually exists (just because an Internet website says yes, you can have a Fiat Panda for 200 Euros a week, and an email of confirmation of that lands in your in-box, that actually doesn't mean anything at all.)

It's for that reason I have to smile at well-intended posts such as that from hariboboy and the recommendation to use car hire comparison sites. Ye Gods: why?

Before going anywhere near a single search aggregator or a single overseas hire firm, you first need to know the Law. And the Law is simple: book a car over the Internet with a foreign car rental company which seeks payment only on collection and you have no proof of a contractual arrangement at all. Alternatively, pay for that same overseas car hire in full at the time of booking and you still have no legal protection because the contract is subject to the applicable laws of the country of hire, not the hirer's country of residence.

Rather more to the point: turn up at the hirer's address on- or off-airport at -- let's say, Malaga -- and find yourself being ripped off there / during your rental / after you've returned home and . . Tough. What're you going to do about it: sue someone in a Spanish court???

There's many a Brit in Spain still waiting for a civil action to be heard against corrupt lawyers, estate agents, builders and local politicians because they've lost £250,000 or more on a corrupt property deal. You seriously think you're going to get quick Spanish justice for the, let's say, the £500 you lost on a fraudulent car hire deal? Apart from the fact that it'll likely take years, it'll definitely cost you money in legal fees: if you get £50 back, youj'll be doing real well.

The best advice then is to never, ever, make an overseas car rental booking on the basis of a car hire comparison site.

Yes, you'll be delighted that they're such nice people (aw, gee shucks) that they don't want your money beforehand and will let you cancel without penalty (gee shucks, again) but that's only because you don't know the Law well enough to realise that until you actually do pay something, then no contract exists and a rental company can charge you whatever it feels like on your arrival because oh-dear-sorry, we've-no-record-of-your-booking.

Our years of grief-free overseas car rentals stem from two factors:

* for the USA and Canada, we book with majors like Alamo, Dollar and Budget because they're still waaaaaay cheaper than the ridiculous Hertz / Avis;

* for anywhere else in the world, we use a UK-based car hire broker to whom we pay the full amount of the car rental in advance plus insurance top-up.

Our contract is with that UK broker. Not the foreign car hire company. Our contract is covered by UK civil Law. A 'contract' with a foreign car hire company very obviously. . . isn't. The UK broker has every incentive to ensure it deals only with overseas car hire firms of the highest repute. An Internet price-checking website of the kind recommended by hariboboy has no incentive at all to flag up anything other than the cheapest price. . .

. . . and thus expose the naive to the entirely avoidable, and entirely unacceptable, risk of what might actually turn out to be the highest-cost car rental they've ever had.