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So assuming you take a video of the car, photo's of all pre-existing damage at point of pick-up, have a decent additional insurance policy for your CDW / excess and additional cover, a thick skin to endure their hard-sell, is there any reason not to go with the cheapest / most convenient?
Will check T&C's / pick up locations etc. but if the worst comes to the worst and they do charge me for pre-existing damage, is it worth arguing the toss or just let them charge the credit card and then claim the cost back through my additional excess / CDW policy?
I would do your research for the country/location you're going to, get on the TripAdvisor forums and ask for experiences and recommendations. I certainly wouldn't go for the cheapest I'd go for one that's well recommended.
Having recently hired a car in Croatia, I'd second doing some research.
The Trip Advisor reviews for some of the car rental outfits were beyond shocking.
I've rented cars for the past 30 years at airports all over the world and only had 1 bad experience - and that was my credit card being skimmed rather than getting charged for damage I wasn't responsible for.
So assuming you take a video of the car, photo's of all pre-existing damage at point of pick-up, have a decent additional insurance policy for your CDW / excess and additional cover, a thick skin to endure their hard-sell, is there any reason not to go with the cheapest / most convenient?
This is my general approach with the caveat that in tourist locations, there will be plenty of other people that have booked the same cheapest deal from the same cheapest outlet. I once queued 2 and 1/2 hours in Sardina, so now I tend to try to get off the plane as fast as possible to get to the front of any queue (we don't bother with check in bags except when skiing).
The only other golden rule I have is to never use a key drop and always make sure the car is inspected and I have confirmation of zero damage by email before I leave the drop off location. This can be a bit of a pain in the hoop, but has served me well. Oh and always be scrupulously polite when collecting and dropping it off - even if you are raging inside 🙂
I wonder if they take pre-paid credit cards, so you could open one just for this purpose, put enough balance on it to cover the hire, then if they try to 'double dip' for damage it will be case of 'computer says no'?
So assuming you take a video of the car, photo's of all pre-existing damage at point of pick-up, have a decent additional insurance policy for your CDW / excess and additional cover, a thick skin to endure their hard-sell, is there any reason not to go with the cheapest / most convenient?
Some of them do have mileage limitations etc. which might or might not be a factor?
I’ve always used inexpensive car hire but do check reviews first. Never had an issue despite crashing one car and dragging the underside of one car going up a dirt track we were staying on.
we were in Portugal last week and europcar was actually the cheapest, never again. Total pain of a check in process, trying to upsell all sorts including breakdown cover! Er no thanks it’s your car. used YesCar at Faro before and it was absolutely fine.
where are you going
went with the cheapest - ok mobility - wouldn’t again - had little choice but to sign a thing that said if i had a puncture it was my fault (eh?!) and would be 400 euros, and on return they made me wait for the inspection and tried it on with ‘not quite full tank’ as the indicated range was ‘ ‘lower than it should be’ - luckily i’d taken photos of dash as well as outside - ryanair of car hire
Note that some rental agencies aren’t covered by some car hire excess cover policies presumably because they’re utter shitehawks. I’m pretty sure Green Motion is one such example.
Yes green motion is one that car hire excess don’t cover.
to be fair waiting while the car is checked is standard, I’ve never handed a car back where it hasn’t been checked unless it’s out of hours
Last time I hired a car, I didn't bother buying any third-party policy and instead just bought the SuperDeluxeExtendedWarranty, which covered me for pretty much any damage whatsoever, from the car hire place in the airport (I had pre-booked a car).
Yes, it cost me more (IIRC, it cost about £120), but, because I took out their policy, they significantly upgraded the car and, on return, they didn't even look at it. As it happens, I had kerbed an alloy and they didn't bother.
It certainly helped me stress much less whilst using it (which was for the full two weeks of our stay).
FWIW, it was in Spain, and I used OK Mobility.
Thanks, going to Malaga. Looking at TA forums Helle Hollis seems to be a good bet.
presumably because they’re utter shitehawks. I’m pretty sure Green Motion is one such example.
This is one firm that I read the reviews for, and very rapidly decided not to touch with a bargepole
Thanks, going to Malaga. Looking at TA forums Helle Hollis seems to be a good bet.
always used Malaga Cars and never had an issue.
i certainly wouldn’t pay £120 for a damage waver policy from a hire company, mine was just under £30 for a week from car hire excess
going to Malaga
Hired in Malaga airport last month
Do not use Goldcar. The service at the hire desk was abysmal.
Firstly, the fast hire key collection thing was broken, and the hordes of people that had arranged to use that were on the verge of rioting and one nonchalant member of staff just kept telling them the computer was overwhelmed and made them queue for one desk only
The rest of us had about 7 desks of staff however they were clearly intentionally working at sloth rates of effort. I arrived with one person in front of me waiting to be served, and maybe 3 of the 7 staffed desks actually serving customers.
It took me an hour before I got to the desk. Then I had to give them all my information again, despite me already providing it when i did the booking online. Then I had to go through the rigmarole of their insurance upselling, which they tried to charge me almost £400 for, on a 10 day booking that was only £100. Luckily I had my separately purchased annual excess cover in place for £45. Felt sorry for the couple next to me who fell for their scam.
Finally I had the utter farce of physically collecting the car.
the hire desk is on floor -1
You have to go to floor +1 to collect the keys
Then go to floor +2 to collect the car
The signage on each floor was abysmal, and of course the goldcar bits were miles from the lift
When we finally got the car, it looked like someone had taken a hammer to every panel. A VW with 50k on the clock that looked like a demolition derby car. How I chuckled when I discovered the electric wing mirrors would randomly decide to fold in when I was zooming down the motorway
Do not use Goldcar.
etc etc.....
please see posts 2 and 3 😉 do your research. the first two posts on google for 'goldcar reviews' show......
Just be VERY careful - we used a cheap company in Poland and they absolutely tried to scam us on damage and a fake GPS track. Thankfully I had very detailed photos at pick up and drop off, and had my google timeline on. And a strong determination not to let them get away with it...But I would not go there again to save £10
Taxis: agree a price before you get in, in Spain they often have a price list for all the local trips.
Public transport: usually reliable, regular and cheap.
Feet: I like walking around.
We've never yet needed to hire a car in Spain, but I wouldn't rent somewhere down a dirt track in the middle of nowhere.
Don't go for the cheapest, goldcar Alicante are always claiming dubious damage. Apparently they get a mirror and claim underside scuffs.
Re excess they freeze c1k on bookers credit card so they can claim against it later.
Presumably they're cheap for a reason...
Personally on hols I want peace of mind with renting cars, so I go with the usual suspects, knowing I will need to double what the quoted rental price is to cover all the extras like bringing the excess down to zero.
It's a holiday, I don't want to spoil it by a false economy and extra stress, don’t spoil the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar as the saying goes.
Or use public transport which is cheap in Spain and less hassle!
Recently used Record Go at Alicante - went with them because collection desk is in the terminal with zero excess, only deposit required was £120 fuel and I paid the full CDW. 10 mins to get the car, 2 mins to drop off. Zero hassle. Deffo would not just use the cheapest.
I wouldn't go anywhere near Goldcar in Spain, their reputation is terrible.
European car hire - go for the cheapest?
So in summary; oh hell no.
Recently hired in Dubrovnik airport.
Avoided ‘cheap’ and as we had had good experience with Budget 2 months previously we went with Budget
Budget in Dubrovnik is Budget/Avis so the car actually had Avis plates on it.
It was scratched and dented to hell even though the car looked pretty much new.
They asked if we wanted additional insurance, we said no as already had a policy.
They showed us the car, pointed out not all the damage was recorded, recommended we video it as they couldn’t record all the damage .
Signed the docs almost under duress , never received a copy of the agreement by email. Returned the car , took more videos. They didn’t even question the damage
week later hire agreement arrives in the post, with ‘additional charge’ £250
Rang customer services (which is a 3rd party company that does customers services for an even wider group of companies) They said charge was for insurance excess
Went through all the not requested. They asked me to send through a copy of my own insurance. Duly did even though it’s none of their business.
No further contact from them. Rang weekly chasing. 4 weeks later told they need they haven’t got a copy of our agreement as Dubrovnik haven’t sent it to them. 2 weeks later I just get a blunt email saying they have received the agreement and I signed for it so tough go away, and a link where to take the complaint further
So in essence they are all cowboys
So in summary; oh hell no.
For Mediterranean / islands I always ‘go local’ based on tripadvisor recommendations. For ‘mainland’ typically the best value big name supplier via kayak / autoeurope / zest.
Don’t use Europcar in Malaga - absolute F’ers!
I'm in the zero stress camp. I know I'm covered for excess anyway through my travel insurance but the super collision damage waiver option removes all stress and arguments and isn't much money compared to the overall holiday. It is worth it for me personally to reduce my stress levels as far as possible. I get enough of that when I'm not on holiday.
Use autoeurope.co.uk and get hertz or Aviva.
Always a good price and you can change and cancel before about 48hrs up to the day.
So of it gets cheaper you can swap.
Never had one issue - maybe used them 10 times.
I’m pretty sure Green Motion is one such example.
We used GreenMotion in Cyprus via Jet2 and it was fine.
KlassWagen in Faro were sufficiently terrible that we complained to Jet2 as it had been booked through them.
Guerin (which is Enterprise in fancy dress) were fine last time we hired a car, again Faro.
islands
Cabrera Medina in the Canaries is great.
Easy Rent at Dubrovnik airport were fine, as the reviews had suggested.
The lads waiting for the drop off were probably the friendliest locals we met all week.