New EU-wide rules promise more clarity on car rental pricing

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• Ronster says:

  19 Jul19 July 04:32

  These changes are a move in the right direction.

  I’ve experienced the good the bad and the dam right ugly from both the large multinational to the much smaller independents.

  From free up grades and bottles of chilled water been given out by Avis staff, when its 35 degrees centigrade ….to smaller outfits wanting to charge me my whole car security deposit for a 2mm paint chip?!

  In Italy they love charging for extra for what should be considered, standard obligatory equipment for a car to have to be on the road.

  This can be from high visibility jacket to cars not carrying obligatory snow chains.In some parts of Italy you need them on board from Mid November to mid April and you don’t even have to be near a ski resort either, so do check.

  With many airports connecting to motorways, no matter which way you turn from the terminal, you will see clear police indications of the above conditions. Thus you have no choice but to have them onboard or face a hefty fine!?

  Rather than get into a legal argument with the staff when collecting a car.I have always claimed these additional extra charges back via American Express Travel Services.Since the contracts rarely have specified that these are additional charges that should be paid by the collecting driver and not the actual hire car firm itself.

  The hire car fire own the vehicle and are thus responsible for supplying that vehicle with any additions needed to make it legal and fit for purpose to be on the road.

  I also follow the following code:-
  1)Always double check the car for scarps and marks.
  2)Always make the agent note them down before leaving the car hire office.
  3)Don’t forget to take pictures of the car before leaving including the milage and fuel indicator level and the same again on return

  There is no guarantee that they won’t try it on, but if they do, you will be in a better position.

  Ronster

• Andrew says:

  19 Jul19 July 06:25

  Good news.

  Worth noting that Firefly – the Hertz low-cost company with strong presence in Spain (and whose advert was served for me at the bottom of this article) don’t seem to be playing ball:
  http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jul/18/car-hire-changes-firms-rent-vehicles

  • Worzel says:

    19 Jul19 July 06:39

    Not an Ad-just information!

• DS says:

  19 Jul19 July 08:04

  Imho the biggest nuisance is the currency rip-off, there are many threads of Flyertalk about this eg.

  http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/avis-preferred/1692332-avis-currency-conversion-fraud.html
  http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/avis-preferred/1236742-dynamic-currency-conversion-dcc-chargebacks.html

• Martin Deutsch says:

  19 Jul19 July 08:29

  I suppose the next argument will be whether this just applies to cars hired in the EU or not.

  I don’t rent cars often, but recently booked a car via Avis UK’s website to drive in the US. My agreement was with Avis UK, and made no mention of the “convenience fee” I was charged for using the EZ-Pass toll transponder – $16.75 on top of a $3.50 toll. Avis UK knew nothing about it; the local office told me the fees were written on the transponder itself.

  Rather than argue with Avis, I just claimed it back from my credit card company (Halifax didn’t bat an eyelid – they don’t bother chasing the merchant for disputes under a tenner), but these new rules would make it an interesting fight in the future.

  • Tariq says:

    19 Jul19 July 09:40

    That was going to be my question – does this apply only to cars picked up from rental offices in the EU or bookings made in the EU for pickup worldwide? I’d guess at the former. Got shafted by Budget a few weeks ago who lied to me at the rental counter and said I needed to accept additional insurance at the counter as otherwise I was liable for the whole cost of the car. Read the agreement properly later and the prepaid rate already included insurance and I’d accepted the pointless personal possessions/personal accident insurance. Grr!

• Liz says:

  19 Jul19 July 09:19

  We got hit with a large bill for hiring the sat nav this time. We use Avis – used them in Boston in Oct 14 and got charged £56 at the pick up point which was ok. We just came back from California and we were charged £125 for about the same amount of hire time. That’s a large bill on top of the hire charge already paid. I suspect we will get a toll bill in the post at some point too!

  • Tariq says:

    19 Jul19 July 09:42

    When hiring with Hertz in the US, I always untick nav when it comes up preselected in the options. Always find it in the car on arrival, and don’t get charged for it. 🙂

  • Mark says:

    19 Jul19 July 13:53

    You’re better off taking a Smart Phone and car holder if you have one. You can download navugation apps with offline maps for most destinations (so no mobile data required) or if you’re on Three you can use your home allowance in Feel At Home countries such as the US.

    If not otherwise on Three picking up a pay as you go sim for travel purposes can also be a cost effective solution.

    • Fenny says:

      19 Jul19 July 19:19

      I always used to buy a AT&T prepaid SIM when travelling to the US. Now I have a 3 SIM I use solely for travelling, as the top ups never expire and you can have a data only package if you’re not likely to make a lot of calls. A fiver for 500Mb is usually more than enough for a fortnight, if you’ve got wifi in the hotel.

      • David says:

        19 Jul19 July 21:36

        You also get a 150MB free data allowance with each £5 topup (and this data can be used in Feel at Home countries too).

        • Mark says:

          20 Jul20 July 00:00

          Also worth noting the 50p daily internet option actually runs until midnight UK time on the day after you activate it (or it did last time I used it). It is actually limited (something like 200MB from memory) but should be good for a couple of days use unless downloading/streaming large files.

  • Nick says:

    19 Jul19 July 15:05

    I’m somewhat confused by your post. Did you agree, or not, to the satnav charge in California before you rented the car with Avis? If you did, what’s your gripe exactly? 🙂

    • Liz says:

      19 Jul19 July 21:23

      My gripe was the increase in cost from just a few months ago. I booked with Avios who say you can’t prepay for the sat nav so you must pay the charge on arrival. The jump from £56 to £125 for the same amount of rental time seemed excessive to us.

• Frankie says:

  19 Jul19 July 09:46

  That’s shocking about the Hertz employee Rob. Did you report him/her?

  • Rob says:

    19 Jul19 July 11:34

    I did. He was fired.

    • Aeronaut says:

      19 Jul19 July 13:14

      Did you report it there and then to a manager?

      • Rob says:

        19 Jul19 July 16:08

        This guy was only person on duty. Told him to get lost then reported it via the post rental survey I got. Had a call from Hertz later to say he had left.

• What's the Point says:

  19 Jul19 July 09:59

  The EU finally meddling where it makes sense!

  I recently nearly got suckered into hiring a car from a smaller Spanish operator without reading the T&Cs.
  They were charging a non-refundable re-fuelling charge of 40 Euro – this was in addition the full cost of the tank of fuel they were going to charge me for as well. No refunds for bringing any fuel back either.

• Imbruce says:

  19 Jul19 July 10:02

  I would also like to see them get rid of the bogus charge of road fund licence fee.
  I am not sure why we should have to pay this fee when it is part of the running costs of a rental
  vehicle. Just checked Hertz UK & Australia they both charge it.
  Also 1.5% credit card fee another blatant ripoff.

  • What's the Point says:

    19 Jul19 July 15:15

    Hertz UK are unlikely to pay any road fund licence on the majority of their rental vehicles. RFL is only charged (currently) on cars in year 1 which emit more than 130 g/km. So unless you are choosing a large car or people carrier, most of Hertz’s rental should be zero RFL.

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