Bits: Avis £9.99 one-way rentals, Zipcar one-way rentals, Hilton Visa / Uber deal

News in brief:

£9.98 one-way Avis car rentals to London

Regular readers will remember our article last year on Europcar offering £1 one-way car rentals to London.  Europcar uses this to cheaply reposition cars that need to be taken back to London – letting you rent them for £1 is cheaper than hiring a transporter.

Avis is now offering a similar deal, but only for the period around Easter.  You pay a flat £9.98 for a Group B or Group E car and need to drop it in London between 10th and 13th April.

Full details are on the Avis website here.  

Zipcar trialling new ‘one way’ car scheme in London

I am a fan of the Zipcar car club in London as I wrote here.  It got even better when Zipcar became a British Airways Executive Club partner, as I now earn 50 Avios every time I take a car out.

With the nearest car parked 30 seconds from our front door, and another 5 cars within a 10 minute walk, there is never any trouble finding a vehicle.  The only downside is that, because you pay by the hour, a relatively short drive – followed by a wait before you return – can get expensive.

Zipcar is now trialling a new scheme in Wandsworth called Zipcar Flex.  50 cars have been allocated for one-way rentals, as long as you drop them within Wandsworth.   You only pay for the car by the minute, and you can reserve it for 15 minutes via your smartphone to give you time to get to it before any other user grabs it!

This is an interesting idea.  The question for me is what benefit this has over taking an Uber or a black cab, both of which are more convenient and presumably cheaper.  They will pick you up at your door and drop you where you need to be without the trouble of finding a parking space.  Since you can’t guarantee that your Zipcar Flex car will still be where you parked it when you want to return home, it doesn’t even offer you the certainty of having a vehicle available.

You can learn more about Zipcar Flex here.

New Barclaycard / Uber offer

If you are a heavy Uber user, Barclaycard has launched an interesting offer for you.  It runs until the end of the year and could work out to be quite valuable.

If you charge your Uber rides to a Barclaycard, every 11th ride you take will be free (up to £15).  If your 11th ride costs more than £15, you receive a £15 credit to your card statement.

Full details are here on the Barclaycard site.

You can take advantage of this offer as many times as you like and it is guaranteed to run for the rest of the year.

The Hilton Honors Platinum Visa card, issued by Barclaycard, is included in this offer so it will be of interest to many HfP readers. 

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Want to earn more points from credit cards? – April 2024 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit card, here are our top recommendations based on the current sign-up bonuses.

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the best of the other deals currently available.

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 12th May 2024, the Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa card is offering a bonus of 30,000 points, convertible into 30,000 Avios. You must have a Limited Company to apply. Click here to learn more and click here to apply.

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending.