Tips for renting cars

Amouar

homewardbound11 wrote: »

O.k. an update
I got photos of the car .it had scuff marks on the plastic bumper no material dents and they photographed it at the rental returns apparently where I left it. The scuff mark was the length of a finger at the rear bottom and was about the width of 3 fingers. Actually in one photo I could not see it. they had no time or date on the photos.
Their address is appauling. They sent the rental agreement they had and sure my signature was on it so I have signed their copy. Their words were to sign the damage to the car on the rear of the document and return it so they can invoice me for a lower amount when the accessing had been done.
Utterly rediculous.v

Sorry to drag this thread but how did this end up for you OP?

I'm going to rent a car abroad and need some tips , especially that I will be getting the car at night. I will take photos but I heard sometimes that the car hire reps ask you to sign the contract before even inspecting the car. Did this ever happen to anyone here?

Also in order to claim any charges from the separate excess insurance, they ask for a detailed receipt, which the agency doesn't seem to give as they just go ahead and charge the card.

How to deal with this?

Amouar

No one?

Ken.

When you collect the car take pictures of it. All over. If you spot something make sure the rental person knows of it. Then when your giving back the car give yourself extra time to repeat the process. Make sure the photos are dated and when you get home back them up to a computer and keep them for at least a year.

braddun

I check my car before every rental,and I make them sign for every scratch




I also go back to where I picked it up

and not at the terminal and get them to sign it off

get them to send you photos



what company

it should not cost 672 euro from some scratches

seagull

Also make sure to check inside the car when you pick it up. A friend of mine was hit for a cigarette burn he missed.

dudara

Posts split out from old thread and moved to new thread in the Motors forum

dudara

Marcusm

braddun wrote: »

I check my car before every rental,and I make them sign for every scratch




I also go back to where I picked it up

and not at the terminal and get them to sign it off

get them to send you photos



what company

it should not cost 672 euro from some scratches

Last year HertzIreland tried to charge a family my member €1500 trod a scratch which cost €150 (Hertz's estimate) to repair. The balance was transfer to Wexford depot, days off road, admin etc. ultimately it got resolved through insurance but they were awful about it from the day it got dropped back despite having known about it from the second day of the rental and having said they would sort it out on insurance.

Marcin_diy

Pay extra few euro per day to get full 100% insurance without any excess and enjoy your rental.

That is what I always do. I don't need to take pictures, be scared of some scratches etc.

colm_mcm

Got shafted by national a few years ago, car was perfect going back but apparently needed the whole nearside resprayed. Which turned into the offside when I told them I was parked in the corner of their returns car park and that was not possible.
Lesson learnt, €500 poorer, always get the full insurance

YouTookMyName

Hertz "super cover" is the insurance to cover everything?

ironclaw

YouTookMyName wrote: »

Hertz "super cover" is the insurance to cover everything?

You can bring back the car as a ball of steel but as long as you can toss them the keys, they its perfectly ok. I owe Hertz San Francisco a door. Didn't bat an eyelid when I dropped it back as I had Super Cover or whatever the max cover plan is called.

I never understood why people don't take out the works with rental cars Unless you rent frequently and have your own cover, but then again, its not all that much extra at least in my experience.

YouTookMyName

ironclaw wrote: »

You can bring back the car as a ball of steel but as long as you can toss them the keys, they its perfectly ok. I owe Hertz San Francisco a door. Didn't bat an eyelid when I dropped it back as I had Super Cover or whatever the max cover plan is called.

I never understood why people don't take out the works with rental cars Unless you rent frequently and have your own cover, but then again, its not all that much extra at least in my experience.

Cheers. Renting a Passat next week. Super cover is £15.50 a day. So £62 for piece of mind.

Nomis21

I had 100% insurance on an Avis car. There was a flash flood and we ended up in a river. Got it towed out and dried out but still it was a written off mess.

Astonished looks from Avis as the headlights were even still of water, but we were still out of the office with no charges.

mickdw

Marcin_diy wrote: »

Pay extra few euro per day to get full 100% insurance without any excess and enjoy your rental.

That is what I always do. I don't need to take pictures, be scared of some scratches etc.

Yep. Its hard to argue against buying the full insurance .
Even the insurance policies that you can but independently that cover hire for a full year are not without issue.
A family member wrote off a hire car by driving into a flood in the dark. He had a separately bought insurance policy. This resulted in hire company taking the excess immediately from him and he them struggled for a year to get that cash back from his insurance. It was quite crazy the info they requested and the stalling tactics they used.

braddun

most car rentals don't mind scratches so they keep telling me

when picking up your car,look around it and go back into office and get them to sign off on it


when returning,they walk around the car and sign off on it


also look for chips on window and damaged hubcaps,


excess coverage is a scam

renofan

I'm renting almost 10 years and only had one issue with Europe Car where the fella cleaning it forgot to put the spare wheel back in and of course you never think to check it before you drive off. Luck would have it I got a puncture and ended up being fined £170 for losing the spare!

I eventually got refunded £100 and never went near them again. I've never had an issue with Hertz, usually late at night when I'd pick up a car, go over it the next morning and a few times I've had to ring with extra marks that are not down on the sheet left in the car. They always accept what I've said and I've not had any issue when I left the cars back.

Also I take insurance out either with axa car hire excess or carhireexcess dot ie. Both are a lot cheaper than the hire companies' own quotes. I had an axa policy out at the time of my Europe Car mishap but didn't realise in time they covered tyre damage too so could've gotten the £70 back but left it too late to claim!

dissed doc

Always photo the car anyway, insurance or not. I had Sixt it in Munich attribute two scratches to me, with a billed cost of over €1700, which of course insurance covers but, I get the feeling they are doing some sort of scam.

Look online and there are a million stories of car rental scams by many major rental companies in Germany. If your address is not local, be prepared for a false claim of damage mysteriously being reported several days or weeks or months after the end of the rental.

munchkin_utd

braddun wrote: »

most car rentals don't mind scratches so they keep telling me

<snip>

indeed in IRELAND, where that isnt a biggie for them when selling the car on at the end of the year / 18months.

abroad they can be absolutely anal about it and theres no such thing as a "small" scratch.
Either its a scratch or not.

So far from a few dozen rentals in Ireland / Germany / Britain and across most major companies I havent got done (yet)

mik_da_man

I used to work for a car rental Co.

As above take out the full insurance each time.
It gives peace of mind and covers everything.
Just check the excess as sometimes you might get charged that.

If you don't take out full insurance fully check car with photos.
Don't sign the damage sheet without doing this when picking up the car.
If anything is missing note it in the sheet, inside and out and get the attendent to sign it. Keep a copy.

When dropping back get it signed there and then with you present.

Should avoid any hassle.

If there is damage caused and you don't have the full insurance try get it fixed yourself before dropping back if possible. This is allowed on most rentals. Once the repair is a good standard you shouldn't get charged any extra and will avoid the high charge by the rental co.

The rental agreement that you sign gives the rental co full power to charge your cc for any damages/charges and does not need any additional consent so be careful!

PrzemoF

1. Get insurance for carhireexcess.ie for I think 50 euro (I don't work for them, I'm just a happy customer). They saved me quite a few euro after a rented car vanished from a street in Italy and another time when some ^*(^&** hit parked car and drove away.
2. Read the small text on the back of the third page. There will ba a note about "booking handling fee" up to 30 euro (guess how much I had to pay... yes, 30 euro on 120 rental)
3. The renting company will charge you for fuel ("empty" tank on return gives them a few euro extra)
4. They will block deposit for month even if you're renting for 3 days.
5. They will try to get 1200 euro off the credit card just to check if it doesn't go over limit. Without your permission. Yes, they did it to me.
6. They'll mix renting dates. Yes, they did it to me as well. To be fair they give me money back after a month, but I had to take emergency rental from another company.
7. They will reroute your "customer support call" all over the world (USA, Spain, Germany and one other place) during one 25 minutes (and 30 euro) call when you need help. And I don't speak German.
8. They will try to give you tiny 2 door car instead of 4-door because "we don't have a 4-door now". I got a dirty 4-door car after a short fight ;-)
9. Once I had to sign a separate price list of potential damage (like 1500 euro for a missing seat) even if the excess was 600 euro.
10. They will try to sell you extra insurance. If you refuse you have to leave bigger deposit. If you don't have enough limit on your card you're back to the more expensive option.

I could go on for a while (communication, sending documents, "mobile" offices and so on), but to be fair I never had any problems with a rented car in Ireland, it was always abroad, mostly Italy and Malta.

I never had any problems with scraches on a rented car, so probably it's true that they don't care.

If it's going to be your first ever car rental be prepared to pay more than you expected and don't get angry - that makes no difference.

P.S. Did I say get a separate insurance? ;-)

Yamanoto

PrzemoF wrote: »

8. They will try to give you tiny 2 door car instead of 4-door because "we don't have a 4-door now". I got a dirty 4-door car after a short fight ;-)

Just on this one, I always find the exact opposite - I book whatever the cheapest economy sh!tbox is with Alamo in the States, on the basis that you're invariably bumped up to a mid-size motor at no extra cost.

not1but4

seagull wrote: »

Also make sure to check inside the car when you pick it up. A friend of mine was hit for a cigarette burn he missed.

I never checked the back seat when doing the walk around outside the office and there was a big stain on the back seat. Luckily when returning the car the guy I got let me off otherwise I would of had to pay for £50 for cleaning.

Also get your own excess insurance.