** Vehicle Hire queries **

Quackster

I've used Autoreisen multiple times and they don't require credit cards. You pre-book on their website (no payment details required for this) and then pay by cash or card on arrival.

The price is all-inclusive (zero excess applies). Absolutely hassle-free and a charm to deal with. I've heard the same said about Cicar but have yet to use them.

madmaxvideo

Cicar/ autoreisen are your only job for car rental on any of the canaries Islands, I have used both on numerous occasions and it is completely hassle free, pre book on their website, and pay by cash or card on arrival, that is the end price, free extra drivers and kids seats etc, and I have yet to get bad customer service, even when I had an issue with one car mid way through the holiday, they came and met me with a spare car.

Munsterbhoy

coylemj wrote: »

An excess policy with AIG costs €25 for a seven day rental in Europe or €50 for an annual policy. Excess is €50, covers up to €4,000 per rental.

Yes I'm aware of such policies but I prefer to take the renters cover. Its much quicker when picking up and dropping off the car plus you don't have to hassle of going over the car when possibly rushing for a flight. We only rent once a year for our summer hols so the extra cost is only a minor expense really..

madmaxvideo

Anyone used interrent in Alicante, I know they have bad reviews but most are based on scams when not opting for their full insurance.

My query is has anybody used them with the full insurance and how was the experience?

biffontour

Thanks for the info guys, really appreciate it

Mancomb Seepgood

Another thumbs up for Autoreisen, used them with absolutely no hassle.

davidm25

Lex Luthor wrote: »

I picked up a car yesterday in Faro from dropping ve4fun
Stress free
€140 for 10 days
Bought the year policy from AIG for 49eur before I came
Asked me at desk if I wanted to buy the SDCW insurance and said I had my own and they moved on
Very easy to deal with
Would recommend

Thanks Lex, can I double-check - the hire company is called ve4fun?
Tnx
D

gooner99

Hi. I want to book a car for a week from Copenhagen airport. I'm a bit clueless when it comes to car rental. I would be grateful if anyone has experience in car rental to give some advice on....

Who to book with and who to avoid (arriving with Ryanair) - comparison websites or direct with the company (avis,budget,etc..)?

Which rental firm are best to take a car from or are they all much of a muchness. I guess the cars are pretty similar, but it is probably the customer care that is the most important?

I will go with unlimited mileage. What level of cover should I go for. I wouldn't want to lose my deposit or be hit with a charge afterwards?

GPS seems to cost about a €100 for the week. Is it worth it or are we better off just using google maps on our phones (I'm going across to Esbjerg which I believe is pretty straight forward)?

Probably missing something, so all advice welcome.

Thanks

Good jib!

If you have a phone, you don't need a GPS. Even if you didn't have a phone, getting to Esbjerg is easy, just go west!

Regarding cover, no idea.

One thing you should insist on though is having the car thoroughly checked beforehand. The last time I rented, with a reputable firm, the guys at the desk were all very relaxed when I got the car, didn't want to bother checking the car for scratches, saying they trusted us. Tried to do us for scratches that were already on the car when we brought it back.

Luckily I'd taken a rake of photos on the day I took out the car.

robclay26

gooner99 wrote: »

Hi. I want to book a car for a week from Copenhagen airport. I'm a bit clueless when it comes to car rental. I would be grateful if anyone has experience in car rental to give some advice on....

Who to book with and who to avoid (arriving with Ryanair) - comparison websites or direct with the company (avis,budget,etc..)?

Which rental firm are best to take a car from or are they all much of a muchness. I guess the cars are pretty similar, but it is probably the customer care that is the most important?

I will go with unlimited mileage. What level of cover should I go for. I wouldn't want to lose my deposit or be hit with a charge afterwards?

GPS seems to cost about a €100 for the week. Is it worth it or are we better off just using google maps on our phones (I'm going across to Esbjerg which I believe is pretty straight forward)?

Probably missing something, so all advice welcome.

Thanks

Rented from there twice, Avis. Got a free upgrade Both times and both times I got the extra insurance they offer. Costs a few euros more, but covers your arse for everything. No worries about extra scratches etc from your usage.
Use your phone google maps gps, better then any car gps.

gooner99

Good jib! wrote: »

If you have a phone, you don't need a GPS. Even if you didn't have a phone, getting to Esbjerg is easy, just go west!

Regarding cover, no idea.

One thing you should insist on though is having the car thoroughly checked beforehand. The last time I rented, with a reputable firm, the guys at the desk were all very relaxed when I got the car, didn't want to bother checking the car for scratches, saying they trusted us. Tried to do us for scratches that were already on the car when we brought it back.

Luckily I'd taken a rake of photos on the day I took out the car.

Thanks. Been to Esbjerg before, via Billund, but will be first time driving.Seems straight forward to go from Kopenhagen airport according to google maps?

gooner99

robclay26 wrote: »

Rented from there twice, Avis. Got a free upgrade Both times and both times I got the extra insurance they offer. Costs a few euros more, but covers your arse for everything. No worries about extra scratches etc from your usage.
Use your phone google maps gps, better then any car gps.

Cheers, good to know about Avis. Did you take the extra insurance online or when you picked up the car?

robclay26

gooner99 wrote: »

Cheers, good to know about Avis. Did you take the extra insurance online or when you picked up the car?

When I picked up car.

gooner99

robclay26 wrote: »

When I picked up car.

Cheers, can you remember roughly the cost?

coylemj

gooner99 wrote: »

Cheers, can you remember roughly the cost?

Whatever it was, I doubt if it will be cheaper than taking out your own excess policy - €25 for a seven day rental and €50 for an annual policy. That's with AIG and covers the EUR and a lot of other countries, incl. Nth Africa and eastern Europe. It covers an excess up to €4,000 per rental.

gooner99

coylemj wrote: »

Whatever it was, I doubt if it will be cheaper than taking out your own excess policy - €25 for a seven day rental and €50 for an annual policy. That's with AIG and covers the EUR and a lot of other countries, incl. Nth Africa and eastern Europe. It covers an excess up to €4,000 per rental.

Cheers. This might be a silly question, but as I rarely hire I guess it may not be,lol. So what I would do is just hire the car with the basic price "without full insurance" that the website throws up and take out a car rental policy with AIG to give me a proper cover. Then refuse anything extra that they try to sell me at the desk. Is that right?

km991148

gooner99 wrote: »

Cheers. This might be a silly question, but as I rarely hire I guess it may not be,lol. So what I would do is just hire the car with the basic price "without full insurance" that the website throws up and take out a car rental policy with AIG to give me a proper cover. Then refuse anything extra that they try to sell me at the desk. Is that right?

exactly. Dont forget tho if there is damage on the car they will take the excess from you and you claim it back. So you could be sitting 2-4 weeks without the excess amount.

gooner99

km991148 wrote: »

exactly. Dont forget tho if there is damage on the car they will take the excess from you and you claim it back. So you could be sitting 2-4 weeks without the excess amount.

Ah OK. I guess if you take the car hire or agents excess you get you excess back quicker.

gooner99

Do you guys recommend booking direct with the hire companies or using one of the online agents?

coylemj

gooner99 wrote: »

Ah OK. I guess if you take the car hire or agents excess you get you excess back quicker.

If you take their insurance, it covers the excess so you pay nothing in the event of damage. Maybe a small excess like €50 but that's all.

Or, as poster km991148 pointed out above (post#10), you decline their insurance because you have your own policy and if there is damage, you pay for it (up to the excess) and claim it back when you get home.

gooner99

coylemj wrote: »

If you take their insurance, it covers the excess so you pay nothing in the event of damage. Maybe a small excess like €50 but that's all.

Or, as poster km991148 pointed out above (post#10), you decline their insurance because you have your own policy and if there is damage, you pay for it (up to the excess) and claim it back when you get home.

Thanks. I notice that the rental companies and agents don't cover personal injury on their extra excess protection, but AIG do.

Also notice that on many that roadside assistance is not included.

coylemj

gooner99 wrote: »

Thanks. I notice that the rental companies and agents don't cover personal injury on their extra excess protection, but AIG do.

Also notice that on many that roadside assistance is not included.

Think you might be over researching this. The personal injury cover in the AIG policy is miniscule. I just read my policy summary and I see that they cover death and various injuries and the benefit is 'up to €40,000' which they only pay if you end up a quadraplegic.

And you don't need to buy roadside assistance cover when renting a car. If you have a breakdown or an accident, you ring the rental company and they will sort you out.

Lex Luthor

Sorry it’s drive4fun

Lex Luthor

irishgrover wrote: »

how much of a hold did they put on your CC? also did you get the spelling of the company correct? thanks in advance

Think it was 300

SusanC10

Anyone any experiences of Avis, Budget or Europcar in Italy ?

Or any recommendations or who to avoid ?

We have an Annual Excess Policy and won't be taking Full Insurance.

chases0102

Hi folks,

Just a quick question that someone may be able to help me with.

Been a long time since I rented a car, but will need to do it for a holiday in France in a few weeks.

Doing a small bit of research, it's a bit of a minefield. On the one hand, you have your regular, reputable companies (such as Herz, Avis, Europcar) who are working out at about 450 Euro for two weeks.

On the other hand, using different websites results in companies I haven't heard from before (but by no means does not mean they are not legit) for much cheaper.

Am I missing something? Am I as well off to fork out the extra 200 Euro for the bigger company? Has anyone else experience something similar?

Thanks folks!

dennyk

Those smaller companies might be fine, or they might make up the difference by tacking on a bunch of hidden fees or charging you for bogus damages, knowing that you'll probably be out of the country before you see the charges and you might not be willing to go through the hassle of fighting them from abroad (or deal with the language barrier which will mysteriously arise as soon as they figure out you're ringing them to complain instead of making a new booking...).

k123456

Smaller companies can be fine, check the web reviews Caveat Emptor

However a lot of "smaller" companies Goldcar, Rhodium, Firefly etc will offer a much cheaper lead in car hire price

They sometimes will charge you extorinate amounts for ficticious damage to the car, hugely inflated excess insurance

Whatever company you choose, you will be liable for the first 1000e approx of damage , if you damage the car (Google CDW)

you can insure this excess , cheaply yourself
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/

anacc

Do a google search for the name of the company and "review". You'll find a lot of the cheaper "unknown" companies could end up costing more because of hidden T&Cs and charges, etc. Things like if your flight is delayed and you are more than 59 minutes late for the car pickup your booking is void and you don't get a refund. Or applying charges for damage that was already done to the vehicle.

cgc5483

PaulKK wrote: »

Have an auto megane estate booked in Bordeaux in a couple of weeks with Sixt via Argus.

Excess according to Argus is 1300.

Anyone got any idea what Sixt charge at the desk to reduce the excess? I could get some third party excess insurance but I prefer to just not worry about that stuff on holiday.

Just back from Nice where used Sixt. Paid €12/day to reduce the excess to €0 and I got a free upgrade to a Peugeot 2008. I think it might be slightly higher for bigger cars.