** Vehicle Hire queries **

thebiglad

Prices will vary but, yes a one way charge is likely with all hire companies.

Look at it from their (business) perspective - the locations (or countries) may be a mix of corporate and franchise or just simply, an Italian registered and insured vehicle cannot be re-rented in Croatia.

Therefore when you drop the car it must be returned to Italy - this requires either a driver and employee time (plus get them back to base) or a tow truck to carry the vehicle. During the time the car is in Croatia either being returned to Italy or waiting for return it cannot be hired and so revenue is lost.

Whether €500 is a fair charge, hard to say - there probably is an element of profit in there but, loss of revenue will quickly mount up if the return to italy is not arranged quickly so they take a chance.

Could you hire a car, drive close the Italy/Croatia border (remaining in Italy), return it there and then cross the border to Croatia by taxi or bus etc and go to another hire location in Croatia - probably be much cheaper, albeit a bit of hassle for a couple of hours.

shanec1928

_Brian wrote: »

Havent rented a car in a long time..


Was pricing picking up a rental at Millan, dropping off at Dubrovnic 2 weeks later.. Surprised to see a €500 charge just to drop it at a different location, was the same with route in reverse..


Is this usual, or anyone any experience of this?


Thanks..

No. I’d say it’s probably more as your leaving it in a different country.

boege

Found something similar when I took a touring trip from Nice to Geneva. Thought I could drop car at the french part of Geneva Airport but it was €300+ dearer. In the end I added a day and drove the car back to Nice to fly home. Flight ended up being cheaper also so it was a considerable saving.

I would have thought that dropping in another country would be even more expensive as car has to be returned.

Some operators (the dearer ones) offer a littler more flexibility, but not much!

_Brian

Thanks...
Yea it works out better to return it to Milan, between cheaper return flights and avoiding the €500 its a total €1000 saving so a no brainer..

shanec1928

_Brian wrote: »

Thanks...
Yea it works out better to return it to Milan, between cheaper return flights and avoiding the €500 its a total €1000 saving so a no brainer..

Do check the small print that you can take the car into different countries. I know for here most of them don’t have a problem with the north but you can’t take a car to the uk.

listermint

Tbf you need to change the thread title.

I'm not sure what's surprising about driving an Italian registered far across a border into a different country and leaving it there and being charged money to get it back.


Serious post ?

CelticRambler

Take the ferry from Dubrovnic to Bari for 126€ and drop it off in Italy!

Otherwise, yes - it's perfectly normal for the company to apply a hefty charge for a non-local drop-off. As TheBigLad says, they can't rent it out to anyone while it's out of the country, so either they'll have to put it on a transporter (and lose revenue while they're waiting for one to be pick it up and deliver it home), or they'll have to pay someone at least two day's wages to drive it the 1000km back to base. 150€/day in wages and per diems + 150€ petrol & tolls = 450€ The extra 50€ would barely cover the loss of a day's rental.

coylemj

_Brian wrote: »

Surprised to see a €500 charge just to drop it at a different location....

'location'? It's a different country FFS.

quote="_Brian;112113200"]
Is this usual.... [/quote]

Yes, and it even applies in a lot of states in the US. The issue is that the car cannot be rented out from where you dropped it off. So there is a massive charge to cover transporting the car back to it's original territory.

beggars_bush

coylemj wrote: »

'location'? It's a different country FFS.

quote="_Brian;112113200"]
Is this usual....

Yes, and it even applies in a lot of states in the US. The issue is that the car cannot be rented out from where you dropped it off. So there is a massive charge to cover transporting the car back to it's original territory.[/QUOTE]

once hired a car in seattle and dropped it in San fran. I think I was charged $100 extra for it
it all depends on which state you hire and dropped it as each state has different regulations

Marcusm

_Brian wrote: »

Havent rented a car in a long time..


Was pricing picking up a rental at Millan, dropping off at Dubrovnic 2 weeks later.. Surprised to see a €500 charge just to drop it at a different location, was the same with route in reverse..


Is this usual, or anyone any experience of this?


Thanks..

not only a different location but a different country! Most car hire places are National despite using international brands!

Charles Babbage

Consider the suggestion above of swapping cars at some point.
For instance, picking up a Croat car in Trieste or dropping a italian car in Rovinj might be somewhat usual and you could end up with two €100 charges insead of a €500 charge.

Canican

Hi,
Going to Romania for a week in June. Looking to rent a car at the airport. Could anyone recommend at decent company? Been checking reviews online and most are pretty awful. Thanks

yellow hen

Going to Bella Italia and hoping to hire a car from Bergamo and return to Malpensa. Could anyone recommend any hire companies?

k123456

will be expensive , if hiring from Bgy and return to Malp

HBC08

Im heading to a wedding in july and flying into Faro.I thought we might get something a little more interesting to drive and its proving hard enough to find.
I did rent a Mini Cooper convertible a few years ago (and it was class!) but had to travel a good distance to pick it up and it cost a fortune

Anybody have experience of renting a convertible from the airport.
Thanks!

ThumbTaxed

Hi,

Does anyone know what providers let you rent a car without having a credit card. We don't have a credit, nor do we want one.

Help appreciated.

Nigzcurran

ThumbTaxed wrote: »

Hi,

Does anyone know what providers let you rent a car without having a credit card. We don't have a credit, nor do we want one.

Help appreciated.

We used goldcar in Malta, paid an extra €300 quid for their own insurance so no credit card or deposit required

Del2005

Do you have a debit card? Some will take them but unless you take out the company's full insurance they'll block up to several grand off your current account if you have it or won't rent if you don't have the funds.

ThumbTaxed

Del2005 wrote: »

Do you have a debit card? Some will take them but unless you take out the company's full insurance they'll block up to several grand off your current account if you have it or won't rent if you don't have the funds.

Thanks, yeah I have a debit card but doubt I'd have enough in it to cover that!

wonski

If you buy full insurance the deposit is usually low amount. The full insurance itself can be pricey, though depending on location.

coylemj

Nigzcurran wrote: »

We used goldcar in Malta, paid an extra €300 quid for their own insurance so no credit card or deposit required

That would pay the Irish Govt. credit card levy for 10 years!

A 12 month excess policy with AIG which covers up to an excess of €4,000 per rental costs €50 p.a. And it covers damage to tyres and windscreen, which a lot of the rip-off policies you buy at the rental desk do not cover.

Del2005

coylemj wrote: »

That would pay the Irish Govt. credit card levy for 10 years!

A 12 month excess policy with AIG which covers up to an excess of €4,000 per rental costs €50 p.a. And it covers damage to tyres and windscreen, which a lot of the rip-off policies you buy at the rental desk do not cover.

Yeah seems silly to pay several hundred Euro for insurance to avoid having a credit card.

You need to have at least €1k available in your current account to cover the hire companies excess and that's for a basic car, for anything useful or fancy it could be €2k+.

Nigzcurran

coylemj wrote: »

That would pay the Irish Govt. credit card levy for 10 years!

A 12 month excess policy with AIG which covers up to an excess of €4,000 per rental costs €50 p.a. And it covers damage to tyres and windscreen, which a lot of the rip-off policies you buy at the rental desk do not cover.

Yeah it’s expensive but worth every single cent, we were able to drive the car around for 10 days without having to worry about anything happening the car, we just dumped it back at the airport when flying home without the need for them to inspect it for damage

coylemj

Nigzcurran wrote: »

Yeah it’s expensive but worth every single cent, we were able to drive the car around for 10 days without having to worry about anything happening the car, we just dumped it back at the airport when flying home without the need for them to inspect it for damage

'Worth every single cent' :eek:

Last Feb., I rented a five-door Opel Corsa from Europcar in Lanzarote, the total cost was €99.27 for seven days rental, I declined their insurance. There was no hidden costs and no hard sell on the insurance, I paid not one cent more than what was quoted on the original booking.

Had I wrecked or caused severe damage to the the car, the excess (the maximum I would have had to pay) was just €870. Which I would have paid when checking out and then claimed back from my AIG excess policy. And they would have reimbursed me in full. All for €50 for a year to cover rental anywhere in Europe.

The insurance you buy at the rental desk is a complete rip off.

GG66

Nigzcurran wrote: »

We used goldcar in Malta, paid an extra €300 quid for their own insurance so no credit card or deposit required

Goldcars own insurance is a rip off. They want you to buy it and if you don't they have ways of getting money out of you. They have a long track record of overcharged customers online. Stay clear.

Sorry OP, doesn't answer your question but if it's a choice between paying goldcar 300 euro or getting a card and using a service like carhireexcess.com I'd go with the latter.

Gloomtastic!

We hired a car from Avis in Portugal last year and used a debit card to pay. Looking at their Irish website they say it’s not allowed but it their U.K./US sites say you can use them.

coylemj

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

We hired a car from Avis in Portugal last year and used a debit card to pay. Looking at their Irish website they say it’s not allowed but it their U.K./US sites say you can use them.

Even with the big brands, a lot of the operators are franchisees so there is no global rule, you need to check the local rules for any rental.

Del2005

coylemj wrote: »

'Worth every single cent' :eek:

Last Feb., I rented a five-door Opel Corsa from Europcar in Lanzarote, the total cost was €99.27 for seven days rental, I declined their insurance. There was no hidden costs and no hard sell on the insurance, I paid not one cent more than what was quoted on the original booking.

Had I wrecked or caused severe damage to the the car, the excess (the maximum I would have had to pay) was just €870. Which I would have paid when checking out and then claimed back from my AIG excess policy. And they would have reimbursed me in full. All for €50 for a year to cover rental anywhere in Europe.

The insurance you buy at the rental desk is a complete rip off.

Read the small print on the rental company insurance and you'll see that most don't cover tyres or windows. I got a puncture in a hire car and had to replace the tyre, got a full refund from my excess insurance.

The big name hire companies, and their budget brands, don't worry about damage as much as the discount places. Some allow 50mm marks before they charge so they just give a quick walk around when returning, a discount place was rubbing dirt marks on the wheels of a car I dropped back to see if they were damaged.

coylemj

GG66 wrote: »

Goldcars own insurance is a rip off. They want you to buy it and if you don't they have ways of getting money out of you. They have a long track record of overcharged customers online. Stay clear.

Sorry OP, doesn't answer your question but if it's a choice between paying goldcar 300 euro or getting a card and using a service like carhireexcess.com I'd go with the latter.

Never thought I'd defend Goldcar but in fairness, that €300 charge appears to be par for the course. I'm renting a car from Europcar in the Canaries in March, the excess is €1,000 for which they are asking for €300 to cover. Which I will decline.

But if you have a debit card and are renting from Goldcar, they will often outright refuse to hand over the keys unless you buy their insurance. Even with a credit card and your own excess policy, you'll have an uphill battle declining the Goldcar insurance. That's the message I get from multiple threads here on boards.

coylemj

Del2005 wrote: »

Read the small print on the rental company insurance and you'll see that most don't cover tyres or windows. I got a puncture in a hire car and had to replace the tyre, got a full refund from my excess insurance.

I covered that point in post #6....

coylemj wrote: »

A 12 month excess policy with AIG which covers up to an excess of €4,000 per rental costs €50 p.a. And it covers damage to tyres and windscreen, which a lot of the rip-off policies you buy at the rental desk do not cover.