Hiring a car brings a multitude of risks and pitfalls including pressure tactics to rip off customers. Pressure tactics include forcing customers to buy unnecessary insurance at the rental desk.
Staff are often incentivised to upsell additional insurance policies for extra commission. Planning in advance helps to cut car hire costs and unnecessary expense.
Knowing what to look for when hiring a car is crucial to avoid being ripped off.
Use a price comparison site
Price comparison sites can be used for car hire and standalone insurance policies when you are looking to cut car hire costs.
Skyscanner and TravelSupermarket are the most popular price comparison sites for car hire.
Check the T & Cs
Read the T & Cs and important information carefully in advance to avoid any costly penalties.
A car hire firm can refuse to release the vehicle with no refund if you do not adhere to all requirements.
Minimum requirements can be:
- Credit card has both the first name and surname of the main driver. Make sure you have the physical card with you. Online cards stored on your phone are usually not accepted.
- The main driver’s original full licence (physical driving licence) held for a minimum of 1 year with no major endorsements. UK licence holders must present a photocard licence.
- Additional photo ID on an official document (passport or national ID card).
- Customers must allow access to the DVLA so your driving licence record can be checked by the car hire firm. You can do this by going to https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence to create a one-time passcode. This passcode is valid for 21 days and must be presented when picking up your rental vehicle.
- Proof of address such as a utility bill or bank statement issued within the past 3 – 4 months. Mobile phone bills, council tax bills and electronic bills or printouts are not usually accepted (a problem now with providers insisting everything is done online)
- Boarding pass (if non-UK resident and flying into the UK)
Consider:
- What cards are accepted / not accepted
- Driver’s age 25 – 75 years
- Deposit and fees – valeting fees can be £150 if a vehicle requires additional deep cleaning. Always take photos and a walk-round video before and after as evidence if any disputes arise.
- Mileage policy – is it restricted / unlimited?
- Special equipment / optional extras – you can take child seats with you and use your phone as a free sat-nav to download maps in advance
- Cancellation and no-show policy
Make sure you give the car hire firm your flight number so they can track your arrival time
Have contact details so you can let them know if your flight is delayed so you can notify the customer service team - Manual / automatic
- Fuel policy – I prefer full-to-full as it is difficult to gauge “same to same” when refuelling before returning the car. It avoids disputes and paying more than necessary.
- Look on www.petrolprices.com to find the cheapest and nearest fuel station before you return the car
Buy an Excess Reimbursement Policy (ERI) in advance
Basic car hire insurance is always included when you hire a car, although the excess can be astronomical. An Excess Reimbursement Policy (ERI) allows you to claim the excess paid. These policies start from just £16.
Car hire firms sell Super Collision Damage Waivers (SCDWs) to waive the excess fee, but these can cost hundreds of pounds more and generally offer less cover.
Avoid any hard sell at the desk by buying an ERI in advance from a third-party provider and refusing to pay for additional insurance. Explain you do not need / want it and you understand you need to pay the excess for any damage caused (knowing you can reclaim it).
Don’t tell them you have a separate ERI policy, as it’s a green light for inflated or questionable damage claims because the rental company knows an insurer will likely pay up.
Book car hire in advance
Book car hire early and look for a reputable operator that offers free cancellation.
This will allow you to cancel and rebook nearer the time if prices drop.
Pay by credit card
Always pay by credit card for S75 Consumer Credit Act 1974 cover. This holds the credit card provider jointly liable on any disputes over £100.
Consider using a separate credit card
Car hire companies often ring-fence a large deposit on your credit card to cover potential damage if you choose not to buy their extra insurance. This can be so high and it may prevent you from using your credit card if your credit limit is insufficient.
Pick the right sized car for your needs
The bigger the car, the more it will cost you. Choosing the right sized car will help keep your costs down.
Consider how many seats and boot space a car has for your luggage.
Discount codes and cashback
Look for discount codes and cashback before you book.
The most popular cashback sites are TopCashBack and Quidco. Affiliate links track your purchase and pay a percentage of commission received from the retailer after your purchase has been completed.
Choose your car hire provider carefully
Cheapest is not always best when you are looking to cut car hire costs. You get what you pay for. If it appears too good to be true, it probably is.
An undercover Which? investigation has exposed car hire firms using pressure tactics in an attempt to rip off customers by getting them to purchase unnecessary insurance at the rental desk.
Goldcar has come bottom in Which?’s annual car hire survey for the last six years, and was caught on camera by Which? pressure selling in 2019. At the time it committed to making changes, but Which? has continued to see complaints.
This time, in Malaga, a Goldcar agent told Which?’s secret shopper that they had no cover, “no protection, nothing…in case of damages, you pay everything”, a statement likely to provoke panic in anyone trying to collect their car. The statement was completely untrue, as basic insurance was already included in the rental.
In Alicante, Goldcar staff were not much better. Staff told Which? that the ERI policy they had would only cover the other vehicle in case of an accident – an inaccurate statement. When Which?’s investigator rebuffed this, the agent still would not relent, informing them that they would only be able to use the ERI in the event of an accident.
Dollar also scored poorly in Which?’s latest car hire survey – coming second from bottom – and one respondent even claimed they were charged for insurance they turned down. The US firm is much less prominent in Spain than it is in America, and at both Alicante and Malaga airport bookings were handled at the Hertz desk (Dollar is a Hertz subsidiary).
When Which? rented with Dollar, its experience in Alicante was smooth and pressure free, but at Malaga Airport Which?’s undercover shopper felt misled.
Which?’s mystery shopper was told their ERI policy “isn’t valid” and that “the thing you bought on the internet is for nothing” – a statement likely to worry any traveller into purchasing additional insurance. Yet again though, this statement was untrue – the ERI was perfectly valid.
The mystery shopper was also told they’d be liable for up to €2,400 if anything happened to the car, and that any scratch bigger than 1cm would cost between €300-€400 to fix, plus a €50 admin fee and tax on top. “The full cover is always cheaper than minimum damage”, they told Which?. “It’s only €162 for the total of the period” – yet that would have been more than the cost of hiring the car itself (£132). When Which?’s investigator pointed this out, they were told “this is the broker’s price that you paid. The real price isn’t this price” – again, untrue.
Rory Boland, Editor of Which? Travel, said:
“Every year we hear from countless travellers who have felt ripped off and pressured by their interactions with staff at the car rental desk, and our undercover filming has uncovered absolutely shocking practices by Goldcar, Dollar and OK Mobility staff.
“Anyone hiring a car this summer should ensure they book with a reputable company or broker, and to avoid the pressure from pushy agents they should buy their own excess reimbursement policy before they travel.”
Finally
Make sure you check the hire car when you collect it and drop it off. Be meticulous and take plenty of photos and a walk-round video before and after.
Consider if you really need to hire a car? Many holiday destinations have good public transport and easy onward connections. It could save you a lot of money and hassle.
Book direct – not through a booking platform. Using third-party booking platforms prevents you from making S75 claims and chargebacks to dispute transactions and weakens your consumer rights.
These are my top tips on how to cut car hire costs. Can you add anything to this?
