The Great Rental Car Rip-off
When it comes to renting a car (or booking any sort of travel) there are quite often hidden fees and charges that can quite quickly add up. We’ve written about some of these before in our article: Secrets of the Car Rental Industry. Recently though, I was shocked to see just how much one of these charges can be. In fact, this one item more than doubled the total cost of the rental!
So what’s this mysterious charge that can have such an adverse effect on the cost of your rental? It’s the refueling charge.
If you don’t return the car with a full tank of fuel, the car rental company will have to fill it up before they rent it out to the next person. If this happens, they certainly don’t miss an opportunity to make some extra money. Don’t expect to get away with paying the regular price for fuel; most car rental companies charge a much higher rate for the convenience.
In this particular case (Australia) the supplier charged $3 per litre of fuel (that’s about $10.60 USD per gallon). To make matters worse, they then charge an “administration” fee on top of the exorbitant fuel price.
Original Car Rental Price for 2 Days: $68
Refueling & Admin Charges: $76
TOTAL COST: $144
Compare that to filling up on your way back to drop off the car.
Regular Cost of 19 Litres of Fuel: $29
MONEY WASTED: $47
Obviously there are some cases where it’s just unavoidable to fill up the car yourself (e.g. if you’re running late for a flight and don’t have time) but it always pays to be aware of how much it will cost if you don’t. Always check the terms and conditions of the car rental supplier so you’re not in for a nasty surprise!
THE MORAL OF THE STORY: There are many fees and charges that may be incurred in different situations. These are always included in the suppliers’ terms & conditions document. It’s important to read the terms & conditions before you book to make sure you’re aware of the real costs. Things like additional driver fees, one-way fees, refueling costs, toll charges etc can all add up.
The “cheapest” rental is not always the best depending on your circumstances. As always, our live chat customer service staff are available to guide you through your booking and they can point you in the right direction if you can’t find the information you’re looking for.
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I also dislike the way the cost does not show the extra’s for CDW etc. That too can add a lot to the cost of rental
Hi Maxine, The excess reduction/collision damage waiver (CDW) varies per supplier and type of car. You have several options when it comes to covering the excess, which we’ve outlined at http://www.vroomvroomvroom.com.au/insurance/ to make it easier to understand. There are also links to each of the suppliers’ excess reduction information (just click on the logos under option 2). -Luke
I’ve just returned from 5 days in outback Australia where it’s impossible to go anywhere without covering 100’s of k’s and yet every one of the car companies bleeds you dry by charging per km over their free limit. We were with Hertz and they gave us a generous (not) 100km a day free. But they upped it to 300kms free/day after they hit us with additional insurance which doubled to cost of the original car hire. Not happy, but what can you do??
Hired a car from East Cost rentals at Brisbane …. Notice how I didn’t say airport… Because it’s not at the airport. They didn’t tell me that when booking the car. We had to wait for an hour to be picked up in a bus and taken to the rental depo. While there we then get told that we needed to pay an additional $120 insurance and our travel insurance was not acceptable. Or we had to have $1000 held on our Visa card. We had no choice but to pay up. The depo was 30mins away from the airport.
Hi Mel,
There are plenty of traps when it comes to smaller rental suppliers. We’ve written about some of these before, too: http://blog.vroomvroomvroom.com/2014/03/car-rental-company-guide.html
At VroomVroomVroom we only show prices from the major suppliers, as these are “on-airport” locations (i.e. they’re in the terminal, so you don’t need to take a 30 minute shuttle).
But the ripoff is happening right now even when using sites like this one. Example – several times a year I fly overseas from the Gold Coast (Australia), and have done for many years and always book a car through this site. The price has always been somewhere between $30 and $40 for a small car, Brisbane pickup, Coolangatta drop-off next day.
Now whenever I try and make a booking the price is always $90 or more – same car, same conditions.
WHY?
mate the car rental companies got onto it that we use their cars as a mean of transport to the airports to catch a flight instead of using an airport shuttle service. So they match or more the price of the shuttle…. Unfortunate for us!
The losers still lose because I now fly from Brisbane instead for similar money and more convenience – no rental car required = $200 for more expensive flights
Hi Dave, It’s unfortunate but you’re right – the cheapest cost from Brisbane to OOL is about $90 at the moment. It seems that all suppliers are now charging a “one way fee” if you return the car to a different location from where you picked it up (regardless of whether that’s an airport or not). You can see in the example attached from Brisbane to OOL that the one-way fee makes up $27.50 of this $90 rental. We try to include a price breakdown for every supplier that we can get the data from, so that it’s clear where the costs are incurred.
Using a comparison site is a great way to make sure you’re getting the cheapest option from lots of rental suppliers, but it seems they all have this one-way fee. In general, it’s best to return the car to the same location you pick it up from to avoid one-way fees (it’s usually cheaper to pick-up from “downtown” locations instead of airports, as the airport locations usually have a “premium location fee” due to the extra rental they have to pay at the airport locations), though that obviously doesn’t help in your example! -Luke
The other rip off is when you booked your vehicle under a given name on your credit card and that name is not similar to the name in your travel document, they will refuse to rent the car which you booked in advance at a good rate. They will then suggest you go to another rental company whom they are friendly with and not fussy…..
but you pay the normal rate which is a few times more than what you have booked through the internet.
Hi Chris, was this a booking made through one of the suppliers on VroomVroomVroom? If you send your booking number to help@vroomvroomvroom.com.au we can follow up this issue for you. Thanks -Luke
Credit cards has a column to ask how you would like your name to appear on the card when they issue to you. Most would have their names abbreviated or in short forms….like Christopher to Chris. The company will use this technicality to reject you thus forcing you to hire on the spot with another company who is not so fussy but you pay more than double compared to the internet booking. This actually happened at cooloongatta airport.
Hi Chris, was this with a booking made through one of the suppliers on VroomVroomVroom? If you send your booking number to help@vroomvroomvroom.com.au we can follow up this issue for you. Thanks -Luke
What really ticks me off is the hold they put on your credit/debit card. I hired a car from Avis at Auckland airport, paid $285 with my debit card, no problem as there has to be money in the account to pay. Next thing I noticed the card was $295 over the limit! Avis put a hold on the card. What for? The money was paid!!! The money was eventually released after 30 day! Never going with Avis again!
Hi Willem, Rental car suppliers put an “authorisation” (hold) on your card until the car is returned. This is in case of any damage caused to the vehicle. The amount that suppliers put on hold varies and can be found in the terms and conditions of rental for each supplier. Once the car is returned with no damage, the supplier reverses the authorisation/hold immediately. The banking system (Visa, MasterCard etc) can take several days to process before it lands back in your account. This is not unique to car rental. The time to process varies depending on the type of card/bank used, but assuming the supplier reverses the authorisation immediately, there’s nothing more they can do from their end. If you have any queries about where to find the hold amount in the suppliers’ terms & conditions, our customer service/live chat staff can point you in the right direction. -Luke
Hi, my problem was that I used the car for 2 days, returned with no damage, but the hold on the debit card was for more than 3 weeks, that’s a bit over the top. It was very difficult to discuss the issue with Avis as the main office is in the USA.
Recently, my husband and I rented a car from Tullamarine airport (Europcar). They asked for a credit card on booking and my husband gave them his, stating that when we returned the car, we would like to settle with cash. On returning the car, we did not have exact change and they don’t give change, so I gave them my credit card to settle the account, (which they happily took and charged). We wanted my husband, who was staying for another week to have enough cash limit on his card to last him through. 2 days later, my husband called to say his card limit was down by $360 because of the car. We called Europcar and asked them to release my husbands money, as they had been paid in full by my card. They informed me that it would take up to 7 days to reverse the payment. It ended up taking about 5. Not good enough!. We had to do bank transfers to top up my husbands card until the reversal. These Companies should not be allowed to charge twice for the one transaction.
Hi Lyn, Unfortunately even though the suppliers reverse the authorisation/hold immediately upon completion of the rental, the banking system (Visa, MasterCard etc) can take several days to process before it lands back in your account. This is not unique to car rental. The time to process varies depending on the type of card/bank used, but assuming the supplier reverses the authorisation immediately, there’s nothing more they can do from their end. The amount that suppliers put on hold varies and can be found in the terms and conditions of rental for each supplier. If you have any queries our customer service/live chat staff can point you in the right direction. -Luke
Luke,
I was surprised to read the contents of your article was about refueling. I had assuemd you were going to discuss the ripoff in insurance premiums that these companies charge. Renting cars is merely an anciallry service to these companies whose main revenue source is selling insurance at inflated rates. Food for thought! Peter Campbell
Hi Peter,
Yes, excess reduction cover (CDW) can be quite costly. There are plenty of other options to consider including taking out travel insurance which covers rental excess (usually much cheaper than the CDW) or booking with a credit card that includes cover for rental excess (many Gold/Platinum type cards offer this). The costs and conditions vary greatly depending on supplier and country. We outline some options for various countries at http://www.vroomvroomvroom.com.au/insurance/ for Australia, http://www.vroomvroomvroom.co.uk/insurance/ for UK, http://www.vroomvroomvroom.co.nz/insurance/ for NZ and http://www.vroomvroomvroom.com/insurance/ for the USA. If you have any queries about this kind of thing before you book, our customer service live chat staff are always at hand to provide information.
Luke
Rented car in Amiens (France) through Eurocar dropped off a week later in Brussells (Belgium) no cost to return vehicle. Rate was best available so I assume no hidden cost to return vehicle. Another point is that if you are hiring vehicle overseas and have travel insurance – check whether the insurance includes motor vehicle insurance. Have found that this is usually included so don’t waste additional dollars on being ripped off by car rental companies
Absolutely Jacko – check your travel insurance and also your credit card – many will offer certain rental excess cover, but make sure you read the conditions carefully to make sure you’re fully covered. Usually you’ll need to pay the rental car supplier the excess for damage and then make a claim through your travel insurance/credit card insurance so you may still be out of pocket in the meantime. It pays (saves) to explore all options!
U-Hual Truck rental is the same way. I got burned big time because of this.