Topics
on car hire rental:
Focus On Car Hire Additional Charges...
By
Philip Suter
You
want to rent a car for a few days, see a great deal on line and suddenly the original
price you thought you were going to pay has increased dramatically because of
additional car hire charges.
When
you hire a car you will often find that when you go to collect the car there are
additional charges that you will have to pay before you drive it away. I have
found over the years that renting a car in Ireland from Dublin airport can be
very misleading. I have booked on line and seen a car advertised at €12 per day
for example. By the time I am driving down the motorway into Dublin
the price has become €15 per day.
So
what are these additional charges that a car rental company will add on? There
are first of all charges if you want a roof rack, satellite navigation or child
seats. Fair enough as these items have to be fitted to the vehicle and take a
while to do. I remember in the 1980's renting a car in Portugal
and the majority of the small cars were actually the original small Mini and as
there was no real room for luggage in those cars, they all came with roof racks
as standard. No doubt as time progresses the majority of cars will have Sat Nav
built in.
There
are other charges that are to be expected which are reasonable like "One-way drop
charges." Whereby you collect and return the car at two different locations and
you can be paying anything in the region of €50 to €75 for this service.
Out
of hours charges is another "fair charge" The car insurance company advertises
its normal business hours and if they have to remain open longer because of flight
delays or a late flight for example, they have to compensate staff. I have had
to pay this in France
on a couple of occasions.
The
Location Surcharge is a charge that should be built in and in many cases is as
I have been charged around €25 for collecting a car from Dublin Airport and when
I questioned this was told all "Operators did this". I even rented in Dublin on
one occasion collecting the car from a city centre location and still be charged
an airport collection charge!
Other
charges to look out for in Ireland
are "Cross
border" charges. If you are renting in the Republic and take
the vehicle into Northern Ireland or vica versa and you could be paying around
€25 for literally staying on the M1 motorway and going from one part of the country
to the other.
My
research into renting a car in Ireland
has found that there is also a "Vehicle Licensing Fee" with some companies and
that rentals will incur a charge of €2.64 per day which will be charged locally
upon arrival at the collection point. One company even has an "Environmental and
recycling charge" whereby they can charge €2.63 per rental and say this is for
recycling tyres, batteries, oil, paper, plastic, glass and car wash water".
Finally
of course there is Insurance.
The most popular one of course is the Collision
Damage Waiver (CDW). Collision damage waiver (CDW), sometimes confusingly
also called loss damage waiver (LDW), is essentially a form of insurance that
may or may not come included in the rental price of a hired car. It exists to
provide cover for damage that occurs to the rented vehicle itself. If you don't
take out additional insurance, you are liable for the full value of the vehicle.
Car hire companies naturally sell this additional insurance
and it can be expensive. My research in April 2010 found that in Ireland it can
cost €14 per day and that can be as much as the daily can rental itself. For a
two week hour this would be €196. By using the Internet you can now purchase this
type of insurance for around €2.99 per day and buy an Annual policy for around
€62. If you rent a car several times a year the Annual policy is probably the
best solution and some insurance companies offer "family" policies for around
€99 per year. These types of products will normally cover theft, the tyres, windscreens
and underbody of the vehicle if you happen to damage them plus if you lose the
car keys and these can cost around €250 to replace..
The
car rental agreement normally includes cover for Collision
Damage Waiver (CDW)
and Theft, however the renter is still liable for the Excess on CDW and Theft.
When a rental car is damaged or stolen, the driver is asked to pay the first portion
of the repair or replacement costs. This is known as the Car Hire Excess. If the
car is damaged or stolen, the car rental company will charge the renter's credit
card for the Excess amount and the renter then claim for reimbursement on the
car hire excess insurance policy. If only this had been about in 2000.
Philip
Suter is a Director of jml Property Services a UK based company advertising Insurance
products on line at http://www.jml-insurance.co.uk
and a specialist car hire excess and van hire excess insurance advertising site
http://www.insurance4carrental.com.
(April
2010 ©jmlpropertyservices - Philip Suter)
N.B.
This information should not be relied on for accuracy and is presented here without
the responsibility of jml Property Service and the website it is being displayed
at. jml property Services 04-10
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