Car Hire Considerations

Choosing which car hire company depends on a lot of factors and often the determining factor is location or opening hours. The next determining factor for many companies is who do you have an account with. The final factor is who has the most suitable cars. With so much competition there may still be several car hire companies ‘still in the frame’ so it comes down to price.

It is pretty important not to just choose the cheapest quote as that could be a false economy. Work out the total cost to see which is the cheapest. Inclusive rates are likely to appear the most expensive but actually work out the cheapest when the rental is concluded. The inclusive rental includes necessary items such as insurance, CDW, mileage, theft protection, location surcharges and tax.. In this example if each km cost 20p and you did not take any other items such as insurance, if you drive more than only 32 kms it is cheaper to have all inclusive!

Booking through a car hire broker is likely to be cheaper on rentals more than a couple of days but the rentals have to be prepaid. Here again there are differences which you may wish to consider for instance Holiday Autos charge 100% cancellation fee whereas cheap-car-rental charge a cancellation charge equal to just one days rental.

Have you considered insurance. It maybe your own insurance will cover driving a hire car but it may only be a limited cover and the car rental company may well require a larger deposit. You should also check the cover provided and consider carefully the options given by the car rental company as an accident, particularly for car hire in USA and car hire in Canada could be very, very costly.

Before driving off make a close inspection of the car to see if it has any scratches or had an accident. The paint work should be checked but also remember to check the interior, the tyres and low down where the car might have hit a kerb. If you spot any defects report them to the check out staff and ensure that they are marked on both your copy and the car hire firms copy of the agreement. If you do not report any damage you are likely to be charged for the damage when you return the car. Something you would wish to avoid.

We hope you enjoy using your rental car!