Car Hire

[cuttsie 1,091]

Is it usual for car hire company's to insist on large card payment deposit before hire period . Any one ?

[GabrielC 57]

28 minutes ago, cuttsie said:

Is it usual for car hire company's to insist on large card payment deposit before hire period . Any one ?

Yes . When I hired a van had to pay a refundable deposit in case of damages. But it was not a large sum to be fair.

[HeHasRisen 3,411]

1 hour ago, cuttsie said:

Is it usual for car hire company's to insist on large card payment deposit before hire period . Any one ?

Yes, use a credit card though.  You dont notice the money gone then.

 

Enterprise for example its £200 for a car and most vans, and they refund it fairly quickly.

Edited March 6 by HeHasRisen

[ukdobby 225]

Just picked one up in Tenerife for 3 weeks,never stopped anything bar the payment.

[bassett one 452]

i dont trust car/van hire ,but on saying that many try to take them for idiots as well

[HeHasRisen 3,411]

1 hour ago, bassett one said:

i dont trust car/van hire ,but on saying that many try to take them for idiots as well

I've rented numerous vans and cars from. Enterprise and never had an issue. 

[Resident 1,195]

One thing I ALWAYS do when hiring a vehicle, specifically from large outfits is do a video walk round and note all the blemishes and marks before and after I've used it. 

One of the large ones once tried to claim damage to the vehicle after I'd dropped it off. They were claiming scuffs to the front bumper and a dent in the wing, presumably from hitting a bollard.

I'd not damaged the car and it was returned in the state it was given. I disputed the claim and sent both videos to their customer service team. They dropped the matter. 

I reckon one of their own staff bumped it when moving it after I handed it over. so they tried it on as not to claim from their own insurance. 

[cuttsie 1,091]

53 minutes ago, Resident said:

One thing I ALWAYS do when hiring a vehicle, specifically from large outfits is do a video walk round and note all the blemishes and marks before and after I've used it. 

One of the large ones once tried to claim damage to the vehicle after I'd dropped it off. They were claiming scuffs to the front bumper and a dent in the wing, presumably from hitting a bollard.

I'd not damaged the car and it was returned in the state it was given. I disputed the claim and sent both videos to their customer service team. They dropped the matter. 

I reckon one of their own staff bumped it when moving it after I handed it over. so they tried it on as not to claim from their own insurance. 

The firm at Hillsbro that I was going to hire from said that I had to give a £1500 card  sum to hire , I told them to go forth and muliply .

[Resident 1,195]

1 minute ago, cuttsie said:

The firm at Hillsbro that I was going to hire from said that I had to give a £1500 card  sum to hire , I told them to go forth and muliply .

Big red flag there. Name and Shame so we can all avoid it

I've never know ANY hire firm charge that much unless it's a supercar hire. 

[HeHasRisen 3,411]

29 minutes ago, Resident said:

Big red flag there. Name and Shame so we can all avoid it

I've never know ANY hire firm charge that much unless it's a supercar hire. 

Ever Enterprise only charge £1000 for their mega top of the range ones, £1500 for a standard car is absurd. Although tbh if you had a credit card sat there with a zero balance its not exactly money you would miss for a week until the refunded it.

[Al Bundy 1,577]

Most are absolute crooks, their sole purpose is not to offer a service but to try and con you out of money.

 

I highly recommend staying clear of Green motion car hire and implore anyone to take a picture of every single mark on the car prior to driving off, that 15 minutes could save you hundreds.

[echo beach 592]

I’ve hired and driven cars all over Europe without any trouble but I do buy an insurance policy to cover all the excess which is much cheaper than the hire companies’ version which you’ll often be offered.

They always ask you to pay by card so they have access to money if anything goes wrong.

The only time I paid by cash was in Rhodes and Corfu, but that’s the Greek economy for you!

Always take photos all around the vehicle and point out any existing dents or scratches etc to the staff before driving off. Also photo the mileage and petrol gauge.

Once in Sicily Hertz tried it on with me. It was a full tank to full tank contract but I knew there was no petrol station at the airport and so filled up some miles away.

By the time I checked the car in the gauge had gone down slightly and they tried to say I owed a 100 Euro penalty fee plus the cost of the petrol to fill the tank.

Nice try, but I then showed them my phone which had a photo of the gauge in exactly the same spot as when I had taken the car out. They conceded and asked me to give them positive feedback on their website!

In Crete I was returning a hire car when I had a puncture and the wheel nuts were so tight that one of the studs broke changing it. Limped back on the spare with 3 nuts instead of 4.

I was late but the member of staff thanked me for returning the car. He said they often had to recover them from ditches at the side of the road!😃

Happy hiring and driving.

 

echo.