Planning on traveling for
the holiday season but still looking to save a few pennies
wherever possible? If you re renting a car, you d be
surprised at how many hidden fees you may be hit with. Here
are some tips on reducing your car rental bill down to the
bare minimum.
- Skip the airport. Take mass transit
or a taxi and pick the car up at a downtown location.
You ll avoid the airport concession tax, and you ll
spend a little less time maneuvering in unfamiliar local
traffic.
- The two-rental solution
Airport concession fees/surcharges are added on for
each day you rent the car. Let s say you need to
pick up the car at the airport. That doesn t mean you
have to be on that contract the entire time you re
renting. Reserve a car for pickup at the airport and
plan for a dropoff the next day downtown. Then start a
new rental at the downtown location. You ll pay airport
surcharges for only one day, and pay lower fees for the
rest of the rental. The longer your trip, the more you
save.
- Half-day rentals, where available
This is not very widespread yet, but Hertz and others
are rolling out half-day
car rentals
in some European locations.
- Pre-pay
If you use an online travel service like Orbitz, you can
shop rates and prepay for the entire car rental time.
Pre-paying a car rental online is much like buying an
airline ticket from a consolidator. You give up on
flexibility (and take on more onerous change fee
policies) in return for a discount.
- Make sure the right return time is on your
ticket so you don t pay for an extra day.
Make sure the rental agent updates your pickup time if
you arrive after your scheduled pick up time (i.e.
scheduled to pick up at 2pm and you don t arrive until
3pm). If you arrive early, the computers will likely set
your pickup time to the actual time you pickup the car,
but if you arrive late it s up to you and/or the agent
to update your pickup time.
- Internationally, rent online through local
branches.
This can be cheaper than using US major car rental
companies websites even for the same company. For
instance, in Portugal www.budgetportugal.com tends to be
much cheaper than budget.com.
- Warehouse discounts for underage renters
If you re under the age of 25, you typically pay a
surcharge of $25/day. To avoid this, get an Executive
membership at Costco. The cost is $100 but you get the
membership right away and it s worth it. The executive
Costco membership waives the 21-24 underage driver fee
(check with Costco to see which rental agencies honor
this perk).
- Know the up-sell speech
Finally, over at the Consumerist, they got their hands
on Enterprise Rent-a-Car s script which their associates
use to try to convince you to buy their loss/collision
coverage. Read it and ignore the temptation to spend
your money unnecessarily.
Source: upgradetravelbetter.com |