In a recent blog post I announced that Economy Car Hire had been selected by Which? as the top car hire broker and provided a summary of points as to why they are so highly regarded.
UPDATE: Economy Car Hire have now rebranded as Zest Car Rental.
This led to huge feedback from our newsletter subscribers, many of them telling me about their dreadful experiences with certain car hire companies who had managed to add on extra charges above the price that was originally quoted online.
What became quite clear was that there were two particular ‘hidden costs’ that seemed to stand out as the most annoying as far as most readers are concerned:
- Having to return the the car with an empty tank.
- Having to pay insurance excess.
As these two annoyances were so prevalent I decided to contact Economy Car Hire in the hope that as the top online broker they would be able to shed some light on how they treat their customers with regard to these issues. Their response did not disappoint:
Fair Fuel Policy
Our Reader Asks:
My problem is that when I hire a car for a week I only drive about 100 or so miles. The car rental company insists that I bring the car back empty which is nonsense as the fuel gauge has not moved off of full and I’ve lost a good deal of money. The best type of car hire is the company that lets you bring the car back with a full tank.
Economy Car Hire replies:
We do work a variety of suppliers in Spain (and other locations worldwide) that operate with a “fair fuel policy.” This is marked in green on the quote results pages as below:
We deem a fair fuel policy to be one of the following:
“No charge when vehicles are returned with the same amount of fuel.”
“Clients must leave a deposit for a full tank of fuel on arrival. This is refunded on return of a full tank.”
We do try and make sure that we work with as many suppliers as possible that offer a fair fuel policy. We do also display the supplier logos so you can choose who you book with.
Insurance Excess
Our Reader Asks:
THE continual problem we face is that when we book a car they continually say that there is no insurance excess – that is until you get over there and find out that there is and up to an extra €100 which on top of a summer booking of about £350 adds up to too much.
Economy Car Hire replies:
When you book a hire car with Economy Car Hire, our prices always include full collision damage and theft protection with either no insurance excess or excess reimbursement insurance.
To determine whether the vehicle includes no insurance excess or excess reimbursement insurance, all you need to do is click on the show rental conditions link found underneath each vehicle, as seen below.
Under the heading, Deposit requirements it will state whether the vehicle is provided with no excess or excess reimbursement insurance. If free excess reimbursement insurance is provided, in the event of collision damage or theft, you would have to pay the excess amount to the car hire supplier and then claim it back upon your return home. Most of the suppliers that we work with operate on the basis of no insurance excess though.
That said, damage to the tyres, glass parts, underside of the vehicle, along with lock outs and misfuelling are not covered by the above. We sell additional top up insurance for £2 per rental day to cover the aforementioned items. This policy is also a reimbursement insurance.
When you arrive at the desk/car hire suppliers office, as far as they are concerned you are not covered for the above with them. If you have purchased top-up insurance, so long as you are not negligent, you should be covered for most eventualities. You are therefore perfectly within your rights to decline any additional insurances offered to you by the car hire supplier locally.
Get a Quote Today
Many readers have been delighted with their experience with Economy Car Hire such as Jean who wrote …
We used Economy Car Hire for the first time last month as a result of your recommendation last year and were very impressed with the service & useful information provided both before and after our booking. After several years of stressful car hire experiences our booking through Economy was a very positive event and it was encouraging that they are prepared to try & make further improvements in the service as a result of customer feedback. We will not hesitate to book with them in future.
If you haven’t given them a try yet then get yourself a quote below:
One of the issue’s that also concerns me is when you hire cars from the airports. I recently had a bad experience at Charles De Gaulle Airport, the airport taxes were substantial and not made clear by the car hire company. I suggest anyone hiring a car from airports should have this clarified by the car companies.
We had a bad experience when we collected a car from Barcelona three years ago. We expected the car would be waiting for us at the airport, but it turned out to be on an industrial estate a couple of miles away. There was a free courtesy bus to the site, but without a satnav or local map, it was difficult finding our way out to the main road we needed. Returning to the site after a week’s holiday was even more difficult. We ended up driving to the taxi rank at Barcelona Airport and paying a driver to guide us to the car hire place. Now we always check that the hire car is actually at an airport!
Thanks Jeff … I agree that that is another major annoyance.
We have been using Economy Car Hire for many years now, we now get a 10 percent discount for being loyal customers. Never any problems and easy to deal with.
This week I booked a car with SIXT Las Palmas airport I booked airport pick up and same return, when I had paid the car hire came up as Orlando and this is outside the airport, you have to phone them when you get of plane to take you to pick your car up, and you have to drop it of at same place, last time it took 2 hours for me to get car, I have now told them and they are going to repay me back.
What a nightmare … the time it takes to collect your hire car certainly deserves a place on the list of annoyances.
The procedure with Economy’s very reasonable top up (ie fully comprehensive) insurance was clearly explained when we booked and we also received an e-mail before departure which again reiterated the fact that we would have to pay the hire company should there be any damage to the items not covered by the normal insurance and then reclaim the cost from Economy. As Economy explained, when we arrived our rental company put a charge against our credit card (in our case 300 euros) and explained this would be cancelled if there was no damage to items like the underside of the car, windows, tyres and lost keys etc (which are not covered under the included insurance). We preferred the option of buying the top up insurance from Economy rather than risk the rental company imposing their own which may prove (a) more costly and (b) more difficult to claim against.
When booking online we made our choice based on our rental requirements for the price we were prepared to pay (in our case 1 free driver and top up fuel policy) but were not aware of the name of the rental company until we had booked. Economy have now advised us that they have recently changed this in order to allow customers with a preferred rental company to choose from a list of suppliers if they wish. At the time of booking we did, however, know that our then un-named rental company would charge 10 euros to take the car into Spain and also offer the option of paying 20 euros for the motorway tolls transponder, although this cost also included the payment of the tolls. (A previous renter had charged 18 euros for the transponder but on the return to the UK our credit card was then debited for the cost of the tolls).
I believe most people want to know in advance what the options and charges are, which is what Economy provide, rather than arrive at the rental office and get some nasty, time-wasting surprises.
Thanks Jean
Its all very well displaying a fair fuel policy logo, but look at the cost of the actual hire when you want to return the vehicle full, its almost double.
The suppliers will get you one way or another, you cant win !
When I first arrived in Spain and hired a car through Firefly I thought that the initial quote of 35 euros for the week was too good to be true. Yes, they get you wherever they can in extra costs, I had to pay full amount for everything because I don’t use a credit card, I only carry a debit card which cannot be charged at a later date. I understand these companies have to make money and they do tell you in the terms and conditions which, until you are bitten, are generally ignored.