Anyone ever rented a car before?

[aggiefansince83]

What do I need to know? I have been traveling regularly the last few years but always took public transit but this year will be the first time I need to rent a car.

Going to Nashville for the USA vs Guatemala game 4th of july weekend, then also talked to coach Jordan a few weeks back and looks like they will have a tournament at Virginia Tech.

Both of those I will need to rent a car because public transit is either nonexistant or poor. However I hear car rental people will try to rip you off any way they can.

I don't want GPS as I can use my phone, but most importantly is insurance. I will be putting the rentals on my chase sapphire preferred which has primary car rental insurance but only if you decline it from the rental company. How pushy are they with the insurance? I would really not rather pay for something I would get for free.

[PanAmManiac]

I rent cars all the time, sometimes even in foreign countries, so I'm quite experienced. The car rental places won't try to "rip you off" necessarily, but it's probably good to know a few things before you go. A few pointers...

- They're not really pushy with the insurance - all you have to do is say no thanks and sign a waiver, but check carefully with your credit card company to see exactly what's covered. You will need accident and liability insurance.

- Check with your auto insurance company also and find out what you're covered for when you drive a rental car. If you're not already covered for liability and damages on the rental car it may not cost a whole lot to have it added to your policy.  If you don't already have rental car coverage you may be able to add it for a few extra bucks a month.  It's well worth it.

- Check deductibles as well.  A lot of the credit card insurance policies have high deductibles, like $2500.  So if you get in an accident your exposure is limited, but if someone dings your door in a parking lot and walks away from it you're on the hook for the repair cost.  That happened to me once - my rental car got sideswiped in the hotel parking lot overnight and whoever did it didn't leave a note or anything.  I didn't even notice until I pulled into the rental car lot to return it.  Fortunately my company's insurance covered it but if it were just the CC policy with $2500 deductible it would have been all out of my pocket.

- They will try to get you to pre-purchase fuel at the rental counter, and they'll pitch how their fuel is 50 cents or a buck a gallon (or something like that) cheaper than the local gas stations. That part is very true, but they will charge you right then and there for a full tank of gas with the assumption that your tank is on E when you bring the car back in. I advise against it unless maybe you're planning a long road trip and you can really plan on bringing the car in on a nearly empty tank.

- If you don't pre-purchase fuel, be sure to top off your tank right before you return the car or they will charge you something ridiculous like $8/gallon to top it off.

[WanderingAggie]

Another thing to do is see if an organization you belong to has a discount code - or set up a business account for yourself. I get better discounts signing up as a business owner than I do through the professional organization I belong to - but that isn't always the case.

[aggiefansince83]

Well, got back from Nashville and things went reasonably well. The Alamo rep didnt push anything at me at all, asked about insurance, I declined since my credit card has primary rental insurance and no fuss.

Wasn't until I returned the car I had problems. I declined the fuel option and said I will fill it up myself. Well, turns out the morning of my flight at 7 am after two hard days of fun I foolishly looked at the gas cap for the first time right there at the gas station.

There was no cap, just some cover thing that said EZ fuel or something like that. I couldn't take the cap off, like every other car I ever seen, so since there was this metal flap it looked like you just push the nozzle in, so I did that and about half a gallon later see gas spilling down behind it.

Stopped right away and said screw it and just returned it to the rental agency with only 3/4 of a tank.

I see the rental car charge has posted to my credit card, but it is the same amount I saw at the counter, no additional fee for the gas, or my worst nightmare I was fearing because I spilled gas all over the cap they would charge me an arm and a leg for repairs and loss of use and whatever else they could think of.

So if the charge posts that is that right? They can't come back and charge more later?

Lesson learned, next time I rent a car I will look at the gas cap before I have to return the car, and google how to fill it up if necessary. Then again it was a Ford fiesta and those cars can be all complicated.

[PanAmManiac]

Hmm I've never heard of the EZ Fuel thing. I wonder if that's a rental car trick or something specific to the make of the car that you rented.

The rental car companies can still put charges on your card after the fact, but it's not typically done with fuel. Typically they look at the fuel gauge right on the spot when you hand your keys over and they'll charge you accordingly for the 1/4" tank of missing fuel right then and there. The times I've been charged after the fact were always for toll road use which the rental car company doesn't get billed for until a week or so later.

Toll charges in rental cars are an entirely different racket altogether. In states where toll transponders are still used, most rental car companies will give you the option of a transponder in the vehicle so you don't have to stop to pay cash every time, and that actually works out fairly well (you pay the actual tolls plus maybe a small convenience charge - it's been well worth in in my experiences). However in some places that have done away with transponders and gone to automatic license plate readers they really stick it to the rental cars. My most extreme example is E-470 in Denver which is a toll road leading from the airport into the city. I picked up a car at the airport and drove it to my father-in-law's place 10 minutes away. That would normally be a $3 - $4 toll. After spending the night there we went on a 2-week driving vacation. I got a rude awakening a few weeks later when I received a bill from the company managing E-470. When you drive that in a rental car they charge you the toll plus a $5 convenience fee for every day you had the car. I had the car for 15 days and drove the toll road once so that 10 minute drive cost me $80. I've had similar experiences (but less extreme) driving toll roads in the Dallas area. In that case it's more like a $2 - $3 toll becoming $15 because you drove it in a rental car.