Car Hire Tips UK

If you’re hiring a car and are travelling with young children, some car rental companies (and a legal requirement in some countries) will insist that you provide the kids with a suitable car seat. Of course, this is an extra that the rental company will charge you for so make sure you find out about this cost in advance.

When booking a child’s car seat make sure that you’re getting the right seat for the job, e.g. forward facing, backward facing, etc, etc. You need to specify this at the time of ordering to make sure that they will have one when you arrive.

When you actually arrive to collect your hire car make sure that the seat you’re provided with is in good condition and fits securely in the vehicle. If you’re unsure or it doesn’t look right, ask them to have a look and see if either you’re doing something wrong or whether the seat doesn’t fit correctly in the car you’re hiring (in some cases they might even change the car as they have more of them than car seats).

If you’re child is a little older and only requires a booster seat this might not be available from the rental company so you’ll have to make separate provision by either bringing your own, or buying one locally when you arrive.

Car Hire has a bad reputation from car rental companies policies of charging your credit card once the rental is finished with additional costs for damage and fuel. This practice in itself is legitimate but it leaves the opportunity open for less reputable car rental suppliers to scam their customers.

With this in mind here’s a quick list of some things you should be alert for when hiring a car:

• Damage, what damage?
This scam involves charging you for damage that was already on the vehicle. It’s relatively simple to avoid by checking the car out before you drive away, but taking photos when you collect and return the car should protect you.

• Getting all Fuelled up!
Most companies rent their cars out with a full tank of fuel and charge you for the difference between what’s left and refilling the tank. Often the price per litre of this charge is higher than the pump price and it’s very difficult to prove how much or little was in the car when you returned it. Avoid this by filling the car at the nearest garage just before you take it back. Hold onto the receipt just in case and if they try and charge you, you’ve got some pretty good evidence on your side.

• Hang on a minute, all these extras cost more than the rental!
Check the cost of your rental as car hire as an industry is notorious for it’s extras charging. You can get charged at the counter for extras like additional drivers, child seats, insurance upgrades, young driver surcharges, and more. To avoid this make sure you read the rental terms when booking, and make sure your quotes are like for like. A company that appears cheaper may not always be the lowest cost option.

Notorious among the car rental industry, the busy Christmas period comes close to matching the summer peak in terms of demand for car hire by travellers wanting to get home for Christmas. Unfortunately, and also in common with the summer to some extent, many travellers just arrive at the rental stations thinking they can pick up a car on the day with no problems.

As well as being possibly the most expensive way to try and book a car hire, turning up at the desk can be very, very risky during peak trading times, these being Christmas, high summer and Easter. So why not save yourself the hassle and worry by booking early this year?

So, do you know what you’re going to be doing this Christmas yet? The sooner you do, the better it is. From as early as August or September rental bookings steadily start growing until about mid December when the last remaining cars are snapped up.

In order to make sure they have enough cars to meet demand the rental companies will offer incentives to book early, until about October because if they have your booking then, they can still account for it in their vehicle forecasts.

The reason they need your booking so early is so that they can plan how many cars they need to buy to cover the busy period. If they already have bookings for x number of cars, they can forecast more accurately and take a “risk” on the extra demand that will come in later.

So, by having more cars booked earlier on in the process the level of risk can be less overall. This makes the rental company happy as they can sell more rentals and leaves less customers sat out in the cold during the busy holiday period.

The obvious benefit of booking earlier for you is not only to save a little money on the booking by taking up whatever offers and incentives you can find, but to guarantee that you’ll be able to get not just a car, but the car you want to drive over the holiday period.
Incredibly every year the call centres of all the major car rental companies are inundated with people who have just turned up on Christmas Eve only to find that none of the rental companies has a single car left to give them. So this year, don’t be stuck out in the cold, take advantage of the opportunity to save yourself a little money and more importantly make sure you get to where you’re going this Christmas.

If you’re renting a car for while you’re on holiday chances are you’ll be driving in a foreign country. When taking a hire car abroad there are several things that you need to consider including the differences in driving conditions, speed limits, local laws, and more, so it’s best to be prepared before you go.

One of the biggest differences between countries is which side of the road to drive on. If you’re British and have driven in Spain for example, you’ll know that this can be a bit of a culture shock compared to what you’re used to.

Whatever the case, make sure you’re familiar with the basic road signs, any legal requirements of driving in a different country (in some countries carrying things like warning triangles is a legal requirement so make sure your hire car has one if required).

Also remember that signs in different countries can mean different things. For instance a circle with 50 in it means a fifty mile per hour speed limit whereas in France a very similar looking sign means a fifty kilometre speed limit.

If you’re travelling in a new country with all these different conditions to keep you busy it’s a good idea to plan your route in advance and have a good map reader as your front sear passenger. The last thing you need to do with all these new conditions to worry about, is start looking at a map at the same time.

Car rental rates are usually governed to some extent by length or rental so you can get hourly rates, daily rates, weekly rates, even monthly rates if you plan to rent a car as an alternative to short term leasing. In between all of these there are also things like special “weekend” rates (which can be as long as 4 days) and a range of other rates depending on when the rental company needs to move it’s fleet around.

All very interesting you might think, but how does that benefit you? Well, just having an idea that this is how the rates work means that with a little flexibility in your travel arrangements you could save yourself a lot of money.

To demonstrate this, let’s take an example of two rental requests with very small differences to the rental but huge impact to the cost.

Rental 1
Check out on Thursday morning at 11:30 am
Return on Monday at 12:30pm

Rental 2
Check out on Thursday at 12:00 noon
Return on Monday at 11:30am

While the two rentals look very similar they would be charged very differently. For instance Car Hire Company X will charge Rental 1 out as a 5 day rental on their daily rates, but Rental 2 from the same company would be a 4 day rental on their discounted weekend rates. So, half an hour or so adjustments to your journey can make a big difference.

When collecting your rental car there are a few things you need to take into account before driving away to ensure that you’re not going to get any nasty surprises later. Firstly don’t forget to give the car a good look around for signs of any obvious damage that’s not on the paperwork. This is a notorious scam of the less reputable car hire firms so check:

• the exterior of the car for minor damage, dents and scratches. Concentrate on the most likely areas; doors and bumpers.

• the interior of the car for tears and stains; don’t forget this includes the boot.

• that brakes, headlights and indicators are functioning properly.

• that windscreen wipers, electric windows, doors and latches, radio and heating are operating correctly.

• the tyre pressures (at the nearest garage), oil and water levels are appropriate.

• that the fuel tank is full if your contract specified it should be.

• that you have the car’s manual with you.

If you find any faults that are not already highlighted on the rental paperwork, report them back to the rental company, preferably before driving away. Should this not be possible, photograph the damage (this is where mobile phones with cameras can come in really handy) so that you’ve at least got a record of it.

Once you’re happy with the car just double check all the paperwork. Make sure the registration plate matches the vehicle and that you’ve got contact numbers in the case of a breakdown or accident.

All car hire companies have age restrictions on who can drive their fleet of rental cars. This age varies both from company to company and also depending on which country you want to hire a car in.

Age restrictions can allow young drivers to rent cars from 18 years old in some cases, but often go up as high as 25 before you don’t need to worry about it anymore. With some luxury car hire firms the minimum rental age can be much higher, even as high as 45 on some sports cars like Ferraris.

As with additional drivers, young drivers may often have to pay a premium for hiring a car. In most cases this additional cost can be justified by the extra insurance cost to the rental company for hiring cars to drivers between the ages of say, 21 to 25.

For corporate car rentals these rules sometimes don’t apply as the company will have a separate agreement with the rental firm to cover the additional insurance liability of hiring to young drivers.

Of course age restrictions don’t only apply to young drivers. If you’re advancing in years it pays to check whether you’re still allowed to rent a car. Some companies will stop renting to you after you’re 75th birthday for example.

Renting cars doesn’t have to be as expensive as you’d imagine and sometimes you can a great deal just by working with the car rental companies systems to get the best deal you can without compromising on the service you receive.

Car Rental companies have many complex operations and fees that they need to take into account when setting their rental charges so, if you know what these are and how to avoid them, you can get a car rental, very similar to the one you ideally want, at a greatly reduced price.

Follow these simple tips and use as many of them as you can while still getting the rental you need and you should be able to save a lot of money on your next car rental.

• Picking a Car up at the Airport
Car Rental companies have to pay what’s called an “Airport Concession Fee” for all the cars they rent from their airport locations. This is basically a charge made by the Airport to the rental company to allow them to rent cars from the Airport. Obviously the rental companies pass this on to their customers, so if there’s a rental location close to the Airport you can use, you could save money by booking there instead.

• Book the Most Popular Car Group
Car Rental companies have to manage a complex stock system to make sure they’ve got the right cars in the right places at the right time. The more popular the car group, the more difficult it is for them to maintain stock. Generally, if they don’t have the car you booked they’ll give you a free upgrade. This is because the larger, more expensive cars don’t get booked as much as the smaller cheaper cars. If you book the smallest car that is acceptable to you, there’s always a good chance of getting a free upgrade if you’re picking it up at a busy time.

• Book Well in Advance
Because it’s much easier to forecast how many cars they need if they’ve got all their bookings in advance, the car rental companies will very often have their cheapest rates loaded for rates well in advance, so book your car as soon as you know your travel dates and save more.

• Always Get a Discount Code
Apart from during peak periods (Christmas, Easter and the height of Summer), you should be always able to get some kind of discount code, although you might have to hunt around a little to find it. Always check the terms of the offers as often, even though an offer might say it’s for a weekend rental, you could still use the offer for other times. It’s worth searching a little to find one.

• Watch Your Collection and Return Times
Another trick to watch out for is that most rental companies charge daily rates. That means if you pick up a car at 10am and take it back at 11am the next day you’ll get charged for 2 days rental. Wherever possible try and ensure that your return time is always the same, or preferably just before your collection time. This way you’ll never get charged the extra day.

• Where Possible, Book When They’ve Got Too Many Cars
If your travel plans are reasonably open try and book when they’ve got too many cars and you could land yourself an absolute bargain. Book just after Christmas and you could find that all the cars that have just been returned are very cheap to book. In car rental terms, a car sat in their car park is a huge cost and they’d rather let you have it very cheaply than just have it sitting there.

• Always Ask for More
The one golden rule to bear in mind is to always ask for more, the worst they can do is say no. When you get to the counter always ask if they have any free upgrades. Often, this prompt might be all they need to remember that they can’t shift that big Mercedes out the back, and if you had it, they wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore!

Each one of these tips should save you some money the next time you rent a car. If you can combine all 7 of them into one rental, you’ll be amazed by how little you need to pay to drive a very nice car for your rental!

Something else to consider when renting a car is who’s going to be driving it. Almost all rental companies offer car hire to a named driver. This means that if you have more than one person who’s going to be driving the hire car you need to tell the rental company about them too.

Of course, additional drivers give the rental companies another opportunity to make some more money and they all charge some kind of premium for additional drivers on the rental agreement so take this into account when comparing quotes.

Any additional drivers covered in the rental agreement will also have to present their details when hiring the car so if you’re taking along an additional driver, they’re going to need their driving licence too.

Don’t be tempted to let someone else drive a car that you’ve hired in your name only as the consequences of this can get pretty serious, pretty fast. For one thing all insurances will be void so in the event of an accident you’re pretty much liable for everything. Also, as they’re not mentioned in the rental agreement anyone stopped by police in the rental car has no legal entitlement to drive it and could even be arrested for theft.

As the saying goes, “Accidents happen” and you’re just as likely to have an accident when in a hire car than you would be driving your own car. So, it’s important to know what to do should the worst happen and you have an accident in your hire car.

All rental companies have different policies and procedures to cover for accidents and you should make yourself familiar with the particular procedures of your chosen rental company (these can usually be found on the rental agreement and covered somewhere in the terms on their web sites).

When you find yourself in an accident it’s important to record as much information as you can at the time. Always try and make a note of the following:

• You will need the name, address, phone number, insurance details and drivers license number of any one else involved in the crash.

• Note down a description of the vehicles in the accident, including their make, model and registration numbers.

• Write down the time, date and location of the accident.

• If there were any witnesses to the accident, you should get their names and contact details.

• Depending on the laws in the country you’re driving in, the police may need to be informed of the accident. Ignorance is no excuse so this is something you need to find out about before you begin driving the hire car. If the police are involved, ask for a copy of their report.

• Inform the rental company of the accident as soon as possible. They will advise you what you need to do next and probably ask for all those details mentioned above.

• In the event of an accident the rental company may decide not to replace the car for you (assuming it’s not drivable). Again you should check for this in their terms when hiring.

If the car is still drivable and you continue your rental after an accident make sure you leave plenty of extra time when you return to vehicle at the end of the rental. They’re going to have lots of forms for you to fill out.