Car Rental Tips

We spend a lot of time searching for well priced air tickets and even scope the internet to find good rooms at reasonable prices. However when it comes to car rentals, we assume that they are all at the same rates, so why bother? This is a misconception as rates do vary and at quite a broad range of the spectrum. And more often than not, car rental companies often thug those who don’t know their way around. So here are a few things to keep in mind when you rent a car:

Rental Budget

Take a note of all the additional charges there are to renting a car. Yes, they advertise at a particular price just to tempt you take their services, but what they don’t mention is that there are other charges like the sales tax, service tax, vehicle license fee and a few others. Get the entire price and budget around it. Another instance is that renting a car at the airport brings about a nice rounded “airport fee” which is nearly 11-12$. Now think about that. Would it not be convenient to make for your hotel and then rent a car from there?

The company makes quite a handsome profit by topping off the gas at a horrendous rate on your return. The way around this is to make sure that you get the car filled up in front of your eyes when you make a move and before returning the car, fill her back up. This way you don’t leave it up to the attendants at the rental to nickel and dime you for the gas.

Insurance

First rule of renting a car is to simply decline and don’t change your mind no matter what the attendant says. It is just another way to make a nice and easy profit, which is simply by taking advantage of your “travel anxiety”. All they do is tell you some horrid stories which brought forth nothing but misery to those who declined insurance in the past, you start thinking that you really don’t want to be in that poor chaps shoes and in that situation which ends up in you buying into the scam. What you don’t know is that:

1. Check with your agent of your auto insurance policy as there is a strong chance that it covers rentals as well. Most of the insurance in these times do.
2. Even if you encounter a mishap, chances are that the credit card you would use to cover the damage has something called collision coverage. Problem solved!

Small Cars, Smaller Rentals:

Avoid going in for medium sized and full sized cars. Judge the distance you plan to cover and the roads you would be traveling and then decide. Obviously, if you are with family and aim for great distances you move for a mid sized or a full size car. But if you are alone, what’s the harm in a compact? Note, that the rental companies do not have many compacts and most often than not cannot provide them even if you had made an early reservation, and thus give you an upgrade at no additional cost. Now, isn’t that just charming?