Uk car hire......don't pay double!......

[Guest Claire-n-tel]

Just a quick heads up for anyone looking at hiring a car in the UK.......

 

We are going to uk for 4 weeks in march and I have just booked a hire car to pick up at the airport when we arrive and drop it back when we leave.......

 

We were both (myself and Tel) looking to see what the best deal we could find was......coincidently I looked at the hertz .COM.AU site at the same time Tel looked at the hertz .CO.UK site....

 

For exactly the same rental co.uk cost 627.84 GBP. ($1160.63).....Meanwhile on the AU site I was quoted $627.16!!!

 

not sure how that works or if it is the same for other companies but worth checking out uk and au sites....

 

C&T xxx

[Guest Guest14361]

I had exactly the same with Avis for the UK for when we go in June except on the au site after the figure it didn't say au meaning australian $$. It gave something else, i queried and its a code they use here and when in the UK and you pay the UK rate, hope that makes sense.

Edited January 10, 2015 by Guest14361

[Guest Claire-n-tel]

I had exactly the same with Avis for the UK for when we go in June except on the au site after the figure it didn't say au meaning australian $$. It gave something else, i queried and its a code they use here and when in the UK and you pay the UK rate, hope that makes sense.

 

You mean when we arrive in the uk they will try to take the uk amount Nobby?

[Jessica Berry]

We found the same thing Claire, going on co.uk car rental companies was much more expensive than the com.au ones. We use DriveAway http://www.driveaway.com.au/ it is good for comparing the rental companies. We then contacted Flight Centre to see if they could beat the DriveAway price and they did (it wasn't by a massive amount, but as we were booking our flights through them it was easy to add the car hire onto it all), even though they then use DriveAway themselves to book the hire car. My mum and dad even went into a couple of car rental companies in my UK home town to get quotes and we could still get it cheaper buying it here than doing it back in the UK. People need to remember to check they are paying like for like when comparing so things such as additional driver, some are included free as specials where as some were an additional charge per day which was quite expensive. You also pay a premium for picking it up/dropping it off at the airport compared to just renting it in a city.

Edited January 10, 2015 by Jessica Berry

[Guest Guest14361]

You mean when we arrive in the uk they will try to take the uk amount Nobby?

 

really really hope I'm wrong....but yes, do what I did ring the australian number and ask..just found my reservation number and the letters after the figure was UKL

Edited January 10, 2015 by Guest14361

[Guest Claire-n-tel]

really really hope I'm wrong....but yes, do what I did ring the australian number and ask..

 

Ok I just had a panic and told Tel this but we have paid already and have the confirmation email that states exactly what we have paid for hire, CDW, airport pick up etc so I'm fairly sure that they cannot charge me any extra unless I ask for something else?

[Guest Claire-n-tel]

It also stated that the cost was in AU$ to pay now

[NicF]

It also stated that the cost was in AU$ to pay now

 

This could partly explain the difference. When we hired a car in the UK we booked through a UK site and didn't pay anything until we picked the car up. We didn't book from an airport though and we used a place that was half the price of places like Hertz and Avis anyway (place was called Enterprise if anyone is wondering).

 

Good tip though. We got my dad to pick us up from the airport last time we went to the UK precisely because car hire was so expensive that way, but if we can get it much cheaper booking throught the Australian site it would be worth picking up at the airport instead.

[Guest Claire-n-tel]

We are more than happy to have paid already, especially saving that much

[obxer7]

wow, thanks for that. I don't have exact dates yet but just checked and for a focus for 3 weeks with a booster seat is £337 with hertz.com.au but with hertz.co.uk it was £997, no difference!!

[Guest Claire-n-tel]

wow, thanks for that. I don't have exact dates yet but just checked and for a focus for 3 weeks with a booster seat is £337 with hertz.com.au but with hertz.co.uk it was £997, no difference!!

 

Crazy eh?!

[Lazy Cow]

Crazy eh?!

 

That's putting it mildly lol!

 

We aren't planning on going anywhere for a while, but I am going to check other things out. Who knew?

 

Amazing, thank you Claire!

 

LC

[jo_marnes]

When we went back we bought a car on ebay - sold it after we left for more than we paid

[monty9110]

I thought car hire would be cheaper if I produced my uk driving licence, but found out that this isn't the case.. worked out a lot cheaper using my Australian driving licence..

[OKMorris]

Hi all

 

I use either driveaway.com.au or www.rentalcars.com if you don't care which car hire company you go with. I have used these guys twice now for the UK and basically they list all the different rentals and prices and if you are picking up from an airport as long as you go for one that says "On Airport Pickup" then you can go through and pay in full to get a cheaper rate and then once you get the voucher it will tell you which company it is - I have had Europcar both times now but it could be any of them.

 

I have found they are normally $40 -$50 cheaper than booking direct with the car hire company and they charge in AUD and have an office in Australia. When you get the voucher it includes all of the compulsory insurances that all car hires do so technically you can just literally drive it away from the depot but if you want to add the extra insurances on then you do this direct with the car hire provider on arrival.

 

I also had a ding on my last rental to the UK (totally my fault being in hysterics when leaving my mum and so clipping the wheel arch on there wall lol!!) and when you report the damage you are still dealing direct with the car hire provider and so really rentalcars.com are just a booking engine for a slightly cheaper price.

 

The only flaw I could find is that if you want to amend the car hire then there are higher fees than normal to do this but aside from that all good.

 

Also just as an FYI as we get this a lot from people who hire a car - you do not need to take any of the insurances etc that they try and flog you when you pick up the car as all car hires by law have to include the basic Collision Damage Waiver, 3rd party insurance, taxes and fees in the price you have originally agreed to. Most Travel Insurance providers will cover you for the excess that you pay if you damage a rental car (normally up to $4000 which is adequate) and so even though you pay this up front you claim it back easily when you get home (providing you weren't under the influence or being a total idiot in the car)

 

Therefore sometimes its just a case of getting a decent Travel Insurance rather than being stung X amount a day for "extra" Insurance that is already covered under your Travel policy

[lorluc]

And of course dont forget the massive security deposit they will want to hold under pre authorisation on your credit card!

 

Avis dont do this. I booked my uk hired car throught the australian avis site and paid the exact equivalent quoted in pounds.