Holiday car hire can be costly, and get it wrong and you can be landed with a hefty repair bill and inflated car hire charges. Yet with a few quick steps it’s possible to slash up to £400 off the cost of hire, and crucially insurance, in minutes.
If you’re going on holiday, before trying to track down the cheapest deal, there are three important questions to ask yourself:
- Do you actually need car hire? Public transport is dirt-cheap in some countries, so first check local bus or taxi prices and work out if you really need car hire.
- Could you take your own car? Is it possible to drive there? All UK car insurance policies automatically provide the minimum cover required by law in all EU countries, or the minimum cover in the UK (liability to third parties). Do check with your insurer. Also some breakdown recovery policies include driving in Europe, if not you can get it as a standalone extra (see Cheapest Breakdown Cover article).
- Do you need a flash car? Less popular models are cheaper as car hire works on a ‘supply and demand’ basis e.g.In Summer soft-top or coupes command a huge premium. Plus avoid gas guzzling 4x4s for simple day trips, and if you can drive a manual, do as it's cheaper, except in the USA, where it’s the other way round!
Think insurance before you start or you’ll massively overpay
Before looking at the cheapest car hire, it's important to remember that they make big money selling you the insurance, and it won’t be included in the headline price. So don’t just sign up, willy-nilly, ensure you read the Cheapest Hire Insurance section first.
Step 1. Use a comparison site to automatically shop around
Try comparing prices yourself and by the time you get a good deal you'll have missed your holiday. Yet you can search scores of car hire companies in minutes by using special screenscraper websites; here you enter your requirements and they zip them to a host of car hire websites and report back the cheapest. In other words they're ‘search-and-report’ sites that 'scrape' the data off other sites' screens to get you the prices.
My top pick is Travelsupermarket*, while a bit clunky it searches by far the biggest range, though if you’ve time it’s worth a quick check on one of the others, Traveljungle, Atlas Choice and Car Hire Search. Again, remember don’t fall for the insurance trap, you can get car hire insurance cheaper elsewhere.
Step 2. Now quickly check the ones you’ve missed
Brokers are companies which list many car hire providers and have their own direct commercial relationships with them. As such they usually have their own special offer prices. Many of the screenscrapers automatically search brokers, but the following are missed out, so for belt and braces you should include them:
These are Car Rentals, Travelocity and Car Jet (for Spain, Portugal and UK only). If you're hiring in the US Sidestep and Priceline* are cheap too.
Step 3. Are you also booking a flight and or hotel?
If you're booking a package, ie a ‘flight & car’ or ‘hotel & car’ there are a few brokers who will give you an additional discount if you book them all together including Expedia* and Travelocity. Of course always compare these to the cheapest standalone prices though, more details in Cheap Flights or Cheap Hotels articles.
If going to the US, it's worth looking at ‘flydrive’ package holiday deals as these can be much cheaper plus you can haggle down the price of the overall package (See Cheap Package Holidays).
Insurance is a massive money spinner for car hire companies, so they'll go out of their way to make insurance a baffling minefield and flog you unnecessary, expensive policies and want to scare you into buying them. Yet get it right and you can get the same cover nearly 70% cheaper.
There’s a bewildering array of types of insurance.
- Collision damage waiver (CDW). This is the basic cover and it reduces your liability in the event of an accident. Without it, you could be forced to pay for the replacement cost of the vehicle.
- Theft waiver (TW). The equivalent of CDW but protects against theft. Also known as theft protection.
- Super collision damage waiver (SCDW). Reduces your liability to zero and covers tyres, roofs and windscreens.
- Personal insurance (PI). Pays out if you kill or injure yourself or a passenger, usually covered on regular travel insurance.
- Personal effects cover (PEC). Pays out if your property is stolen from a vehicle, usually covered on travel insurance.
So what insurance do you need?
There’s no one size fits all answer; to start check your travel insurance policy, as you may find some of the above events are covered anyway. The bare minimum cover that often comes included, though always check, is CDW, and a waiver from third party liability claims (injuring other people) and theft. Yet these still leaves much uncovered such as tires, windscreens, the undercarriage or roof.
The real thing to watch for is the excess
The excess, is the amount you’ll need to pay towards any claim. For example, if you have an accident and repairs cost £1,000; if you’ve a £500 excess you’ll need to pay the first £500 of it; and that’s expensive.
One of the ways car hire firms make serious money is by offering ‘additional insurance’ costing a massive £9 per DAY, which decreases your excess to nothing; and they do this by scaring you with the threat of paying £100s for a small prang. Happily, you can cut the cost of this dramatically.
Get standalone excess insurance
Excess insurance or super collision damage waiver reduces your excess to zero, so if you have an accident you won't pay a penny.
Instead of £9/day try Daily Excess* or Questor Insurance who offer additional excess cover from £2.98 a day. For trips longer than 16 days, you may as well opt for the annual policy from insurance4carhire* at £49/year for Europe. It is, however, restricted to those aged between 21 and 74 and rental is limited to 31 continuous days and is not valid on vehicles rented within 150km of your home.
If you’ve a little extra time, there are a few more tricks you can use to cut the costs even further.
- Use overseas websites.
If you're going to an English speaking country, or are fluent in the language of the country you are travelling to, check Google to see whether that country's car hire sites are cheaper. This often depends on the exchange rate (use the Travel Money Maximiser to translate). If booking, do ensure you've read the Cheapest Way To Spend Overseas article to properly keep it cheap. - Name Your Own Price. Save up to 30%.
If you're happy to book blind, comparison site Priceline’s* ‘name your price’ function will find a car at a discounted rate. Simply enter the pick up and date details plus the price you're willing to pay and it'll search within that range. Your car will be allocated on arrival and the only caveat is, once you enter your details you're committing yourself to a booking if the offer is accepted, and payment will automatically be taken from your credit card. - Check BAA and the website of the airline you're travelling with.
BAA, the official airports' website, and airline websites like Easyjet and Ryanair ocassionally offer special discounts, so once you've done a comparison check the site to see if it's beatable. - Haggle.
If you speak the language (or they speak yours) then call up and try and haggle. Often in individual car hire branches the manager has discretion over price. This is especially powerful for longer trips or more expensive cars, just try your chutzpah. - Look for online vouchers. Sign up to newsletters of the car hire comparison services and car hire companies directly. They often send promotional discounts that will shave an extra few quid off the price. Also have a look at the Discount Codes & Vouchers board of this site.
- Get cashback on top.
Some of the cashback membership sites such as Quidco and Topcashback* pay cashback if you book via them. So find the cheapest deal via the comparison site then see if you can beat it by going through a cashback site To find out more about cashback sites please read the Top Cashback Sites article. - Car hire for under 25s.
If you're under 25 it's likely you'll be charged a Young Person's Surcharge which could be up to £20/day extra. If you're hiring in the US, Transhire waives this fee for one driver. Make sure your quoted price includes any surcharges.
Now you know where to get the cheapest price, it’s important to follow some basic rules to protect your pocket before you book, the way you pay, before you start driving and after you return home.
Always make sure you’ve checked exactly what’s included and whether you need to pay extras; such as child seats, sat nav and taxes. If these extras have been added and you don’t need them, see if you can ditch them.
Don’t ditch the child seats though, these are compulsory throughout the EU (and in many other countries); though it’s cheaper to take your own.
If possible, pay on a credit card, as provided the total hire costs over £100, you get the additional protection provided by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act; which roughly speaking, means the credit card company is equally liable with the car hire company if things go wrong. This is very valuable if you end up having problems with an overseas car hire firm but do make sure you pay the credit card off in full. Yet there may be a cost impact:
- Credit Card Booking Fees. Some places will add an additional cost for booking with a credit card, so beware. However if you have a decent cashback credit card this should balance it out.
- Currency Conversion Cost. If you’re booking from an overseas site (as opposed to a UK site of a big car hire company offering hire in other countries), be careful how you pay. In most cases you’re better off paying in the overseas currency, rather than letting it convert the cost to Pounds for you, as you’ll get a very poor rate. This is especially so, if you’re using one of the Top Cards for Spending Overseas.
Sadly international car hire is a tricky area; if something goes wrong, finding recourse isn’t easy. So there are a few techniques to prevent problems.
- Inspect and take a quick photo of the car’s condition. Reports of overcharging and claiming damages are rife. So briefly snap some pictures of the car and make notes of its condition on the hire company’s form; especially photograph any scratches or dents it may have as these can be the prime source of dispute.
- Check the fuel policy. Check what the fuel policy is, if they say “it doesn’t matter whether you refill it or not” beware. This most likely means, it’ll fill it up itself and charge you for the fuel at a much higher rate than you’d pay doing it yourself. Also always ensure you check what fuel type the car uses: if you damage the car by using the wrong type, it's unlikely you'll be covered.
- Off-road travelling. If you plan on being adventurous on your hols check what’s covered, if you have an accident while racing through the Sahara desert you may have to cough up for damages. Check the spare tyre is fully operational, there’s nothing worse than being stuck somewhere unfamiliar with a flat tyre.
- Local legalities. Some countries have legal requirements such as in-car first aid kits, high visibility jackets, break-down and spare bulb kits which, if you don’t have, invalidates the insurance. The car hire company should be well aware of this, but do check.
- Make sure you have an emergency number. Most car hire companies have a 24-hour contact number in case the car breaks down or in event of accident. Make sure you’ve got it before you go anywhere.
- Car hire in the US. If you’re planning an inter-state US drive, make sure you check your insurance is valid in different parts of the States. Rules differ from state to state but the car hire company should be able to advise you.
At the end of the hire period you need to carefully obey the rules or you could have more problems.
- Be there when the inspection is done. Don’t just drop the car off, if possible be there when the car is being inspected, so you can’t have bumps and scratches unfairly assigned to you. If you can’t be there, again take photos and notes to prove there were no problems; and record the mileage.
- Don’t be late! Return your car on time; otherwise you might face an extra day’s car hire charge.
- If you do have an accident, keep repair bills. Put repair bills in a safe place as you may not be able to claim without them at home.
- Ask for all paperwork to be completed on the spot. Get your deposit credit card slip back so they cannot apply any charges at a later date.
- Keep all the paperwork. Don’t throw any of it away or you have no way to argue disputes.
This is the final bit of vigilance needed. Check your credit card statement when you get back to make sure no extra charges have been added to your bill without your knowledge and ensure you’ve had your full deposit back.
Once you’ve had it all back, then you can delete the photos and get rid of the paperwork, but not before, otherwise you have no way to dispute the process. If there is a problem and contacting the company to sort it out doesn’t work, if you paid on a credit card, remember you have the Section 75 protection as a secondary back-up.
Hire a car for a 2 week holiday to Spain with one of the biggies and it will set you back around £520 including insurance. Just by ditching its own insurance policy and getting a stand alone one can slash £80 off the price.
But use the system to get the cheapest car hire using a comparison site and you can knock the price down to £205 including insurance. Even better if you're a Tesco shopper get car hire and insurance for a fraction of the price, £140 for two weeks, by using Tesco Clubcard Deals.
|
Cost of car hire for a 2 week holiday to Spain | ||||
| Provider | Cost of car hire | Cost of insurance | Total price | Saving |
| Avis |
£400 |
£120 |
£520 |
- |
|
Cheapest using screenscraper |
£165 |
£40 |
£205 |
£315 |
|
Using Tesco Clubcard Deals |
£100 |
£40 |
£140 |
£380 |
|
Based on a mid size family car | ||||
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