These 3-Car Rental Mistakes Made my $41 Priceline Booking a 1-day, $242.33 Charge

I recently traveled to the Boston area, on business. A few days earlier I had booked a rental car at what seemed like an excellent rate on Priceline - $41 with unlimited miles. So far, so good.

Little did I know, 24-hours later I'd be paying six-times the original, planned amount. This was caused by three things you can easily avoid or overcome, so please learn from my mistakes.

Here’s where I went wrong & how you can avoid doing the same. I’ve also found some cheaper alternatives to mainline car rental companies. New options for car rentals are becoming more popular. I’ve listed some of these, lower down.

This expensive experience was caused by;

• high-pressure sales tactics by the (commission-based I imagine) person behind the rental counter (I eventually succumbed to them)
• terms in the 4-page rental agreement I was not aware of
• weather & a lack of planning on my part regarding fueling-up the next morning

The morning rental begins smoothly...

When I reported to the car rental counter at the appointed rental time of 7.00 am, everything appeared to be going to plan. The car I had rented, a Dodge Charger, was indeed allocated to me and I was ready to take the keys and go happily on my way. I already have certain rental car insurance with my Visa credit card, so I’m prepared to say, “no thanks” (and keep saying “no”) to any insurance upsells.

Did I want the collision damage insurance? “No thanks”. Do you have other insurance? “Yes”. What is it? “Visa card”.

Do you know if you have an accident the full amount of the damage (up to the entire value of the car) will be placed on your Visa card, then you’ll have to work it out with your card company? “Hmmmm”. The questions continued like this and eventually I just said “OK, I’ll take the extra cover." Total Price Check (now with insurance): $77.50

Transponder for road tolls, so you won’t have to stop? Total Price Check (now with toll transponder): $87.50

I initialed in what seemed to be about seven various places on the rental form, got the keys and escaped. I was at almost double what I planned to pay, but I still had a good deal. I was on my way to my destination, Danbury, Connecticut - about 3 ? hours drive from Boston.

Later, that night...

Business having been completed in Danbury, I headed back towards Boston. It was raining hard, and I was tired. I decided not to go all the way back to Boston and overnight in a hotel about an hour outside of the city. This meant an early wake-up to deliver the car back by 7.00 am – but I was no longer safe to drive and needed sleep.

The next day...

I awoke at 5.00 am, got ready, left the hotel and was on my way to Boston. It was still raining hard. I needed to delay refueling the vehicle, otherwise it would not be full when I delivered it. So, I kept going, past numerous gas stations, hoping there would be one close to the airport.

I don’t know Boston very well, and data on my phone wasn’t working well enough to even tell me where the nearest gas station was. Time was getting short – it was 6.40 and I only had 20 minutes left. I was within 15 miles of the airport, but there was still lots of opportunity for things to go wrong in the heavy rain.

The clock is ticking...

I couldn’t gas-up and deliver the car on time; I had to decide between paying the late fee, or having the rental company charge me for the tank of gas. Hardly able to see out the windshield due to rain, I frantically searched for a gas station near the airport, then had to give up.

As it was, I got the car signed in at 7.10 am. 10 minutes late. This meant a heavy penalty for not getting it back by 7.00 am. Total Price Check (now with with Late Fee): $155.17

Next, the gas bill; although I could have filled up for around $30, at the rental car rate it took the price up over $210. Total Price Check (now with gas): $211.75

The awful total is handed to me...

Finally, with airport taxes and sales tax, we had reached the total damage for a 24-hour period; Total Price Check (with extra insurance, transponder, Late Fee, gas & taxes): $242.33. That's a long way from the initial, $40 starting point with the online booking.

Following this experience, I had learnt a few lessons with car rentals;

• be prepared; check in detail, what your credit card car rental insurance does for you if you have an accident – then you will be even better prepared to keep saying, “no” to high-cost car rental company car insurance
• plan and find out where a gas station is, close to the car return drop-off point
• don’t be even a minute late returning the car – be at least 10-minutes early because some vendors won’t even allow you 30-seconds grace getting the car scanned back in
• seek-out alternative car rental services (see below)

Alternative, cheaper car rental services

This costly experience also led me to consider future car rental alternatives. There are an increasing number of web-based car rental services that are significantly cheaper than the main car rental companies. While they may not be as convenient (most lack an airport rental location) you can save a great deal of money if you want to. And they have fewer rental restrictions, terms & conditions.

Some of these (mostly USA-based) services have an amazing array of vehicles from which to choose. A number of these services work like “AirBNB for cars”. Here are a few of these alternative car rental services. I hope you give them a try, and if you have any feedback on them, please comment as I and others would love to hear of your experiences;

(USA); www.turo.com www.silvercar.com www.zipcar.com www.skurt.com www.getaround.com (UK); www.easycar.com

Roger Hall is the founder of Xflash Systems & Captain/RNAV Project Pilot for a large international airline. Roger and his team have designed & implemented a number of special, high-level ACARS-related communications systems as well as conceived several RNAV/RNP-AR procedures used daily in operations by major global air carriers. If you or your company require assistance designing & implementing advanced navigation, airline communications monitoring, airline security systems & more please contact Xflash Systems here; www.xflashsystems.com