Car Hire

Hi everyone,

we haven't been over since 2011 but have just booked summer flights and I am now looking at car hire, Can anyone give me some recommendations please.

Many thanks

 Doyouspain will rip you off just like the rest of them.  Look at the price of your car in Euro's, then look at what they are quoting in Sterling.  Today it works out at an exchange rate around 1:31.  I'll take plenty of that.  That should tell you all you need to know about them.  Better booking with a company like Rentalcars.com where you will get a full for full fuel policy.  Also take out an annual excess insurance for around £40, this will save you the rip off which will be in the region of 90e for two weeks cover.  Present you excess policy at the rental car desk, insist that they do not take the excess amount from your credit card but allow them to block the excess amount, this will avoid any exchange loss on this type of transaction.  Should you have a bump the car hire company will take their excess from the bolcked amount on you card.  Make sure you get a receipt and supporting documentation and reclaim your costs from your excess insurance company on your return to the UK.  This I find is the best way to reduce your costs.  I find with the companies that you are seconded to via doyouspain you are battered at every turn.  80e for fuel when the tank will be lucky to hold 50e worth of fuel.  Excess can be another 90e.  There's 170e on top of the price advertised, then you have to take the car back empty and lose out yet again.  The full for full policy is a late addition to the doyouspain booking policy.

Del,

As you state, DO You Spain offer the option of return empty or return full. Price of hire is set accordingly. Basically you pays your money, takes your choice. I have just hired a Nissan Qashqai for 6 days next month for the grand total of just over £40. Some of the smaller cars could be got for just over 25 quid........amazing. OK, they are going to charge me over the top for fuel and try and tell me I have to take their insurances (which I don't, as I have an anual policy just like you). They will make a bit on the euro conversion and probably put VAT on fuel that already has it on. All in all though, I think the car hire area is one where we don't do too bad at all if you shop around. They have to make a bit of money somewhere otherwise we would not have any hire cars. What would it cost to hire the same car in the UK ? 

Do your research and if visiting more than once or twice a year, definately get the top up insurance policy in the UK.

Regards,

 Billbo,

You are fortunate to be going at the right time, I have been bombarded with emails from Doyouspain for the cars the obviously can't get rid of at this time.  Try them during the peak period and you will note a difference.  I have a car from 31st Match to 15th April for £165, full for full and no excess.  You won't get that from Doyouspain.  As for your belief that we don't do too badly on the car hire front, I'm sure you are in the minority with that opinion.  As i say if you don't have kids and can travel outwith the high demand periods you will do well for flights and car hire whilst the rest of us subsidise you during the peak periods.  It's just your luck.  I have used Doyouspain for the past 5 years or so, sadly they have joind ranks with the rest of the bandits.

 Hi jakey620,

The trick is to book well in advance.  You will note from my comment below that I secured a great deal from Rental Cars, one that Doyouspain couldn't even look at and that's not taking into account all their rip off add-ons.  I have also booked 2 weeks in August for £202, it will be nearer £400 it I were to book it now.  As you both point out, shop around is the answer.  Just posted to offer another option, I'm sure we're all in the business of keeping our holiday overheads to a minimum.  Not on a downer on Doyouspain, they are all much the same.

Well, thanks for subsidising me Del, much appreciated  .  I always check a variety of companies at all times. I usually find DYS, Economy Car Hire, or Carjet give you the best deal overall. Very occassionally, one of the airline linked companies comes in best.

Like I said folks, shop around and compare like for like. Oh, and I do go in the summer months as well Del and did note last year the prices were pretty hefty, but compared the price on several occassions. You can sometimes even find that a car you booked early is cheaper closer to the time you depart.

For a long as I can remember going on holiday abroad & the UK (try Center Parks), the prices have been higher during school hol's, also typical of package holiday companies, local taxis, restaurants, drinks. Surely we can all remember the prices of things that crept up by the week as we approach peak season. Nothing new there then.

Cheers,

 No problem Billbo,

The Scots have been subsidising the English for years.

Cheers.

Nowhere more so than in my line of work Del. North Sea Oil & Gas. Still, without all that English technical expertise where would we be eh?

With the latest boom & skills shortage, looks like they are going to need to hang onto me for the next ten years at least !! Good that somewhere is prospering then. I will do my bit try and keep as many of Condado business venture afloat until the good times return for all.

Take care.

 Billbo,

You have a heart of corn, but then again all us North Sea Tigers are all the same.  I built a few riggs myself, then moved on to Norway before heading to the Middle East to assist with their oil and gas program.  Typical scot spreading his wealth and depth of experience to enhance the lives of so many.

 Hello Briggsy,

Once again it is wise to shop around, but try carhireexcess.com.  Good cover for a reasonale premium £39.99 for annual cover.  You will pay 90e for two weeks cover from the rental companies.  This policy allows unlimited European trips, I think the maximum length of any individual hire is 62 days.  If I remember correctly you are covered for £3000 on any one claim and a maximum of £4000 per annum, more than enough.

On the excess insurance bit then I'll quibble over that quid and raise you £7.48 ................ Go via Topcashback

www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/shampers67

Under the 'travel dropdown', click on 'car hire insurance', there are 4 choices all with minimum 21.21% cashback.

I've bought the 'insurance4carhire' policy for the last few years. It's currently £44.99 less your 25.25% cashback, so costs £33.75 per annum. However the 'icarhireinsurance' policy is £39.99 less your 21.21% cashback, so costs £31.51 per annum this year.

I also book my Jet2 flights via Topcashback (£3.03 per flight cashback from outside the UK, and £1.31 from the UK).

I also book my carhire via Topcashback going via moneysupermarket.com (8.08% cashback), then choose Avis where possible, and use my preferred status to get a free upgrade, Avis are a full/full policy, new cars and service is excellent. Register on Avis directly first to get your preferred status, you then just show them your 'red card' in the booking office - got offered an Audi A3 last year instead of a Ford Ka for 1 holiday !

And whilst on about TopCashBack I'm now over a thousand quid better off over the last 3 years of using it 

 Hi Shampers,

Never bothered with cashback before but this one seems worthwhile.  Without confusing me can you explain how this actually works?   I would imagine that when you purchase a product or service you will pay the full asking price and the cashback is allocated to your account via some sort of monetary transfer mechanism.

Yep, you pay the full asking price (I use a cashback credit card to buy things, which i got via topcashback and got cashback for taking the creditcard as well !!  I change my creditcard every year to a 'no interest on purchases' deal) and you build up a balance which i take each time it gets over £20. 

When i take the balance i also take it as Amazon Codes as they give you 105% of your balance value, however you can take as cash direct to your bank account.

Couple of examples.

I moved my gas/lecky from British Gas to British Gas (work that one out) via USwitch via TCB and got £28 for doing so.

I bought the full RAC breakdown package for £108 via TCB and got £60.60 cashback.

I upgraded to ESPN via TCB on Sky for an extra £10 a month subscription, but got £25 cashback and £100 of M&S vouchers.

Also book my airport parking via Holiday Extras via TCB ............

 Cheers Shampers,

Certainly something to think about.  When you say you book or purchase through topcashback is this via their website or using their credit card?

 All TCB does is take you through to the website of the shop you want to buy from, you then buy as normal and for that i use a cashback credit card (currently Santander, the £24 annual fee was covered by £25 cashback as i went via TCB to Santander to order the credit card).

Also use internet explorer when shopping via TCB as it auto tracks better than other browsers (tracking is the key to getting the cashback) otherwise if it doesn't auto track then you have to raise a manual claim, which still means you get the cashback, just takes longer and is a bit of a pain.

One final thing is to have a Spanish credit card, that way there is no exchange loss when the car hire coy takes (rather than blocks) €300 from your credit card when you collect the car, before re-imbursing at a later date. On a sterling credit card you lose out on the exchange difference between buy and sell, likewise much simpler purchasing goods in Spain as no exchange rate loss or commission to be paid out. The potential losses must be less than the annual cost of the card, so depends how much you'll use it.