car hire in alicante airport

can anyone recommend a good car hire company at alicante airport. All i can hear is people getting ripped off all the time.  

Do you Spain car hire is a car hire broker you can Google it do not book with any car hire company direct you will get screwed don't take out car hire insurance at the hire desk buy a multiple trip car hire insurance excess policy on the internet it will cost you around £50 for the year also pay the full full fuel option at the desk cost around 10eu .

If you take out an annual insurance policy then don't use Drivalia car hire company. They will penalise you for not taking out their insurance at E16.50 per day by finding a miniscule mark on the car which was already there at the time of hiring and charging E200 for repair.  Terrible company to deal with.

Forgot to say Drivalia car hire will not accept any excess insurance policy other than the one that they will try and sell you at the desk telling you all sorts of horror stories about insurance companies not paying for the damage so I phone my insurance company up they said no matter what if I was at fault we will cover you up to 10,000eu so don't book Drivalia. Good luck

windtalker with brokers such as do you spain read the small print as an example

Insurance includes Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) subject to an excess. Excess amount: 1200EUR. You can take the SCDW to remove the excess from our supplier on collection for 13.84EUR a day. Or you can take out damage excess refund insurance with us after you book for only 5.45EUR a day - Total for your booking: 76.30EUR. If you prefer not to take the supplier's excess waiver, a deposit of 950.00EUR will be blocked from your credit card.

I would try Lara Cars or Easy Option cars.  I have used them both in the past and allthough maybe slightly more expensive they don't rip you off (not in my experience anyweay)

The problem with Do You Spain is that they are just that, brokers. When you go to get the car then you are at the mercy of the rental company. None of them accept the 3rd party insurance either issued by Do You Spain or by any other insurance company and will put a charge on your credit card (just like they do in UK) but it depends on the amount. Some will put as much as 950 euro on to your card and, whilst the good ones remove it as soon as you bring the car back, some hold on to it for a month or so and you end up paying charges or losing out on their exchange rate.

We use to use Econorent which is slightly off airport but was quicker than queuing at some of the rental companies desks. It was €400 on your card but removed immediately on return and we never even saw the amount on the statement. It was also full/full or they would mark off how much was in the tank and you'd bring it back with the same in. Their website is still advertising full/full poliicy which is very good.

I used goldcar booked through carjet(dot)com

I paid for the hire at carjet (dot) com

then paid the insurance from gold car

car was a 4 door corsa 1 month hire £75  plus 208 for the insurance.  Whole of November for less than £300, can't see the rip off there.

£208 for 1months insurance not a rip off?

You can get an annual policy to cover the excess for £40.00.....

Sometimes I feel that I am wasting my time or hear ,you give people advice on how not to get screwed  by car hire companies by telling them to take a multiple trip car hire insurance policy for 12 months that will only cost you approximately £45.00 for the year and then straight after your post some clown come up bragging about the great deal they just got on a car hire for the whole month for £75.00 + £208.00 for insurance excess policy l have just booked for one months car hire for January it cost me £70.00 I will use my multiple trip excess policy the same as I have been doing for the last nine years.and as I hire cars every six weeks throughout the year I will continue to use my CAR HIRE MULTIPLE TRIP INSURANCE POLICY THAT COST ME £45.00 FOR THE YEAR IT ALSO COVERS MY WIFE AND MY DAUGHTER AT NO EXTRA COST.😁

Your post about some"Clown bragging" might be one of the reasons why folk are leaving this site, that poster obversly is quite at ease, and more then pleased with the deal they got, as you are with yours, nether the less that doesn't make them any more the clown then someone who gets annoyed because they prefer not to listen to others and do it the way they are happy with.

Baz 1946 your post is not relivent at all  what advice would you give to anybody hiring a car for a month in Spain.

I've always found COYS rent a car reliable,they meet you at the airport and you end up paying what you we're told at the start.

Baz 1946 your post is not relivent at all  what advice would you give to anybody hiring a car for a month in Spain.

Well, windtalker I certainly wouldn't call someone a bragging clown just because they didn't use your advice to the letter, it's a personal choice with what ever you feel happy with.

Advice for a months rental, I rent from do you Spain, I buy the full to empty, I buy the rental companies insurance, I don't consider anything they sell me as any kind of rip of because like all business if they don't make a profit they don't last.

I know some who have had the bought UK yearly insurance and stood at the rental office arguing about the fact they don't accept it, and also don't like the fact that the rental lodges a large amount of euros on the card, good start for some folks holidays. I know one couple who had big problems with one of these polices not wanting to pay out, I don't know anyone who has had no problems, plenty on here will say different.

I prefer to pay the insurance price, as many others do, drop the car of and not have to think about it again, in your case as you visit every 6 weeks it must pay you to do it the way you do.

It's a personal choice for peace of mind, in my instance it's my peace of mind, and as you are aware any  insurance cant be a total waste of money, but a life saver if you have it and need it.

My best friend is Spanish, lives in the UK, even he buys the rental insurance for peace of mind.

If no one takes my advice they are not clowns.

There are some slight inaccuracies within this thread and they are coming from both sides of the boxing ring!!

Here's my twopenneth..

1. Buying additional CDW insurance cover is entirely OPTIONAL and there is NO obligation whatsoever for you to buy this from ANYONE. Yes, certain hire companies will do their utmost to pressurise the hirer to take their insurance cover and some will restrict benefits or penalise the hirer with charges that might otherwise be waived if they buy cover at the desk. Anyone who is under the impression that this type of cover is mandatory or must be bought because a particularly hire company says so is misguided.

2. For the relative peace of mind, buying additional CDW insurance cover makes perfect sense but there is NO financial logic in paying more than you need to for it! As a very rough rule of thumb, for a basic entry level car, the hire company will charge approx 12€ per day, versus an online booking broker charging approx 6€ per day, versus an independant online insurer at approx 2€ per day. It's important to understand that in such a scenario, the 2€ policy will be every bit as valid as the 12€ one. It's also worth considering that the company selling the 2€ policy will still be making a profit. Imagine hypothetically that Tesco were selling a loaf of bread for £1 and Sainsbury's were selling exactly the same thing for £6. A daft analogy maybe but THAT'S how warped the price difference is with car-hire insurance!

3. In virtually all cases (apart from a handful of unethical operators) any large credit card authorisation (typically in the range of 800€ - 1200€ depending on car group) will be just that (an AUTHORISATION) i.e. it WONT come off your card and be refunded later. It will only come off the car in the event of an accident (and the purpose of the insurance previously mentioned is to repay the same amount back to your card so you are never out of pocket).

4. ANY fuel policy other than full/full will ALWAYS cost you more money by comparison (you cannot win).

 

4. ANY fuel policy other than full/full will ALWAYS cost you more money by comparison (you cannot win).

Growler, how did you work that out?    I checked a rental for 13 days (Lowest cost car) and with Full to Full it is 131.38€....Full to Empty, same car, same days, is 86.78€...Difference of 44.60€ with a refund of any excess fuel.

I paid 37.04€ for a full tank with a Fiat car recently. 

coy cars

Because, baz, when you go to pick the car up they will more than likely charge you something like 70 euro for the 37.04 euro worth of petrol. Worst one I heard of was Goldcar which charged 90 euro for a full tank in an Opel Astra.

Because, baz, when you go to pick the car up they will more than likely charge you something like 70 euro for the 37.04 euro worth of petrol. Worst one I heard of was Goldcar which charged 90 euro for a full tank in an Opel Astra.

Have no doubt what you mention is the case Mariedav, but my most recent rental car invoice shows the Fuel Cost as 37.04€...Plus of course all the other bits and pieces like insurance and Tax, I added everything up and the final amount corresponds to my payment on the credit card.

Previous to this I took a car back with "Over the empty" fuel in it and got a refund on the fuel back within  the month to the credit card, not much granted but still a refund.

I am with Baz on this he speaks by far the most sense on this thread. At the end of the day the car hire companies have to make some money to remain in business. The price may be cheap in some instances but the cost will be far greater if anything goes wrong and you forfeit the retained amount on your credit card.