car hire in alicante airport

Baz, I'm assuming you'll agree that any car hire prices quoted WONT include any fuel charges, regardless of the type of fuel policy you choose? I'm also assuming that your 2 quoted prices of 131.38 versus 86.78 were specifically for 13 days car hire? (i.e. although they are 2 different fuel options, I'm suggesting that no fuel is included in those prices).

There is no doubt that with a Full/Full policy, providing you return the car Full, then you will pay ZERO to the hire company for FUEL and therefore you are in total control of how much fuel you use, where you choose to buy it from and how much you are prepared to pay for it.

With a Full/Empty or Full/Refund Unused policy, you MUST buy the initial full tank of fuel from the hire company to begin with and regardless of how little YOU can fill a car up for, you wont buy that first full tank from a hire company for 44.60 or less.

In your comparison, your apparent "saving" of 44.60 will be offset by 2x currently unknown values (a) the cost of a full tank from hire company, plus (b) the cost of any fuel that you leave in the tank at the time you hand the car back.

Whilst I agree that the initial maths comparison in your example looks compelling, the fact is that Full/Full puts you in total control whereas any alternative option WILL cost you those 2 extra amounts NEITHER of which can be predicted with any reliability, particularly over a 13 day period.  

Baz, I don't post that often on here mainly due to the reasons you mentioned further back in the thread. I'd just like to clarify that anything I've posted here is purely with the intention of helping other forum members and not to argue for the sake of arguing!!!

I agree with your earlier sentiment that people are perfectly entitled to buy whatever they wish and from whoever they like without fear of retribution!

However, having noticed that you're happy buying top-up insurance from the hire company I'd like to recommend you at least consider checking out some alternatives as they will most certainly save you far more than the cost of your tank of fuel. I'm not sure whether posting links is allowed so I'll just say carhireexcess dot com will charge £24.57 for 13 days cover.

Hope this message is received in the spirit it's intended  ;o)

Chaircolt said... "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."

This is precisely what the insurance is for. If the hirer chooses to buy a policy from a different source then one function of such a policy is to redeem any amount charged to a credit card (e.g. in the case of accidental damage etc).

It makes perfect sense therefore to have such a policy.

It doesn't make sense to pay more for a policy than you need to. Exactly the same principle applies as if you were buying a basic life insurance policy.

Hi Growler.

As I have mentioned I use do you Spain, the company that everyone loves to hate due to it seems the rip of, anyway on the site you have three fuel options, any, full to empty and full to full..Which they seem to recommend, haven't a clue why, I visit Spain very often and always use them and do try to use the same rental via do you, my last trip I paid as I said 37.04€ for fuel..Why the 4 cents? for a Fiat car.

I did do a scan of my last invoice to show on here but couldn't include it, breakdown was..

CC FEE 3.30€......FUEL 37.04€.....SERVICE CHARGE.....14.45€.....SCDW 13 DAYS 143.00€....TAXABLE CHARGES 197.79€....V.A.T......41.54€......Making a total of 239 .33€.

Converting the €€€€ rate to ££££ I paid £170.46 via my credit card....Div by 13 days comes to £13.11 a day rental, checking my calendar I was actually there for 14 days but charged for 13 days, the rental of the Fiat car came to about 25€  so I paid about £18.00 on top of the whole.

I don't / cant blame anyone who takes out the UK insurance due to so much cheaper, me, I cant be bothered to, (1) I don't consider it any kind of rip of, (2) as I said every business, and company has to make a profit...One way or the other, and at 25€ for a nearly new car they didn't make much on that.

I run a couple of business's here in the UK and no need to say if I don't make a profit, I sack people, I close down, people lose dignity,  being jobless could well lose the home.

Many folk here in the UK have SKY at somewhere between £30.00 & £80.00 a month for many rubbish channels...But this is not a rip of,  smoke £40.00 + a week and think nothing of it, many other items which they pay for are not considered a rip of. 

But come to Spain and to read on here everything they touch in Spain is a rip of.

It's not Do You Spain that's the rip-off. They are only a booking agency. It's the company you actually end up with at the airport that try and take it to the limit. Like they won't accept the insurance that Do You Spain have sold (nor any other 3rd party insurance), or some that charge double the cost of the fuel in the car. Like the ones that actually put the 900 euro or whatever on your card instead of just holding it as a deposit.

You sound like you got a good one that only charged for the fuel you actually got so which company was it?

Hi Mariedav.

FIREFLY, last one on the right in the Alicante arrivals hall, I try to have them all the time, had a mixture of the others over the years, never used to get the refund on fuel but the last three times have done so, largest amount I think was about 24€.

I did buy the UK insurance (Via do you) one year for more as a test to see if it would go, it wasn't worth the hassle so bought the rental one and got my money back from the UK one once I came back.

I have stood behind folk who have bought the UK insurance and listened to the arguments that the rental try to do to get out of it, I have no idea if you would get the run around from your bought one should the unavoidable happen. 

In my business I deal with insurance claims, and hear about others quite a lot, I have yet to meet a straight forward one...Like one last week when one customer came to me very annoyed because she had had a prang and the accident claim came to just under £3.800..(For a scrape she said) when she bashed a neighbours bumper... The damaged parties insurance company rented their own customer a car, and charged her company over £1.900 for 6 days rental.

Hubby did have an "accident" in UK last year when he was back by himself. Hit a pot hole over 6 inches deep with a metal drain cover sticking up from it. Burst a tyre and damaged the alloy wheel rim. Cost was £66 for a new tyre (had to do it himself as it only had one of those "mini" spares in it and £118 for the wheel rim.

He claimed from the annual insurance and they paid up 3 days later. All they wanted was the credit card bill for both items and didn't even want a claim form as it came to less than £200.

As he still hires a care 3 or 4 times a year, then the £39.99 annual policy makes more sense than a hundred quid a time for 10 days hire.

As he still hires a care 3 or 4 times a year, then the £39.99 annual policy makes more sense than a hundred quid a time for 10 days hire.

Yes I can see that it does.

I am with Baz on this he speaks by far the most sense on this thread.

Hi, l have used both Drivalla and like Baz FIREFLY both through Arguscarhire. Drivalla do provide good service, are friendly but are more expensive especially with their Insurance and Full/full policy. Ffor a change last week used Firefly buying insurance , the car cost me £69 for 11 days, a third of Drivallas costs. Yes l got grief over the insurance from the teller, but let it wash over me and yes they held €1000 on my credit card, but  wasn't using it so what the heck, and yes was fleeced £56 for 5/8 of a tank of petrol with dubious exchange rates but YES they got to make some money and l still saved over half considering l had no fuel expenses. So win win for both and to the point of this thread would RECOMMEND