New EU-wide rules promise more clarity on car rental pricing

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The Competition & Markets Authority recently released details of an EU-wide settlement which it has agreed with Avis Budget, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Europcar, Sixt and Hertz. Within six months, all of these firms will make fundamental changes to the way in which they sell their cars online.

The list of agreed changes is long and varies from firm to firm depending on their existing processes. You should expect to see:

Car rental montage

Young Driver Surcharges included in headline prices

Clear information about pricing of optional extras

All optional extras to made available for purchase during booking and not held back for sale only at pick up

Clearer information about key terms and conditions

Clearer upfront information about the size of the credit or debit card preauthorisation that will be required

Optional waiver and insurance products to be outlined during the booking process, including the pricing, exclusions and applicable excesses

Information about the pre and post rental vehicle inspection process

No damage payments to be made to credit or debit cards before the customer is given a ‘reasonable opportunity’ to challenge them

A BBC report on these changes mentioned one which was not covered in the CMA press release. Customers will no longer be forced to pay upfront for a non-refundable full tank of petrol, however full the tank when the car is returned. This may end up being the biggest change. This is not usually an issue in the UK but is a well known problem when hiring in Europe.

To be honest, at least with Hertz (which is the firm I use the most), I have never had any major issues with clarity during the booking the process. I did, however, once have a Hertz employee in London make up a fake damage claim when I returned the car and then offer to waive it if I paid him £50 in cash.

More information on these changes can be found on the CMA website here.

Category

Avis and Avis Preferred, Hertz and Gold Plus Rewards

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Oliver says:

19 Jul19 July 10:41

Excellent. The only thing in the world I hate spending money on is car hire. Mostly because of all the hidden charges that they hit you with when you go to collect. Also that they take £1000 deposit on a card and want to charge the whole lot for a scratch. Bring on airbnb for cars
Kim H says:

19 Jul19 July 10:43

Interesting re Hertz and spurious damage claims, as I am currently pretty hacked off with Hertz Austria. Rented a car in Vienna, great car, no problems. Couldn’t get it checked over when I returned it as the pick up and drop off are in separate locations at the airport and the drop off office was shut- but the pick up office took the keys.
Got an invoice a few days later charging me €70 for damage with no details at all. Emailed, called and tweeted Hertz UK customer service, who all were unable to give me details as the rental agreement was still ‘open’ in Austria. Eventually got an email a week or so later saying that the charge would be refunded (but no one could give me any details)…. which it was but I am down the bank charges as the wrong credit card was on file.

Then I got a notification by post of a speeding fine and a Hertz admin charge, for which I had to fax (?!?) my credit card details to Hertz Austria’s fines dept. So while they’d quite happily take the charge from my card for made-up damage, they couldn’t do so to satisfy their admin charge…!

For the record I emailed a photo of the document they wanted by fax and they seem to have taken the money, although the email was never acknowledged.
Roger says:

19 Jul19 July 11:01

Having previously enjoyed 50% off rack rates with Avis as a shareholder in Avis Europe (no longer, bought out by Avis Inc), I gave up on Avis when they introduced new T+Cs converting charges to € – at their rate. No problem in Euroland but DCC elsewhere. 🙁

I now use brokers such as the former Holiday Autos with suitable discounts. The last two times have shown local rental brands in US and South Africa, so easier to make a choice.

I’ve not had great problems with scams, other than the seemingly mandatory ZAR 20 ‘refuelling’ charge at CPT by different agencies, not huge but symptomatic of a corrupt system.
- What's the Point says:
  
  19 Jul19 July 15:16
  
  A S Africa car rental desk is the only time I have ever had my credit card cloned – in over 20 years of using credit cards.
Mark says:

19 Jul19 July 14:10

Slightly off topic.. I’m considering buying a year’s rental insurance from worldwideinsurance.com which will enable us to refuse CDW when we rent in the Caribbean/US and cover the excess on our upcoming trip to Italy.

Anyone have any experience of using them / making a claim?
- Nick says:
  
  19 Jul19 July 18:43
  
  Yes, before I took out my Amex plat, I used the car hire excess firms. Worked great when I needed to make a claim. Make sure that £55 cover includes North America. Sounds cheap. I used to pay around £100 a year for worldwide cover in 2012
  - Mark says:
    
    19 Jul19 July 22:04
    
    It’s actually worldwideinsure.com – £55 is the deluxe worldwide annual rate for rentals up to 31 days.
  - Mark says:
    
    19 Jul19 July 22:10
    
    It does include North America – states all countries in the world.
Rich says:

19 Jul19 July 21:52

No experience of the company you mention, but I have used Insurance4carhire.com. They were incredibly slow in sorting out a relatively small claim earlier this year.
- AliC says:
  
  20 Jul20 July 08:32
  
  I’m in dispute with Hertz UK at the moment re CDW. The Hertz website says in more than one place that it is optional cover in most cases – in fact, it specifically says it is only compulsory for prestige vehicles.
  My quote listed CDW as an option that had not been included – along with one-way rental, young driver surcharge, additional driver surcharge, sat-nav etc (none of which I had selected). I always refuse the extra insurance in my online bookings and when the sales agent at the counter tries to upsell it.
  However, my post-rental invoice for a 10 day rental came with the nasty surprise of GBP180+ for CDW, despite that it had not been discussed at the counter.
  Hertz is arguing that CDW is compulsory in the UK and I ought to have shown evidence of existing insurance to be excepted from the charge. I argue that I had not selected the service, nothing in their terms and conditions says it’s compulsory and if they wanted proof of other cover, they ought to have asked for it – certainly they should have told me they were intending to charge it so we could have had the discussion. Has Hertz only recently started quoting without CDW? I’m a fairly regular renter and this is not a charge I’ve ever needed to discuss with them before.
  My responses from Hertz sadly fail to engage on this (they seem to think it is enough to say that (they think) the charge is correct – without giving supporting evidence).
  Maybe I ought to write to my insurer and let them take it up.
  
  PS Kim H -I understand that the car hire companies can’t charge your card for speeding fines etc because paying a fine is technically admitting an offence, which is not something they can do on your behalf. Admin charge wouldn’t be subject to that rule.
  - Mark says:
    
    20 Jul20 July 11:04
    
    I think the easiest solution here would be to dispute the charge with your credit/debit card provider, including the relevant evidence, and Hertz will then have to justify the charge to them.
    
    I doubt that your insurer would be interested in taking it up since the fact that you had it presumably reduced the risk to them anyway.
  - Kim H says:
    
    20 Jul20 July 13:53
    
    Ah, thanks for explaining that Ali C. It was only the admin charge – yet another weird Hertz thing clearly!
    
    I think CDW is required in the UK but only as some form of insurance – and most companies have something included as standard, but that is any CDW / general insurance with any excess…. I once hired from Sixt at heathrow (will not start a rant about them) where the excess was £2000 if I didn’t pay for the excess waiver at £6/day….
    
    Surely if it is illegal not to have it, its illegal to sell car hire without it?! I would definitely do as Mark suggests and instruct your card provider to dispute it…