Tips to avoid car rental scams

[Clamman73]

I'm going with Budget @MCO for the second time this fall...first time went smooth a few years ago. Last year had hertz...it was fine. I booked direct through the website with a discount...just have to keep an eye out for a good one like 40% off whatever their outrageous standard rate.
My regular insurance covers the rental (I bring a photocopy of my card in case), I bring quarters and dollar bills in a separate pouch that I keep handy and tell them no about any upgrades, gas fill, etc. I have an intermediate car on reserve for $262 for 12days.
I take a few pics before I go, but when you get back they just glance at the car to make sure the bumper isn't dragging or something obvious happened, and they check to see if the tank is filled. Usually takes a minute when I bring the car back and I'm rushing off to the TSA.

 

[flynnibus]

holy cow... I rent cars non-stop for business travel and never have stories like these. But I have had companies in Fl try to scrutinize the car at pickup (noting everything on the form).. think that was enterprise in Jacksonville.

I would never rent a car through a 3rd party booker.. except like hotwire (tho thats not as great a deal as it used to be).. there is no need. Sign up for the loyalty programs on their websites directly, and shop the different vendors on their own websites. Avoid the C-tier renters and all should be good. Florida is like one of the cheapest rental markets in the country - it shouldn't be painful.

Never buy their insurance
Never buy their pre-paid or drop off gas prices
Never buy their add-ons (navigation, etc)
Look the car over when you pick it up for anything significant and be on your way

 

[andrelaplume]

About this loss of use thing. Has anyone had experience with them trying to force you to pay that after you've been in an accident. I mean they could say it takes 3 days to get the car into the shop to get looked at another week before they can get the car into the shop and a week to repair it before you know it are they charging you two weeks at the rate you would have rented the car... or some other rate... how does that work ...it sounds like a scam to me and don't these insurance companies have some kind of insurance on the cars anyway and finally wouldnt of my insurance cover that.... I guess I have to call and ask... to me I was happy to pay $10 a day to avoid all this aggravation now I'm not so sure I wouldnt get the aggravation anyway

 

[Swissmiss]

A little tip I learned from my last rental: don't assume that the "loyalty program" (whatever it is called by whatever rental company) rates are the cheapest for that company. Last year while shopping around for a rental and booking directly on the company website I saw that loyalty members save X percent - I continued my reservation without and then went back to become a member and then edited the reservation adding the loyalty number. The price went up - significantly! I tried/compared numerous times over the next few weeks to make sure that was not a fluke (it wasn't). While in the end I did rent from that company (best deal overall) I did so without putting in the loyalty number.

 

[righttrack]

holy cow... I rent cars non-stop for business travel and never have stories like these. But I have had companies in Fl try to scrutinize the car at pickup (noting everything on the form).. think that was enterprise in Jacksonville.

I would never rent a car through a 3rd party booker.. except like hotwire (tho thats not as great a deal as it used to be).. there is no need. Sign up for the loyalty programs on their websites directly, and shop the different vendors on their own websites. Avoid the C-tier renters and all should be good. Florida is like one of the cheapest rental markets in the country - it shouldn't be painful.

Never buy their insurance
Never buy their pre-paid or drop off gas prices
Never buy their add-ons (navigation, etc)
Look the car over when you pick it up for anything significant and be on your way

This is the advice I would follow and is pretty much equal to my own practices, with one, new exception.

Toll charges are in some places, not sure about FL, are cashless and billed regardless of if you have EZPass, or Tollpass, or whatever. That means that the registrant of the car receives a bill in the mail if the car passes a toll if no EZPass is present. The rental car places then charge you for these tolls after the fact at a significant markup. Take your own EZpass/Tollpass, if you have one, if not, you're stuck taking theirs unless you're fortunate enough not to travel in a place where such tolls exist. I'm not sure about FL yet.

 

[flynnibus]

This is the advice I would follow and is pretty much equal to my own practices, with one, new exception.

Toll charges are in some places, not sure about FL, are cashless and billed regardless of if you have EZPass, or Tollpass, or whatever. That means that the registrant of the car receives a bill in the mail if the car passes a toll if no EZPass is present. The rental car places then charge you for these tolls after the fact at a significant markup. Take your own EZpass/Tollpass, if you have one, if not, you're stuck taking theirs unless you're fortunate enough not to travel in a place where such tolls exist. I'm not sure about FL yet.

Florida is sun pass... Which after years of promises still is not compatible with ezpass.

Planning ahead for floridas toll roads is mandatory... But afaik they are not cashless yet... Just exact change in many spots.

 

[moofam]

Hi, We rented a car out of Tampa and the total upgraded charges at the desk doubled the reservation from about $200 to $400. We called our agent back in TX and asked about the insurance...he told us we were covered for everything except 'loss of use.' He then said though that he could add it to our existing policy for about $7 for the remaining 4 months of the policy and, I could cancel it when I got home and get the unused portion for the rest of the policy credited back to me. We then went back to the counter the next day, told them we were covered for all the insurance and had the $200 credited back to us. We did this and the total charge for adding it to my policy for the 8 days was $1. On the next two trips where I needed a rental, we did the same thing. Worth talking with your insurance agent about this before hand. The toll charge is a total rip off as well. Paid it once, will never be fooled again, about $12-15/day, and we didn't end up needing it at all, but they scare you at the counter!

 

[Nemo14]

Hi, We rented a car out of Tampa and the total upgraded charges at the desk doubled the reservation from about $200 to $400. We called our agent back in TX and asked about the insurance...he told us we were covered for everything except 'loss of use.' He then said though that he could add it to our existing policy for about $7 for the remaining 4 months of the policy and, I could cancel it when I got home and get the unused portion for the rest of the policy credited back to me. We then went back to the counter the next day, told them we were covered for all the insurance and had the $200 credited back to us. We did this and the total charge for adding it to my policy for the 8 days was $1. On the next two trips where I needed a rental, we did the same thing. Worth talking with your insurance agent about this before hand. The toll charge is a total rip off as well. Paid it once, will never be fooled again, about $12-15/day, and we didn't end up needing it at all, but they scare you at the counter!

We generally rent out of Dollar in Orlando and we've rented often enough to know what we're doing, so generally we just deny all those offers in one breath and move on to renting the car. We've never really been hassled about it there. However, when we've rented in Tampa, we found the agents there to be much more aggressive about trying to sell you all the extras. We still deny them, but it's a much more bothersome process there.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

This is the advice I would follow and is pretty much equal to my own practices, with one, new exception.

Toll charges are in some places, not sure about FL, are cashless and billed regardless of if you have EZPass, or Tollpass, or whatever. That means that the registrant of the car receives a bill in the mail if the car passes a toll if no EZPass is present. The rental car places then charge you for these tolls after the fact at a significant markup. Take your own EZpass/Tollpass, if you have one, if not, you're stuck taking theirs unless you're fortunate enough not to travel in a place where such tolls exist. I'm not sure about FL yet.

Can't be done because FL uses Sunpass and the east coast's E-Z pass is not compatable with theirs...

 

[Mike_Ea]

We also had bad experience with Alamo... They are on our never use list because of the horrible customer service.

Same. I will never use Alamo again. The line was horrible as well. I had to wait 30 minutes while every other rental car had almost no one waiting. I was kicking myself for my last minute switch to Alamo just to save $5 or so. The employees had no urgency either.. I compared them to the sloths in Zootopia. I stood there and watched it take a guy a whole minute to grab a stapler and staples one stack of papers.

Then I finally got up there and the service was no better and the same of what you guys experienced. One thing I did learn though there was no need for me to go with the option to "drive out full bring it back empty" I was there for 4 days and just driving to the parks primarily and my tank hardly moved at all.

 

[parkhopper1213]

I would love to know what credit card company you have that covers the loss of use charge. That is the only thing I am ever concerned with because I know my car insurance and credit card don't cover it.

Its a VISA card offered by Wells Fargo. Discover will insure you up to $25,000, but that does not include loss of use. Check with your car insurance company. Maybe they offer loss of use. The rental car companies are making a lot of money selling loss of use insurance.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

I would never rent a car through a 3rd party booker.. except like hotwire (tho thats not as great a deal as it used to be).. there is no need.

Actually, my advice would be to avoid Hotwire, unless the deal is really good. I had a bad experience at LAX, and now I want to be able to know which company I'm getting to make sure that local office is up to snuff. We waited over 2 hours for our car late at night, and online reviews suggest that isn't all that unusual for them. Maybe at MCO, all of the major companies are up to par; I'm sure the users here would collectively know if there were a "bad" company in Orlando.

 

[thomas998]

Actually, my advice would be to avoid Hotwire, unless the deal is really good. I had a bad experience at LAX, and now I want to be able to know which company I'm getting to make sure that local office is up to snuff. We waited over 2 hours for our car late at night, and online reviews suggest that isn't all that unusual for them. Maybe at MCO, all of the major companies are up to par; I'm sure the users here would collectively know if there were a "bad" company in Orlando.

Alamo is to be avoided in Orlando. I've used them in other cities, but Orlando's Alamo is crap.

 

[SuperDaveSC]

I rent from Alamo at SFB every trip with no problems. Usually no lines at all.

 

[anchorman314]

We've used both Hertz and Alamo at MCO, just picking whichever one has the size we need for a better price. The closest we came to having a problem with Alamo was a misunderstanding on the insurance. The agent asked if we wanted the extra insurance, and I had replied "No, just the car." She took that to mean the daily coverage for collision, but not the personal injury. I meant no insurance period...just the actual car. That was easily resolved by redoing some of the paperwork and was only about an extra 5 minutes.

 

[parkhopper1213]

I forgot this little tidbit. We rent the car by the hotel versus the airport to avoid the added airport fees. Most places will pick you up at your hotel. But you are on their schedule. Just cause the place says they are open at 8:00 doesn't mean they can pick you up and get you to your car. Last time we had to wait 2 hours. It was first come first serve. Then when we went to return the car there was no one there when the place should have been open. We only rent cars now when we have to. Otherwise its not worth the trouble.

 

[rob0519]

My wife took the kids to WDW one year without me when I had no vacation time. She had booked a car at Alamo / MCO. Well it turns out there are 2 flights a day (747s) from the UK that land within an hour of each other. At that time a major tour provider was using Alamo as it's preferred vendor.

She calls me saying the like looks like its more than an hour long. I ask her to look up and down the terminal and tell me who has the shortest line. She says Avis has almost no one. I hang up. Log into my Avis Wizard account, reserve a car, call her back and tell her to get out of the line and go to Avis. They were in a car in less than 15 minutes.

I'm not saying Alamo is bad, just that they do a huge business in Orlando. We typically use Avis or Budget.

 

[POLY LOVER]

All I can recommend is stay away from PAYLESS car rental. Very bad experience with them.