The number one rule of saving money on rental cars is, if you can do your trip by public transport, then use that instead. Pretty much all across Europe and Latin America, chances are, you can get pretty much anywhere with a bus, train, boat, or minibus. And where you can’t get to, you can hire a driver for the day.
If you are in a situation where you need a rental car, then there are a few ways to make it affordable.
I’ve rented cars now in different parts of Europe, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa and managed to do so while staying within my student budget. I tend to use Kayak, Rentalcars, Discovercars, Expedia, Orbitz, etc. to find car rentals. Basically anything but the car rental companies’ sites. I’ve found that rental companies tend to overprice the cars listed on their websites because they’ve automatically included all of the insurance coverage.
Car Rental Insurance
Never skimp on insurance.
This can be the biggest cost of a rental. Never skimp on insurance.That said, check if you have a credit card that provides secondary or primary insurance for car rentals. Many American credit cards tend to offer this. For example, American Express tends to offer secondary insurance on rentals for many of their card holders. If you’re a platinum card holder, you’re automatically enrolled in primary insurance. But most US residents with an Amex card can pay a flat rate of $24.95 per rental (up to 30 days) for up to $100,000 of primary coverage for damage or theft of a rental vehicle, and up to $100,000 of accidental death or dismemberment coverage. Coverage is pretty much worldwide, unless you’re renting vehicles in Australia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, or New Zealand.
To activate your coverage through your credit card, simply decline any insurance offered by the rental company at the counter and pay with the credit card with the insurance coverage. Note that declining the rental company’s insurance does often mean that the rental company will put a massive hold on your card, sometimes in the thousands of dollars. If you aren’t able to handle this kind of hold, you will need to accept the rental company’s insurance.
If you don’t have a credit card with insurance, you’ll need to either take the car rental company’s insurance (there are different coverage levels available, so select at your own risk), or take insurance with a third party provider. If you book a rental with a third party website, they’ll often offer insurance packages during the online checkout process. You can compare their rates with those on the rental company’s website. But in general, third parties offer cheaper rates.
Liability Coverage
However, liability coverage is rarely included with credit cards. In certain countries, it is mandatory to have third party liability coverage. Mexico and Costa Rica are two examples. You can either pay for coverage with the rental company directly, but sometimes the mandatory liability coverage amount is included in the rental agreement either on the rental company’s site or on third party sites. When I rented a car in Mexico, many cars on Discovercars already came with the minimum legal amount of coverage.
Extra Insurance
Rental companies will offer many different extra insurance add-ons. Depending on where you are driving and the quality of the roads, you might want to add them. In Namibia and in South Africa, I have added tire and windshield insurance because I knew I would be driving on dirt roads with a lot of sharp rocks and stones kicking up. Since the risk of a flat tire or broken windscreen was high, I decided to rather pay the small fee for extra coverage.
One-way Rentals
In some regions, you can rent a car in one location and return it in an entirely other location without a fee. For example, when I rented a car in Dubrovnik, Croatia and returned it in Zadar there was no penalty. Same when I rented in Munich and returned the car in Strasbourg, France. In general, one-way rentals are free in Europe. However, in South Africa, a one-way rental fee can be up to $100 if in South Africa, and otherwise $500 if returning in Namibia. Much of Latin America also operates on a one-way fee principle, with fees increasing the further away from the original pick-up location you drop off the car. Be sure to check the fees before you book your rental – depending on rates, you may have to adjust your itinerary to be round-trip.
Crossing Borders with a Rental Car
Depending on which countries you want to drive your car into, you may either have to pay additional fees or not be allowed to cross the border with your rental. For example, to drive a rental from South Africa to any neighbouring country, you will need to pay a fee for a letter of permission from the rental company. Depending on the country, fees will vary. Europcar charged 1330 ZAR when I took the car from Cape Town to Namibia. But if I wanted to drive the car into Mozambique or Zimbabwe, I would have had to pay 3180 ZAR (about $220).
In Europe, I’ve often driven across several countries and never paid a cross-border fee. Maybe I missed the memo back then, or maybe the rental company didn’t charge for it. In any case, if you do drive into a country and your car rental company did demand you pay for permission before crossing a border, you would have breached your rental contract and your insurance with the rental company would be void. Now, I’m not sure what happens if you were covered through a third party, say Amex.
In some cases, the rental company won’t allow you to drive their car into certain countries. For example, Albania tends to be excluded from the list of countries you can take a rental car into.
Limited vs Unlimited Mileage
Some rental companies will restrict how many kilometres you can put on the car based on a per day calculation of the rental period. If you want to drive more than this, then you will need to pay per extra kilometre driven. This is quite common in South Africa. However, foreigners are able to rent cars with unlimited kilometres included in the rental. So if you have a foreign friend, now’s the time to bring them along.
I’ve rented a car once with limited mileage – 200km per day to be exact. If you know exactly where you will be going, you can calculate your expected mileage using Google Maps, and then tack a few extra kilometres on as a buffer. If it’s less than the maximum included in the rental, then you’re good to go.
Vehicle Type
Different types of vehicles and features will affect the rental price. Generally, the smaller a car is, the less the rental will cost. SUVs will cost more. Transmission type also matters. In Europe, Latin America and Africa, cars with manual transmission are cheaper than those with automatic. Unless, it’s an SUV we’re talking about, in which case the price difference between a manual and automatic SUV is inconsequential. The size of the car also tends to proportionally affect the size of the coverage and deposit on the car.
Other General Saving Tips
Beware of hidden add-ons.
Rent your car at a location that isn’t the airport. Airport rentals tend to come with surcharges for the premium location. That said, airports also have the largest option of cars available, and sometimes might be your only choice.
Extra drivers cost money. Each additional driver that you add to the rental agreement will come at a charge (about $30 flat rate in South Africa). So you’ll want to reconsider how many designated drivers you really will need for your trip.
Refill your fuel tank before you drop off your car. Not only will the rental company charge a flat rate fee for filling tanks that aren’t refilled, but they will also charge more per litre than comparable gas stations. So take the extra five minutes and refill before dropping off your vehicle.
Rental rates are charged on per day flat-rate basis. So if you go an hour over, you pay for a full day. That means you should schedule your pick-up and drop-off within 24-hour periods. So if you land at Heathrow at 7am and want to pick your car up at 9am, be sure you can drop-off your car before 9am on the drop-off day. Some car rental companies will only be open for pick-up and drop-off during traditional 9 to 5 business hours on weekdays, and less hours on weekends. Make sure your pick-up and drop-off times fall within the window of opening hours to maximise the time you have the rental car for, depending on your trip needs.