![]() ![]() Mr Bird says in some cases, this fee can end up being more than the actual cost of hiring the car. While this cover is optional, without it you could be hit with a hefty excess if you do have an accident.ĬHOICE found that at one company, hiring an economy car for a week cost $39.60 a day.īut to reduce your excess from $4500 to $630, you'd have to fork out an extra $30.15 a day. Mr Bird says your biggest fee hit is likely to be the excess reduction fee, which is thought to be how car rental companies make most of their money. We look at the pros and cons of domestic travel insurance to help you decide whether it's right for you. ![]() In these cases, you'll need to compare which company has the best total quote for you. Or, to avoid a refuelling fee, make sure you return the car with a full tank of petrol.įor example, you might be charged more if you're a P-plater, under the age of 25, or if you're only driving one way. Some of these extra costs may be charged as a one-off or daily fee, while others will be a percentage of your total bill.įor example, rather than paying a premium location surcharge to pick up a car from an airport, it might be cheaper to just get a cab to the company's city location. "That only applies to compulsory costs, so the way they get around that is they add in optional costs," Mr Bird says. So, if you see a car advertised for $40 a day, but then $50 is listed next to it, you should assume this higher price is the actual minimum cost. Legally, Mr Bird says a car rental company can't advertise a price that's only part of the compulsory cost to hire, unless they also display the total price just as prominently. ( ABC Open contributor goneoffthebeatentrack) Look for hidden fees Hire cars make it easier to get off the beaten track - but they come with a price. To find out how you can avoid repeating our mistakes, I spoke to Jodi Bird, a travel expert at CHOICE, to get his advice.īe a part of the ABC Everyday community by joining our Facebook group. Overall, we ended up paying about three times more than we were expecting. "That made everything way more expensive because I think our whole trip was more than 1,000km." "Most of our extra charges were because you pay a fee per kilometre. "Then there was a vehicle registration recovery fee, an administration fee, additional driver fee, a credit card fee and insurance," Ana says. The only hire car we could find was already over our budget – and that was just the advertised price online. "Because of COVID there were no hire cars available … I asking people in the city if they wanted to rent their personal car," she says. But that's exactly what happened.Īna, 36, who's based on the Gold Coast, organised the car rental for us and says the whole process was confusing and expensive. What I didn't expect was that I would go on a road trip with a group of women who I met in Darwin. I had expected humidity, sunsets and crocs. Earlier this year, I went on a solo trip to the Northern Territory. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |