Things You Need to Know About Renting a Car
Car rental expenses are more difficult to control than any other forms of travel. It is because of all the extra equipments, surcharges and fees. Features like Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation, insurance policy, fuel, drop-off policy, late return policy, taxes and many other charges always makes car rental expense unpredictable. The main difficulty is that you can't know the total bill for car rental service until you return the car.
When we are planning a next trip, we are looking in search engines - Google or Yahoo, for the best possible car rental deals. Because of different marketing efforts from an online travel provider side, usually we can find some low rental rate. However, when we are at the rental desk in the airport the car rental clerk is asking tens of questions, like - would like to have GPS navigation, do you need insurance, we can upgrade your car for just $5 more per day and so on. In the end, you are confused and earlier arranged low rental rate disappears. Therefore, below you can read a couple of things you need to know before rent a car.
Deposit
If you plan budget for your travel, then you need to take into account the deposit which car rental company will block in your credit card while you use the car. Usually it is the same amount as your total car rental costs. When you will return the car, they will unblock it, and it will be available for you within next 14 days.
Insurance
It is the most dangerous feature where you can start to lose prior booked low car rate. There are several insurance types, including, but not limited - Collision Damage Waiver (CDW), Liability Insurance Supplement (LIS), Personal Accident Insurance (PAI) and Personal Effects Coverage (PEC). Generally, insurance for a car rental can cost you from $8 up to $40 per day. From all insurance types, I totally counted 25, you should to consider to take CDW and LIS. CDW will cover repair and replacement costs for a car, LIS protects you from lawsuits if you have injured anyone or damaged property when driving.
However, before you take some of the car rental insurance, you should to check if you already haven't some of it, included in some other insurance. Sometimes your credit card provider includes traveler insurance that already covers car rentals risks. If it is the case, you should to read terms and conditions of it very carefully, as you might need to pay for car rental services with this exact credit card, and it can also be with different restrictions. In addition, if you purchase travelers insurance separately then you can include car rental insurance that will be enough in order to cover possible risks.
GPS Navigation
It will cost you from $8 up to $15 per day. If you are regular renter or your rental period is more than seven days, then you may consider to purchase GPS navigation separately, as seven-day rental expenses for it compose at least half of its price in some online shop.
Late Return Policy
It is very important to take into account late return policy. In majority of car rental companies, it is 30 minutes after the time you arrange for return. If you will return a car later, you will need to pay full day rental price.
Overall, if the deposit can only save some embarrassing moments for you, then other features - insurance, GPS navigation and late return policy can save you hundreds of dollars in long rentals.
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The Author
My name is Ivo Holsts. With more than nine years intensive travel experience I have noticed that advertisement performed by online travel agencies is impersonal and misleading. Therefore, I become an independent travel agent in order to provide useful travel information in conjunction with travel selling. I invite you to my web site http://www.chicago-flights-attractions.com to find out more.
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