Rental cars can be costly experiences

A new report out by the Which? magazine has suggested that hiring a car can turn out to be costly abroad because of conditions imposed by some operators. The informative magazine said that some major companies offer unfair terms in respect to the hirer of the car. In one case, three top named European brands had a clause in their contract of conditions that said in the event of the car being stolen, if the hirer cannot produce the keys to the vehicle, they are liable for the total cost of the car. It cannot be so that if the hirer is carjacked, he or she must also pay for the total cost of the car. Other firms on the internet had very limited views of their conditions, if any at all, so the consumer could not read the full terms before booking a car online.

The Which? investigation team also had problems with trying to work out particular prices for cars on a few of the major websites. With added costs of insurance waivers and other extras it was hard to do a comparison against other rental firms. It looks like the best thing to do when hiring a car is make sure that you do read the full terms and conditions before signing on that dotted line as it could end up costing you more than a cheap weekend away. Online comparison websites are a good way of finding the cheapest car for your location and specification, but just remember to check out the terms when you pick up the car from the rental agent.