Renters must select currency for billing when reserving a car

The Dallas Morning News is reminding rental customers that they must be sure to select the currency in which they would like to be billed for their car hire, at the time of booking. One of the paper’s readers wrote in recently to the “Travel Troubleshooter” column and noted that when she rented a car with Avis during a vacation in the United Kingdom, she was expecting to be charged in British Pounds. Instead, Avis charged the client’s UK-based Visa credit card in US dollar, which ended up increasing the price of the one-month long rental by about $124, due to the 3% conversion fee. The reason Avis automatically converted the amount to US dollars is likely because the client submitted an American driver’s license when booking the vehicle.

In order to avoid these types of unpleasant surprises, the travel columnist at the Dallas Morning News is advising clients to always select what currency they would like to be billed in when they reserve a car. Additionally, whenever a client signs a contract, he/she is asked to choose a preferred currency. The rental company is then required to charge the customer according to this agreement. The problem is that many renters forget to specify this, or simply assume that they will be automatically billed in the currency of the country that they are visiting. Yet this is almost never the case. In the UK, for example, most car hire outlets will automatically bill the customer in the currency used in his/her country of residence, even if their credit card is registered in another country. This means that even a UK passport holder renting a car in Britain would normally be billed in US dollars if he/she happens to reside on a permanent basis in the United States. The bottom line is that specifying a currency before picking-up a vehicle can save renters over 3% in conversion and processing fees.

www.avis.com