CAR HIRE IN SPAIN - BEWARE

CAR HIRE IN SPAIN - CUSTOMERS BEWARE !

Most of the car hire companies at Malaga Airport such as Firefly, Gold Car, Record booked through Holiday Autos have found a new way of ripping you off.

In the past, you would have CDW - Collision Damage Waiver included in the price of the rental. Today, CDW is still included BUT here is the problem - you have an Excess Payment of 1,000 Euros built into the contract.
The Car Rental staff are now very well trained to emphasise that unless you take out their insurance for the duration of the rental, You are liable to pay for very scratch or damage to the car up to 1,000 Euros. They will have taken an imprint of your Credit Card, so you are at their mercy. They really try to frighten you and put you under pressure when you are tired after a long journey.

My wife and I have taken out our own Insurance policy in the UK for travel throughout Europe which will pay for any excess charges. The Annual cost if about £50. It costs slightly more for annual Worldwide coverage.
The rental company staff, recently Firefly, will warn you that you are still at risk because they do not think your insurance company will pay up in the event of damage or an accident. Once again, they put pressure on you to buy their excess waiver insurance.

So, what does their insurance cost ? A whopping 18 Euros Plus per day of rental. For a 15 day rental, that will cost you about 270 Euros plus. A massive profit for the car rental companies.

I think that this is outrageous. Can anyone do something about this ?

There is worse to come. We had to return the Firefly car to Malaga Airport at 5.30am. We were told to drop the keys and a copy of the rental agreement into a box, which we did. There was no damage to the car. I took photos of the car and the full tank of petrol.the time and Bay 75 Firefly. A wise precaution.
However, when we failed to take up their insurance, the sales assistant pointed out that if there was any damage to the car AFTER we had returned the car early morning.....we were liable to pay for any damage up to an excess of - you have guessed it - 1,000 Euros.
So, a Firefly employee could damage the car when moving it and we would have to pay. Once again, outrageous.

So, BEWARE if you book via Holiday Autos and Firefly, Gold Car, Record and others. Extra insurance costs could be as much as 400% more than the car rental .......if you fall for the sales pressure when you sign up for the rental.

My brother once hired from Record. As he went up the ramp to leave the car park, smoke came out of the engine. There was no oil ! Record argued that he had to pay because he had taken possession of the car. Beware, do we have to check for oil now ?

One final price of advice.... the lighting is poor in the car park at Malaga Airport when you collect your car early morning or late evening. Make sure that you check for damage. Does the petrol cap work ?  Are the locks damaged ? What about scratches on the roof ?
I suggest you take a torch with you. On out latest trip to Malaga Airport, we found a number of scratches that were not recorded.

Just in case you think excessive insurance is all you need to worry about, here is another cheeky policy.
Firefly and others now want you to bring the car back with a full tank of petrol. If you do not bring it back full you might find that you  have a surcharge of 50 Euros or maybe at least a charge of
25 Euros as a service charge for them having to fill the car up to full.

Maybe, taxis are the better option after all ! Or, the train.

Whatever you do next time ....BEWARE. They want your money !