While most individuals would never turn down a flight to a tropical locale for fun within the sun, vacations immediately turn out to be a divisive proposition once rental cars are involved. Driving a rental automobile looks as if, forgive the pun, the right vehicle to be unexpectedly separated out of your hard-earned dollars. We’ll run down one of the best practices to avoid getting scammed while renting cars, as outlined by the Federal Trade Commission and the Higher Business Bureau.
The worst scams involving rental cars occur before you even get your hands on a set of keys. It’s best to only contact rental automobile agencies through the methods posted on the corporate’s official website. Don’t rely directly on results from or AI summaries from search engines like google and yahoo. Many phone scams involve unsuspecting victims dialing fake phone numbers and handing their sensitive financial information to people posing as customer support representatives. The subsequent layer of defense is to all the time pay with a bank card. When you fall victim to a scam, you possibly can dispute the bank card charges and your checking account stays untouched. Nevertheless, if a representative wants you to pay with a present card, you are likely being scammed and never booking a rental automobile.
Concentrate on potential additional charges
When you finally pick up your rental automobile, it is time to pay attention to all the additional fees that you would be charged. The best one to avoid is the gas fee. Nearly every rental automobile agency wants you to return their vehicles with a full tank of gas. When you don’t, the agency will charge for the refill and typically at a rate far higher than in the event you went to the pump yourself. Also, double-check any documentation you are asked to sign when returning a rental automobile. Make certain that you are not unwittingly agreeing to charges for damage that you just didn’t cause.
Rental automobile agencies may charge you additional for a plethora of other reasons. Renting a automobile at an airport location comes with an extra fee. Including additional drivers comes with one other additional fee, with the charge being even higher if that driver is under the age of 25. While customers may be drowning in fees, rental automobile firms are raking in eye-watering sums of cash. The industry made an estimated $37.9 billion in 2024, a slight decrease in comparison with a record-breaking 2023 when the industry generated $38.3 billion in revenue.
This Article First Appeared At www.jalopnik.com
