Mr and Mrs

We travel to our holiday home on the Eastern Algarve several times a year. We intend to travel over for 5 days this month (we usually stay longer). Whilst looking to book a car for our forthcoming trip, I have noticed that almost of the car hire companies have changed their fuelling policy from "less than 5 days hire then top it up yourself" to a period of 3 days (who will pay for and use a full tank of petrol in 3 days?).

Can anybody please recommend a car hire company (pm me if forum rules do not allow you to put up company names) that does not operate this greedy fuel policy. It really annoys me that the details of fuelling policy are hidden away in the terms and conditions on websites, why can't the car hire companies just be honest and upfront?

Rant over, thanks in anticipation.

Ian and Julie.

MikeJ

If you book through Economy Car Hire; Holiday Autos etc and register (rather than do a straight booking) the they should provide you with the end provider details, you can then check out their fuel policy before booking. Alternatively if you phone the broker company they should tell you (although it often costs more to book on the phone rather than online). There was an article about this in the weekend papers (MoS ISTR). Make sure that you make it clear that your choice of provider is dependant on their fuels and insurance policies - eventually they will get the message.

Lelandy

Just did a quick check on ECH and all the quotes had a Fair Fuel Policy declaration, the fine print shown when I logged in was the standard return with what you leave with. A couple however required a deposit for the fuel you were supplied with, to be refunded on return. None had a full tank pre paid.

Perhaps the message is through already?

retiree-optimist

We have just come back from our main summer holiday and we booked through ECH. We try to book with the same rental company so hence have an account so we can view which company we are dealing with when booking. This year the fuel policy and the A22 toll system had changed with the company we use. They had a full fuel policy...you take the car with full fuel and return with full fuel...which I felt was fair as you pay for what you use. The toll payment changed from leaving your CC details to paying 20euros for a transponder....5euros deposit and 15euros on the transponder for trave, and the ability to top up the transponder there and then or phone up during your stay. Hope this is helpful.

pdr

There are several threads on here about car hire, and lots of recommendations. The current trend of the "full out, empty return" policy (which appears to have been introduced by a Spanish company which acquired a Portuguese operator) has caught out a lot of people who find their final costs are much greater than the base price - a similar trick used by the "no-frills" airlines once upon a time!

They also charge a higher amount than the petrol stations, as well as including a charge for filling the tank for you! Some of them also infer that any "excess cover" you may have bought in advance doesn't offer sufficient cover. How long they are going to get away with these sharp prctices I don't know, but coupled with the new tolls the "sour taste" it's leaving comes at a time when Portugal car rental companies least need it.

Here are some companies that do have "fair fuel" policies:
www.portugal-cars.com
www.economycarhire.com
www.drive4fun.info
www.yorcar.com

There are more, but you will need to look at the terms and conditions of all of them before confirming a booking.

I recently contacted holidayautos about this issue, and they told me they will change a booking if the rental company offers "full out, empty return" - but only after they have your booking! They refused to add fuel policy details to the individual companies, so I'm not going to use them anymore.

Mr and Mrs

Thanks for all of your replies, booking has now been made through Economy Car Hire. Fair fuel policy is the way forward! Once again, many thanks.

Ian and Julie.