durham_lad

As I recall there was a big difference between the rates at airports and at the small sites where I rented from. Truro in Cornwall, Balerno (outside of Edinburgh) and Stockport, Cheshire were the 3 locations we rented from last year. In 2011 we rented several times from a location in Middlesbrough.

Pulaski

I am looking to rent from Gloucester, which is non-airport, and I would consider to be a "small site". Any more thoughts?

durham_lad

I had a look with Expedia.co.uk and Enterprise.co.uk. Dates June 2 for 30 days, and the best deal seems to be Hertz, £491, Enterprise being £665, so Hertz would be worth the cab fare, no questions.

yukichon

If you think about it, that's just over £15 a day for a car. That includes the car and a level of insurance, I would say that's a pretty fair price.
My company owns 3 luxury car hire companies and believe me, our cheapest daily rate is about £90 per day for 30 days!

Pulaski

OK, great. If you think that's "pretty fair", that's good enough for me and I'll stop looking any further.

yukichon

Pulaski, you are like a bad itch I can't get rid of...please stop stalking my posts

Pulaski

After a couple of weeks of checking various sites both recommended here and other travel sites, which were coming in consistently at around $350/£200 for 11 days of something around the size of a Mondeo or Passat, I found a good deal yesterday through Priceline, for a manual Seat Exeo "or similar" from Europcar. For those not familiar with the Exeo, it was derived from the Audi A4, and went out of production in 2013, so I am expecting that the "or similar" is more likely to be what I drive away in than the Exeo.

The rate? $273/£160ish, which seemed like too good a deal to pass up. I don't see there is much room for rates to drop any lower, so I was pleased to snap up that deal.

durham_lad

Sounds like a great deal. I've used Europcar in the past with good experiences. I even once picked up a car from them at Darlington Railway station on a Sunday afternoon after flying over to Heathrow and getting a train.

pipsi

I would suggest taking out an annual car hire insurance policy. It will cover you when hiring a car anywhere in the world and means you don't need to take out insurancce with the hire company. An annual policy will cost around £100. I first took one out when I was renting a car for three weeks and an annual policy was cheaper than three weeks cover! There is zero excess included.

hungryhorace

I am confused. I never take out dedicated insurance with the car rental company, I just take their (compulsory) standard insurance (3rd party only). My AMEX Platinum card benefit then covers me for any damage caused to the rental car.

I presume the policy you refer to is for those without credit cards offering this form of benefit?

durham_lad

I also do this, and use my Amex Blue Card.

pipsi

Obviously is a credit card offers comprehensive coverage then there is no need for the type of policy I mentioned. I've never had a credit card that offered the same level of coverage as the rental policy I have but that's probably because of the type of credit card I have. With the policy I have I've never been required to even take out the 'compulsory' insurance the hire firm have offered. Usually showing them the policy document I have means the assistant takes of the company policy, sometimes I've been required to sign some sort of waiver stating I've turned down their policy because I have my own. Only once has the assistant needed to speak to a supervisor to confirm what I had was adequate. That was in Italy so there may have been more of a language barrier issue than anything else. Obviously different hire companies in different countries have different rules, but since first taking out a rental policy two and a bit years ago I've never had to take out even 'compulsory' insurance when collecting a rental. I've used the policy in several European countries and the USA.

hungryhorace

That seems like a great card (with benefits i thought were only available for Gold and above members) yet no annual fee. What am I missing??

durham_lad

I've had it since 2005, can't remember where I heard about it. Easy to claim the cash back, which is credited to the card against your next month's charges.

Giantaxe

The only advantage I can see of taking out one of these policies is if either (i) your rental is longer than whatever the maximum time period covered by your credit card is; or (ii) you're renting in a country excluded by your credit card coverage. Some exclude Ireland, for example.