rebs

I know we've recently had threads relating to cheaper car rentals in general, and stuff about insurance for rental cars, but I couldn't find anything specific about one way car rentals...

We want to rent a car in Dallas and drop off a few days later in New York and I'm currently trying to price up my options....

I keep reading in articles/online that 'some' companies don't impose a one way rental charge, but I've not been able to find reference to specifically which companies that might be!

So far, I have seen drop off charges (on top of the rental cost) ranging from $250 to a whopping $1000

Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions/tips?

Englishmum

Have you tried http://www.kayak.com ?

Or Orbitz, Hotwire, perhaps directly with car rental companies Enterprise? Dollar? Thrifty? They all have 1-800 toll free numbers.

rebs

Thanks for the tips - I've tried various comparison sites and directly on various company sites - all the usual suspects, Avis, Hertz, Dollar, Alamo, Budget, National ...

Enterprise actually say to call for one way details and I've not bothered calling them as yet... do you happen to know if they don't charge a one drop off fee?

Englishmum

They certainly don't charge for one way rentals in the UK....I think in the US you need to arrange it with locations which participate....

Just thought of another one....'Rent a Wreck'....

AmerLisa

We've done one way rentals between California and Washington and have always paid a drop off charge. Which I think is a bunch of hogwash as one of the cars we had actually had Nevada plates on it (gee that really got returned to Nevada!) Kayak is a good website to start off on.

rebs

Well that's interesting to know about Enterprise - I'll definitely give them a call then and see what the deal is here

Rent a Wreck - I would have considered - sadly, no locations near us...

Yeah, I suspect we will end up renting and paying the fee - I agree, all seems a bit of a rip off

Giantaxe

It's usually hard to find a one-way rental without a drop-off fee when the drop-off location is out of state. The reason is that the drop-off location is then stuck with a vehicle that is not registered in that state and, depending on the state's laws, may fall afoul of licensing requirements after a period of time. So effectively they're relying on finding another one-way rental to get it back "home" within that window.

AmerLisa

You know, if you weren't doing a one rental, you could go to Priceline and bid for a car. I did that last week for our trip to California in three weeks (not a one way rental) and we got a minivan for $25 a day....pretty good rate.

avanutria

We did a one way rental from Sea-Tac airport (in Washington state) to Eugene, Oregon in December. Budget charged an additional $100 for it being one way, but didn't care about the length of either the rental or the journey. This charge was shown in the online quote when we booked, but only at the last screen before booking.

The car itself was registered in Arizona.

rebs

Thanks for that - Budget are looking to be my best option, so far. Their drop off charge is showing as $300 for us, but overall the total cost is coming out the cheapest of the ones I've looked at.

I'm looking to book as UK residents and pay with my UK credit card, so some sites are just giving 'estimated' totals (I guess they can't confirm prices due to exchange rates).

AmerLisa

Can you use a UK website? When I've checked that before the insurance was already figured in and it was all around cheaper in the end.

scrubbedexpat091

Try Alamo, they will quote the full price online for one way rentals if available and no need to negotiate it locally.

Their drop off fees vary but will be included in the quote.

I rent one way with them often and so far knock on wood no drop off fees for the locations I have used.

Last one was 43 dollars one way for a 1 day rental between LA are and San Diego.

rebs

Yes, I'm using UK comparison sites. You're right - coming up much cheaper than US sites. Still getting one way charges though...

rebs

That's interesting - Alamo did include a drop off charge on my quote - maybe because I need to go across states ...

Orangepants

When I went travelling in the US as a student, we drove across country (Virginia to California) with a company similar to these guys http://www.autodriveaway.com. They gave us a week to do the trip and it didn't cost us anything.