Rental car confusion!

carinv

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 4, 2005
Messages
112
Hi All,

I am really confused about costings of rental cars, when we come for our trip from Australia in November.

It seems quite complicated get a good deal, then we have to think about insurances, which can almost double the rate!

Has any foreign tourist (or local for that matter) got any advice or tips they would like to share??

Thanks so much
 
Car rental rates can vary greatly, but generally you should be able to get an intermediate car for about $150/week. The websites for the car rental companies often list rates much higher than that, so I would suggest you keep checking expedia.com or travelocity.com and watch for a good rate. Also, if you call the 1-800 numbers for the rental agencies, you can often get a better rate. As for insurance, I'm not sure how your own insurance works in Australia, but you may want to check with your own insurance and see if they will cover a foreign car rental. If they do, bring proof of insurance. If something does happen however, you will probably have to pay the damages up front and then get reimbursed by your insurance. Some credit cards also provide car rental insurance (make sure they cover liability as well as damage to the car). If not, you will probably have to pay the rates from the rental companies. Insurance is a must.
 
Pokemom said:
Car rental rates can vary greatly, but generally you should be able to get an intermediate car for about $150/week. The websites for the car rental companies often list rates much higher than that, so I would suggest you keep checking expedia.com or travelocity.com and watch for a good rate. Also, if you call the 1-800 numbers for the rental agencies, you can often get a better rate. As for insurance, I'm not sure how your own insurance works in Australia, but you may want to check with your own insurance and see if they will cover a foreign car rental. If they do, bring proof of insurance. If something does happen however, you will probably have to pay the damages up front and then get reimbursed by your insurance. Some credit cards also provide car rental insurance (make sure they cover liability as well as damage to the car). If not, you will probably have to pay the rates from the rental companies. Insurance is a must.


Thanks Pokemom,

I will check those sites you mentioned.
From what I can find out, our domestic insurances don't cover us for OS travel, and our credit cards only have very limited cover.

Indurances seem to run at least $20 per day, :earseek: which certainly increases the overall cost.
 
Australian policies do NOT cover rental cars, so you have to buy most, if not all of the extras. (Credit card insurance is no good either)

As you have worked out, this doubles the cost of the car.

I thought a got a great deal booking a car with Budget tghriough the South West airlines site, but when insurance was added the cost more than doubled.

I now believe it would have been cheaper to have booked this car through the Australian subsidary of Budget (or Avis, hertz etc) - just make sure any quote you get is for comprehensive insurance (there are about 4 of them!!)

If you do want to book it yourself, try googling on "Car rental discount codes" where there are websites which give you the codes you can use to get the best rates on cars.

And it will cost you MORE than $20 a day for insurance - that will most likely be just the basic level, then you have Collision Damage waiver, personal accident and injury etc.
 

there are american companies that will insure drivers from other countries for much less than the rental car companies charge, try calling some of our insurance companies, esp. AAA
 












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