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Car rental company at Cologne / Bonn Airport
Photo: Oliver Berg / dpa
A few weeks ago I had to rent a car for a weekend because my beloved Opel had to be repaired for a long time due to a lack of spare parts. The search result amazed me: The rental car was actually cheaper to get near Berlin Airport than in the city center. Before - years ago, when I rented cars for the weekend in addition to my car sharing subscription - I would never have driven out to the airport. The car would always have been cheaper in the city. Not any longer longer. Also last week, during the rail strike, the cars at the airport were cheaper again.
According to statistics from the Federal Motor Transport Authority, the lessors have registered almost 230,000 cars in this country and are at the start.
The corona pandemic has shaken the rental car market a lot.
Not only has sales in Germany decreased by up to 40 percent from 19.4 billion euros in 2019 due to Corona.
This year, vacation rental prices also skyrocketed, in some places three times as much as they did before the pandemic.
My colleagues at Finanztip have researched the car rental market and looked into the question of what you as a customer can do today to rent a car inexpensively and well.
Whether in Germany - if the train goes on strike again - or abroad, because you could go on vacation to Spain, Italy or Portugal.
Specialized car rental portals such as Check24.de and billiger-mietwagen.de, which bundle the offers of many direct rental companies such as Avis, Hertz or Sixt, make sense.
In fact, in several random samples in Germany, other European countries as well as in search queries in the USA and Canada, the colleagues were able to determine that Check24 displayed the cheapest offer most frequently.
Unfortunately, the fact that customers keep reporting problems with the rental stations has not changed.
The classic: When you pick up the car, the landlord tries to persuade you to take out extra insurance.
Or you will suddenly be charged for damage that you did not cause.
It does not matter whether you book your rental car via a comparison portal before leaving or directly with a landlord on site.
more on the subject
Rip off on vacation: How to counter brazen car rental companiesBy Martin Wittler
What many users of online portals have to consider: With an online broker, you only get a booking confirmation, a so-called voucher, with which you can then go to the car rental company.
You only conclude the contract for your rental car on site.
In addition to your ID, driver's license and credit card, you should also take all of the booking documents with you to pick up and make sure that you do not get less or more than what you booked in advance.
Basically: You should be more careful with the particularly cheap offers.
However, if you pay attention to a few minimum conditions when searching for the portal, you are more likely to find a good car rental company:
A
fully comprehensive insurance
with no excess
. If your car is damaged, it won't cost you anything in the end. There are two options for insurance coverage: Either directly through the car rental company, which is often a bit more expensive. Or through the portal, which is usually cheaper. The option of making an advance payment in the event of damage and then having the money reimbursed later is only for veterans.
Do not save on
liability
!
Make sure you have proper liability insurance with a good sum insured.
The portals often only offer standardized liability amounts of 1 million euros, which is too low.
If possible, choose a significantly higher sum.
Outside of Europe in particular, it can be 10 million euros or more.
On good portals such as Check24 and billiger-mietwagen.de you can see in the list of results which liability amount the landlord provides.
Some German motor vehicle insurance or private
liability insurance
already contains a so-called
Mallorca policy
, which raises the liability amount in other European countries to the German level.
So take a look at your contract conditions to see whether you are already adequately insured.
Important for the
wallet
: the
fuel rule
.
The fairest thing is always "full - full".
This means that you take over the car with a full tank and return it with a full tank.
If, on the other hand, the car rental company refills the car, it can be expensive.
Extra protection for
glass, tires and underbody
is particularly important in your rental car if you drive in regions where the road conditions are sometimes a bit adventurous.
With good portals, you have the option of setting a number of rules in advance.
For example, that a
second driver
can drive the car or that you
get
winter tires
in the cold season
.
And apart from the conditions for a good rental agreement for the car, there are a number of old and new tips that can help you rent the car more cheaply.
Portal offers
are usually cheaper than the combination of booking a rental car and a hotel as a package tour.
You can of course check that anyway.
If you can, vary the
dates
for the car rental.
A day earlier or later the price can drop significantly.
Check
possible two- or three-day options,
especially around the
weekend
.
Sometimes it is cheaper to rent three days instead of just two days.
When traveling
by air,
vary
the
pick-up location
,
i.e.
whether you want to rent the car directly at the terminal or book it in the vicinity of the airport.
You have the shortest route to the car right at the terminal, but that can be more expensive.
Renting a car near the airport is often cheaper.
You often no longer need
a
navigation
device.
You have your smartphone as a replacement for your navigation system.
That can save a lot of money.
Provided that your mobile phone has sufficient data volume.
If you still
need
a
child seat
and are going on holiday
for a
longer period of time, it is best to take the child seat with you from home than to borrow it from the car rental company for two weeks.
Or you can buy it on site.
Last but not least, here are the
most important tips for
picking up
:
For car rental, you should still have a real
credit card
with you, not a debit or prepaid card.
As a rule, the card must be made out to the main driver.
Also important: you should know the PIN and daily limit of your card so that there are no problems when you pick it up or later on vacation.
It becomes uncomfortable when the rental price and the deposit for the rental car exceed your daily limit.
Do
not be rushed
with the
handover
protocol.
Take a good look at the vehicle and have any damage documented.
Photos of the vehicle, the fuel gauge and the mileage provide additional security.
This also applies to returns.
Avoid nodules
!
Regardless of whether you are parking in the wrong place or exceeding the speed limit.
These not only cost money on site, but often also additional processing fees from your car rental company.
And sometimes a foreign traffic safety authority will send a German debt collection agency to your doorstep even months later.
You really don't need that.
Flexibility is not only a plus in Corona times.
In fact, with good providers you can use the voucher system to cancel the rented car a day in advance, as has long been the case on hotel booking portals such as HRS and Booking.com.
In times when rail strikes are more frequent, this is a really good option, even within Germany.
So if you have to go from Saarbrücken to Erfurt on a really important date, for example, in the coming weeks and plan your trip by train in a relaxed way, you can also order a rental car as a precautionary measure and cancel it at short notice if it does not come to the Strike is coming.
In this case, booking early can be particularly worthwhile.
Because if the day of the strike is already set, it can be difficult to get a car.
I wish you little stress when renting and a lot of fun with the car when you need it.
