What Mistakes Should You Avoid When Hiring A Leiebil (Rental Car)

What Mistakes Should You Avoid When Hiring A Leiebil (Rental Car)

The ideal holiday is driving along the countryside of any destination to take in the beauty of the natural landscape. A road trip gives travelers the flexibility to create a daily itinerary of their own making and stray from that as much as they choose if hidden surprises pop up at the last moment.

Fortunately, rental cars are available in any location (look at goautos.no/leiebil/roma for examples in Rome), albeit with unique guidelines from country to country and with each different company.

It can take some time to discern these rules and regulations as you comparison shop between the different options to avoid possible mistakes. Still, the more often you travel and take advantage of hiring cars, the easier the process will become.

The suggestion is always to start arranging early, so everything is reserved before the trip allowing for a smooth transaction. At this point, you can find out specifics about fees and charges, add-ons and ask any questions about the process that you might be unfamiliar with.

You don’t want to wait until you arrive to sort out your car rental as this is when everything is hectic and you might ending up agreeing to add-ons and services you wouldn’t if you had called ahead. Let’s check out some of the most budget-defeating mistakes people inadvertently make.

Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring A Rental Car

Hiring a car is the optimum way to see the countryside in any country you venture to for a holiday. Many people today take road trips in a rental car upon arriving at their destination as their favored mode of transportation.

The only downside is contending with the varied guidelines you might run into from place to place and with each provider.

Trying to figure out each company’s rules and regulations can become confusing, leaving you with the possibility of making mistakes when all is said and done.

The good thing is if you’re a frequent traveler, eventually it all makes sense, especially if you become acquainted with a particular agency and tend to do business with them regularly, perhaps in various locations.

Until that point, it’s a matter of calling ahead to make your reservation and asking plenty of questions, plus realizing you will likely make a mistake or two. These will serve you in the future as lessons of what not to do and perhaps help someone else new to the car rental game.

Let’s look at a few common missteps, that people who are new to hiring a car can make (some might not apply to each country or agency since they are all different). Some mistakes can happened to people experienced with car rental too.

• Over Purchasing insurance coverage

One of the most common, expensive, and unnecessary errors is when hiring a car is purchasing extended insurance coverage. Many people do this with the thought that these will cover any damage that occurs to the vehicle without you being liable if there are any issues.

They don’t cover everything. Rent providers offer a few different options, but if you don’t fully understand what the plans handle, you won’t know if they’re worth acquiring.

Plus, if you have a premium credit card that you used to hire the car, these will often pay for the insurance. Still, it’s essential to always check with the credit company to ensure if they offer insurance and what the coverage is before taking any rental plans. Some credit card benefits won’t pay if you accept rental car insurance.

The thing to remember is that the four primary networks provide auto hire benefits with each varying. You’ll find some to be only secondary to your personal auto insurance carrier and will kick in after those benefits are exhausted. Go here for standard insurance errors and how to prevent them.

• Not filling the fuel tank fill-up yourself

You will spend an exorbitant price on fuel than you need to if you choose to wait until the last minute and then not be able to fill the fuel tank yourself on the way back to the hiring provider.

Not only is the price per gallon exceptionally high, but you won’t be credited for gas left in the tank. That means even if you have half a tank, you’ll be charged for a full tank.

• Not using coupon or discount codes

You’ll be surprised at how many discounts are possible when hiring a car. Claims indicate to use a “budget or discount booking tool” when searching for a car hire as among the most apparent methods of obtaining a discounted price.

Banks and credit cards are also good resources for offering clients codes for reserving a car rental.

You can even look directly on the varied renting agencies’ websites. Many of these provide codes online. It’s wise to research these codes before reserving a car. Some of these can help save significantly as great as 25% on fees.

• Not looking into extra services like a GPS Navigation

When you’re in a new area or even a new country, you won’t know how to get from one place to the next. A GPS is advantageous in so many ways, but primarily because it will ensure that you’re headed on the right path and hopefully can avoid getting lost.

That doesn’t mean it’s necessary to rent one from your car hire provider. The daily fees can be high when you could instead use your map app on your mobile. There are a few ways to do something less costly than what the charge is for a navigation system with the rental company.

• Syncing your mobile with the Bluetooth

In many new vehicles, there’s a capability to pair a mobile with the auto’s satellite or navigation through Bluetooth to make a hands-free call or play music. It’s tricky, though, because there’s a point where it will ask you to “sync” all phone details and contact information.

For those who approve that request, all personal data is then loaded in the auto for anyone driving it to have access in the future. That includes name, private details, plus access to any personal contacts and all phone logs. It’s not clear if this can be overridden or deleted, but no one wants to go down in history like that.

• Not researching varied country laws

When traveling to another country, there will be laws specific to that country, and fees will be charged by the car hire agencies accordingly. In Italy, there is a $5 charge daily for road tax along with $10 each day for an environmental fee and $20 daily for mandatory theft protection.

You will only be aware of these extra fees by asking when you make your reservation what fees the country you will be traveling to charge per day.

Italy also has specific driving rules that must be followed to avoid substantial penalties and fees like not entering their ZTL zones.

Before visiting a new country, it would be beneficial to not only read up on the driving and parking regulations but check into car renting and the fees and charges attached with that.

Final Thoughts

Road tripping is one of the most favored ways to travel throughout almost any country since it allows unobstructed views of the natural landscape as you drive along the countryside.

You can establish an itinerary and choose to stick to it or not so much as you run into hidden treasures to check out along your patch in your hired car.

Hopefully, you will have no headaches or mistakes when reserving, booking, or maneuvering through the country with your rented auto. Find out what you shouldn’t do when hiring a car before you start the process. If you do find that you should have done things a little differently, those will be lessons you can take with you on the following holiday; there’s no reason to ruin a good time this time.

Plus, perhaps you can let others know to save them some time or even money.

Guest Article. Contains a sponsored link.