While the majority of our customers use their own car for daily needs and holidays, many people have the occasional need to hire a car. But as so many have discovered, hiring a car can be expensive, especially if you don’t have your wits about you. In this blog we’ll look at a few ways of ensuring you don’t get ripped off.

Buy the basic package. When you enter a car hire office and ask for a basic hire package, the person behind the counter will undoubtedly urge you to buy a range of add-ons. For example, the collision damage waiver (CDW) which means you won’t have to pay the excess – but it can be very costly if you buy from the hire firm. It’s a good idea to avoid buying such an add-on, and consider taking your own out independently – as it will be cheaper.

Take your own satnav. If you hire directly from the rental firm you may be charged over £70 for a week. This is even harder to take when you consider that buying a brand new one is actually less than this!

Ignore the sales spiel. People who work at car rental firms are salespeople and they will try to sell you all sorts of things you don’t need. This is particularly true if you take out your own excess cover (independently). They may try to tell you that such insurance is invalid so that you by theirs – this is not the case.

With all this hassle though, you would be forgiven for wishing you had brought your own car. If you do decide upon this instead and you’re driving to mainland Europe, make sure you get a short term European breakdown cover quote from startrescue.co.uk and see how much you could save.