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Consolidators are often a good way to cut the cost of renting a car, particularly abroad, compared to the rates charged directly by rental companies. Some of the more popular consolidators are:
Spain Car Hire from CarJet.com! - the best deals in low-cost car hire; car hire Spain, car hire Alicante Airport, Malaga Airport etc.
Economy Car Rentals.com Cheap Car Rental Rates.
Auto Europe Discount Car Rentals, Airfare, and Hotels
Europe By Car
When you book a car with a consolidator, they give you a voucher and you pick up the car from the designated car rental company at your destination.
For many years, most of these consolidators have dealt mostly with major brands - Hertz, Avis, National, Budget, Sixt, Europcar, etc, and there were few problems. Now, there is a growing liklihood of their voucher being for an offbrand car rental company, instead, and that has led to an increase in problems. The trend is also that when there is a problem with an offbrand car rental company, the consolidator does little to help solve the problem, and that seems to be true of all consolidators.
Here are some of the problems that get reported with some of the offbrand car rental companies:
- insurance represented as optional becomes compulsory when you go to pick up the car, or you don't get the car
- extra fees you were not told about
- arbitrary increases in rates over the amount stated by the consolidator
- ''return empty'' fuel policies, with the renter paying the cost of the initial tank of gas, often at prices far above the actual price in the area, and with the renter donating whatever fuel is left to the rental company
- arbitary currency conversion at an awful rate, which the renter is not allowed to decline.
I recently had a rental with Goldcar Rentals in Spain, through Economy Car Rentals, that involved three of these scams. Economy did get part of Goldcar's overcharge on rates refunded but not all of it, and provided no help on other issues. I did get the currency exchange scam reversed by Capital One. That left the fuel scam. I checked the fuel capacity of the car I rented online and multiplied that by the highest cost of fuel I saw at any service station there, and compared that to what Goldcar charged me, and I ended up paying 45% more than I would have paid to the highest price gas station I saw for that initial tank of gas. I got no reimbursement from anyone for that. From comments on consumer sites online, the currency exchange scam seems to be applied to anyone whose home currency is anything except euros, and what many term their ''fuel theft'' policy is also SOP for them at roughly the rate I was overcharged.
Goldcar is also commonly used these days by Carjet and AutoEurope for Spanish rentals.
It is not just Spain. I have rented multiple times in the UK through Economy Car Rentals, and always had a major car rental company as the local provider. I recently checked with them for an upcoming trip to the UK, and their local provider would have been one of three rinky-dink local companies. Two had the ''return empty'' fuel theft policies, so I had no interest in them. On the third, I checked them out on consumer sites on the internet and found some horror stories. I said ''no thanks'' and found a special direct with a major car rental company, instead.
Anyone using a consolidator should specify 1) that they only want rentals with ''return full'' fuel policies, and 2) only rentals that are charged in the currency local to where rented, and 3) no fees other than as specified. It makes it more of a hassle these days to have to look out for such things, but it has become necessary.
Spain Car Hire from CarJet.com! - the best deals in low-cost car hire; car hire Spain, car hire Alicante Airport, Malaga Airport etc.
Economy Car Rentals.com Cheap Car Rental Rates.
Auto Europe Discount Car Rentals, Airfare, and Hotels
Europe By Car
When you book a car with a consolidator, they give you a voucher and you pick up the car from the designated car rental company at your destination.
For many years, most of these consolidators have dealt mostly with major brands - Hertz, Avis, National, Budget, Sixt, Europcar, etc, and there were few problems. Now, there is a growing liklihood of their voucher being for an offbrand car rental company, instead, and that has led to an increase in problems. The trend is also that when there is a problem with an offbrand car rental company, the consolidator does little to help solve the problem, and that seems to be true of all consolidators.
Here are some of the problems that get reported with some of the offbrand car rental companies:
- insurance represented as optional becomes compulsory when you go to pick up the car, or you don't get the car
- extra fees you were not told about
- arbitrary increases in rates over the amount stated by the consolidator
- ''return empty'' fuel policies, with the renter paying the cost of the initial tank of gas, often at prices far above the actual price in the area, and with the renter donating whatever fuel is left to the rental company
- arbitary currency conversion at an awful rate, which the renter is not allowed to decline.
I recently had a rental with Goldcar Rentals in Spain, through Economy Car Rentals, that involved three of these scams. Economy did get part of Goldcar's overcharge on rates refunded but not all of it, and provided no help on other issues. I did get the currency exchange scam reversed by Capital One. That left the fuel scam. I checked the fuel capacity of the car I rented online and multiplied that by the highest cost of fuel I saw at any service station there, and compared that to what Goldcar charged me, and I ended up paying 45% more than I would have paid to the highest price gas station I saw for that initial tank of gas. I got no reimbursement from anyone for that. From comments on consumer sites online, the currency exchange scam seems to be applied to anyone whose home currency is anything except euros, and what many term their ''fuel theft'' policy is also SOP for them at roughly the rate I was overcharged.
Goldcar is also commonly used these days by Carjet and AutoEurope for Spanish rentals.
It is not just Spain. I have rented multiple times in the UK through Economy Car Rentals, and always had a major car rental company as the local provider. I recently checked with them for an upcoming trip to the UK, and their local provider would have been one of three rinky-dink local companies. Two had the ''return empty'' fuel theft policies, so I had no interest in them. On the third, I checked them out on consumer sites on the internet and found some horror stories. I said ''no thanks'' and found a special direct with a major car rental company, instead.
Anyone using a consolidator should specify 1) that they only want rentals with ''return full'' fuel policies, and 2) only rentals that are charged in the currency local to where rented, and 3) no fees other than as specified. It makes it more of a hassle these days to have to look out for such things, but it has become necessary.
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