Hidden Car Rental Fees: What to Look For

Save your precious vacation dollars by avoiding these car rental surcharges.

ByABC News
March 25, 2010, 11:35 AM

March 26, 2010— -- Hidden fees touch a nerve with many travelersespecially those who have had problems with rental cars. Here's my detailed look at five serious issues raised by readers telling me about their experiences.

Issue 1: Geographical Limits

"We ran into geographical limits in Vegas. When we rented a car, the agent at the rental counter said we could not take it out of the state. We told the agent that we wanted to see the Grand Canyon while we were in the area, but the agent said the company's cars couldn't leave the state. We would still like to see the Grand Canyon sometime, and flying to Vegas is cheaper than flying to the Grand Canyon directly. Do all the companies there have the same policy?"

The short answer is, "No, not all of them do." Hertz, for example, shows no geographical limitations, and if you book in advance online you have the opportunity to check any such limits before you commit to the rental. If you have any questions, call the rental company before you begin your trip. And if one company says "no," check around for one that will let you leave the state.

I see one big problem here, however. If you book through a third-party sitea discount agency, Hotwire, or Priceline, for examplerental companies sometimes impose more restrictions on cars booked that way that they do not impose on direct bookings.

Nobody wants to plan a Grand Canyon trip only to encounter a rental agent who says, "Sorry, you can't drive our car there." I suspect that if you have any questions, check out the restrictions before making a commitment.

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Issue 2: Extra Driver Fees

"The fee that irritated me the most as I was renting a car in Las Vegas was that there are now fees associated with having more than one driver. I wanted my husband to be able to drive, even though 99 percent of the time he never gets behind the wheel, and the rental company wanted $10 a day just to have him on the contract. I think that is positively ridiculous."