Centralparkgirl

I want to cancel a reservation that I made online. It seems I must call Germany to do that. The reservation was paid in full by credit card in euros and of course, charged to my card in dollars. When I get credited, will it be at the current rate of exchange (which would mean that I would lose a few dollars)?

Thanks.

Centralparkgirl

I mean that the quote was in euros and charged to my card in dollars.

Christina

I was going to say, this doesn't make any sense.

The fee was in euro. Your card company changes it to dollars when you see the statement. Same thing for refund. The refund will be in euro and the card company will change it to dollars.

No, they don't care about the original date, it will be based on the exchange rate at the time of the transaction whether it is a purchase or credit.

It can't have changed that much. A few dollars is your cost for doing this.

StCirq

Yes, you'll lose a few dollars, but why didn't you CALL AutoEurope (toll-free) to make the reservations? I never, ever rent cars online (call me stupid, but I never do). Can you call AutoEurope now on their toll-free number in the USA and work this out to your advantage?

Of course any credit will be at the current rate of exchange.

Andrew

I've booked cars online for years. And I've canceled a few reservations for a refund, online, without an issue. Yes, I always got credited at the new exchange rate at the time of the cancellation (or rather, at the time the refund is finally made). Sure, I could lose a few dollars in the exchange but not much.

I used Economy Car Rentals the last time to make the booking. They charged only a small up-front "deposit" (basically just their commission) with the balance paid at the time of rental - so the refund was just of the deposit, so less lost in the exchange - assuming the rate worsened from my point of view. I don't like the idea of being charged the full amount for a car rental up front, even if it is refundable.

Centralparkgirl

I have two reservations, one I made awhile ago and one I made yesterday. The first was made on autoeurope.eu, the second on autoeurope.com. Both required payment up front which I don't like, but I wasn't given an option. I wasn't aware that they are different entities although I'm not sure what the difference is, but I was told by the office in Maine that it is not the same as the office in Munich.

I agree that the refund difference will be negligible. I have never rented online where I couldn't also cancel online. I will call Munich tomorrow to cancel.

StCirq - I've never had a problem renting online either domestically or internationally.

Centralparkgirl

I just called AutoEurope in the US and was able to cancel the eu reservation. I received a confirmation email that is in a language I can't identify, but fortunately the attached PDF is in English and canceled is written on it. I'm told I will get a refund on my credit card in 7-10 business days.

The only difference I can tell is the US site will offer zero deductibles while the European site does not even when the supplier (in my case Hertz) is the same. The person I just spoke to didn't have an explanation as to why the offers aren't the same.

I find this so confusing.

shellio

Insurance regulations vary from country to country. Those of the country in which you rent the car apply to that rental. This probably accounts for the difference in deductible you refer to.

Centralparkgirl

shellio - Both reservations were for Italy.

kybourbon

>>>The only difference I can tell is the US site will offer zero deductibles while the European site does not even when the supplier (in my case Hertz) is the same. <<<

There have been long threads about renting from autoeurope.it or autoeurope.anyothercountry to get much better rates over the US site especially with automatics. I would suspect rates are different for autoeurope.eu vs autoeurope.it. In previous threads, there has been discussion about getting the same coverage and how to do it (I think it still ends up cheaper on the Europe sites, but some people call the US to match).

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...r-than-usa.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...s-resident.cfm

Per wiki, Autoeurope was founded in Germany and moved HQ to Maine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_Europe

They also have Kemwel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemwel

If you go on the home page of autoeurope.com and in the top left corner where it says United States, click the down arrow and it will say "choose your country of residence". If you select Italy, the site will roll over to autoeurope.it. On that site, if you select to change the language to English, it will roll over to autoeurope.eu instead of the Italy site. You can get different quotes on each.

http://www.autoeurope.com/

shellio

Centralparkgirl, sorry I wasn't clear. I meant "the country in which you rent the car", i.e. you are renting it from a US company (in the US) vs. a European company (in whatever country the .eu company is located) rather than the country in which you will pick it up.

Centralparkgirl

ky - thanks for all those links.

I just did what ky said in last paragraph. On autoeurope.it, there seemed to be a much better deal with Avis than I got on autoeurope.com with Hertz. The car I was interested in had three coverage options, but none had zero excess coverage. From what I've read, with refundable excess (even with super cover), a deposit will be held, repairs expensive and then the onus would be on me to actually get a refund from AutoEurope. My eyes are glazed over and I feel that zero excess is best for me.

It's a shame that there are no 'apples to apples' comparisons because all sites have different offers although all under the AutoEurope name.

I'm getting too old for this
It's unbelievably complicated.