I just booked a car with Autoeurope using Europcar and they are now charging a one way rental charge of €75 - just something to keep in mind...our rental was from Lille Europe station to Limoges rail station

jamikins,

Did you talk with a representative from AutoEurope? My rental agreement of 3/23/11 with Kemwel (Bordeaux to Paris) does <b>not</b> have a one way charge. Even if you still have to pay the charge, it would interesting to know how come some pay the one way and others do not--aside from rentals with Hertz and Avis.

I suddenly realize a curiosity. If the one way rental cost is part of the original rental agreement, how come it is given in euros when the agreement is in dollars (assuming that one uses the US based office)?

Did you have to prepay the rental? This is just a guess but maybe the rental fee was collected by Auto Europe and the one way fee is collected by the agency when you pick up the car and therefore will be in Euro.
You really did not say how you are paying. I have a rental agreement with Auto Europe in Italy for which I prepaid but they made me prepay in Euro.
I did rent it from the Auto Europe Italian site so I understand the Euro charge but on the phone through the US Auto Europe phone center.
If you find out why the difference in currency let us know.

Yup - phoned and spoke to the rep at autoeurope - Europcar charges the fee locally.

Are you also paying for a RR station pick-up? I just checked my contract, and it has no mention of a one-way fee, while a canceled one that had it mentioned it in the contract.

Will double check when I get to work - its in my work email.

Michael. My contract from Auto Europe says something like under the RENTAL DOES NOT INCLUDE heading:location surcharge on additional optional items and services purchased locally.

I know that in my contract this includes cost for an extra driver altough this cost is not specifically mentioned.
Maybe you could call them and if your contract has this clause ask what exactly these items are.

Sher,

I am aware of what my contract does not include. I am surprised that in a two week period Europcar has changed its policy on one-way rentals because I know that I do not have to pay such a charge. However, there may be a difference between a town pick-up and a RR station pick-up where in the former you are dealing with an independent Europcar concessionaire while the latter represents the national agency. BTW, the RR pick-up fee is lower than the one-way fee.

No extra railway charges on my contract! So maybe thats it? Anyways - if you check the same rental through the Europcar website it clearly states there is a one-way fee so maybe this has just changed.

Very interesting reading ... going through the same process myself

Michael. I know that you understand your contract. I was just saying that maybe this was included in the "other" charges and they do not feel it necessary to list them or maybe as you said different Europcar rental agencies fall under different rules depending if they are corporate or individually owned. This is something I didn't realize is true in Europe until reading another post here.

But of course, like the airline industry, the car rental industry may be finding ways to bring in more revenue.

As an alternative, we are probably gong to lease a car since we will need it for more than 19 days. I've been told there are then no age (over 70) problems, insurance is covered and no drop off fee. Any drawbacks that I don't know about?

It's more expensive if the available alternative is a "basic" rental with the CDW carried by your credit card. That applies to standard shift. From what others have said, automatics on a rental basis come close to the lease option in terms of total cost.

Did someone tell you that Europcar charges a drop off fee everywhere in France? If so, then I guess that is a policy, if not, I don't think one can assume that is the case. I'm just wondering if it varies by the cities and places you want to pickup and drop off. It may be because you want to drop off in Limoges, for example, and that wouldn't be the case if you picked up in Marseille and dropped off in Avignon, perhaps. Limoges is pretty far away from Lille and they may not have the same demand there. It also may depend on the type of car. Anyway, I'm perhaps a little confused, but I just checked a rental on the Europcar website directly, and it has no one-way charge on it (same cities, actually).

I've also rented from them just last summer and don't remember any weird gas policy, it was the same I'm used to at home. Return it full for the best deal, which I did.

Nope - I didnt ask for all areas - just ours. Could be Limoges - who knows? But when I put it into the Europcar website I do get a one way drop charge...? Weird. We are renting an economy.

Anyways - we just booked it.

It looks like Jamikins is renting from a concessionaire in Lille since she has no RR station charges (lower than the one-way charges and no VAT, I believe). Since contracts can be changed or canceled until three days before the actual rental, whether she wants to pursue the issue or not is her choice.

If it helps anyone, I talked to 2 different agents from autoeurope this morning and posted their reply on this thread
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...p-off-fees.cfm.

When I asked it it's possible that someone is charged any extra fees locally, they said only the eco-tax fees of about 8E a day are charged locally. They said if someone tries to get charged a drop-off fee, to call them and they will sort it.

Michael - what is a concessionair?? My contract is with Europcar at Lille Europe rail station. I've never heard that term before?

PS - hubby will call autoeurope again tomorrow to see about the one way charge...

We have rented may times with autoeurope (in France) and never had this issue before - and we always rent in one place and drop in another...

Some of the Europcar rental agencies are private concessions rather than run by the national office. Sometimes the rental agencies function both ways. For example, if you rent directly from the Périgueux office, I believe that a one-way rental will incur a charge. But if you rent via Autoeurope or Kemwel, the concessionaire accepts the terms of the contract arranged between the brokers and the national company and does not charge a one-way fee, but does charge the RR pick-up fee (about half the cost). At least that is my impression from conversations I had with the Périgueux office last Fall after being charged an extra 130€ on my bill. You might want to read this thread through to my Sept. 2 entry: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...protection.cfm

If Autoeurope insists that a one-way fee applies to your rental, try Kemwel. You don't even have to hang up. Just ask the person on the line what the Kemwel rates and charges would be.