Thanks for the earlier tips on good itineraries for Portugal!

I'm curious as to if anyone has any suggestions on what car rental agency to use (I'm guessing the best deals are not directly through the major US agencies)?

Thanks!

I think its worth checking various rental agencies, but as a general rule we usually use Auto Europe. Their prices are usually pretty good, and if you find a lower price they will match it if you give them a call. I like them because their customer service has been outstanding.

Tracy

DITTO

Thanks for the responses, I will have to check them out.

Has anyone used CarJet - another site that I have come across.

Thanks

YOur guess is probably wrong. I've never met a European rental that could even come close to comparing with the cost savings of renting ahead of time in the USA. I use AutoEurope (but I shop around and sometimes ask them to meet or beat my price, which they always do).

Has anyone used https://www.economycarrentals.com?

Thanks.

I used economycarrentals.com to book our rental car in Croatia last year. While I usually use Auto Europe, economy car rentals was far, far cheaper than all other rental car companies we looked at.

I was a little nervous but it was unfounded. They were excellent to work with. They brought the car to us and showed up promptly outside our hotel at the time we originally agreed upon. My only complaint was that they left us with under 1/4 tank of gas. We decided to wait until we got outside of Dubrovnik to get gas but the gas stations weren't very plentiful and we were starting to panic just as one finally showed up.

Tracy

I used Carjet and had a great experience - I highly recommend them. I wrote a review in my trip report if you're interested in specifics - look for "Portugal Trip Report" by clicking on my screen name.

Thanks for the responses. It looks like carjet and economycarrentals are priced almost identically and both are by far my least expensive options.

I started reading the fine print and saw insurance excess or deductible type authorizations may occur on my credit card. Economycarrentals says that they will cover this cost if anything happens though the procedure seems to have a lot of hurdles.

How exactly did the drop-off and pick-up delivery work? I'm surprised that on economycarrentals there is no fee for that, but there is if I want to use a local office.

Thanks

For economycarrentals.com, I gave them the hotel information (name and address) and what time I wanted to be picked up. I e-mailed a few days before our trip to reconfirm but was still a little nervous. But as I mentioned above, they were very prompt. He inspected the car with us there and we did all paperwork in the car. Afterwards he gave us the key and we were on our way. I'm assuming that someone was going to come to pick him up.

When we dropped the car off we chose to drop it off at the airport, and again it was completely hassle-free.

I believe we went ahead and paid for the extra insurance but I don't recall it being too expensive.

Tracy

Hi R,

I suggest that you find the best price you can and ask www.gemut.com or www.autoeurope.com if they can beat it.

If they can't they will tell you why. Quite often it has to do with addons for insurance, drop off fees, etc that aren't on your original quote.

I have not rented many cars before so this "Excess" charge authorization that I have seen from some of these vendors is new to me.

If they end up charging anything from this "Excess", does anyone have any experience with getting this refunded through American Express?

Hi R,

The "excess" has to do with insurance.

If you are using Amex to rent the car, decline all insurance.

If you don't, Amex won't cover you at all.

I plan on declining everything that I have the choice to do so, but some agencies, such as carjet include the following:

"All required car hire insurances like 3rd party responsibility, CDW (Collision Damage Waiver), TW (Theft Waiver) and Bail Bond (where applicable) are included in our car hire rates. The vehicle's car hire insurance is subject to an insurance excess value :

When you collect the car hire at Porto, you'll be asked to leave a credit card deposit to the value of the car hire excess : (Depending on the type of car you select) between EUR 750.00 and EUR 1250.00. Providing you return the vehicle undamaged at the end of the car hire, this value is returned to your credit card in full. In the unlikely event that you damage the car hire vehicle, your maximum liability is limited to the car hire insurance excess value."

Near as I can tell if I get charged for some of the insurance excess, Amex will refund me.

I'm hoping someone can confirm this through experience as opposed to me describing the general situation over the phone to Amex, which I have done.

Thanks for all the help.

I have reserved a car for our upcoming trip to Spain and France from AVIS. We booked online through Costco.com. This was recommended to me by several friends who have rented this way for their trips and have not had any issues or problems. You do have to be a Costco member though. We reserved a car for seven days at a rate of $250 USD for the week. (all insurance declined for the rental because CC Company will cover as well as our US auto policy...I called to double check!)I think the rental is supposed to be a VW Golf, stick shift or similar...with GPS. If anyone has a good, bad or ugly stories of other Fodorites that have rented through AVIS in Europe...do tell!

I know that you can decline all the insurance w/ AMEX in the US and be covered by them... are you covered with European rentals too?

rustlerski,

You may want to look at the introduction to my trip report http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34875899

As stated, some agencies were considerably cheaper than AutoEurope, but they did not offer one-way rentals. I used CRX in France, and you might want to see what they offer in terms of pricing for Portugal.

Hi. I rented from Carjet in Portugal and was provided with a car from Budget Car rentals at the airport.
We also returned the car to the airport.
We had no problem with the rental.
Carjet provides you with the insurance you stated up to the point of the excess. And as you said, it depends on the type of car you rent.

If you damage the car you are responsible for this amount unless you buy extra CDW from the rental company or your credit card covers it.

The sticking point with a car that is provided with some CDW but not all the coverage is that you have no choice to decline what they offer you.

You must find out from the credit card company that you use if this is a condition of your rental, will they cover the excess. Since you are not purchasing any extra coverage from the car company they may cover the excess.

I also had a reservation with Ecomony for our next trip but had to cancel so I have no experience with them. I liked the idea that FULL coverage is provided by them with a rental.

I contacted Auto Europe for both rentals and they would not match the price of either company.

When you have an accident with any car rental company in Europe, the same hurdles apply. You need good documentation.

rustlerski-

You asked about Amex covering damage when CDW is waived. Unfortunately I damaged a rental car in Switzerland. I contacted Amex from Switzerland and again when I returned from my trip. They were great in promptly dealing with the car rental company. The only charge they refused to cover was a charge that the rental company levied for the car being unavailable for rental while it was being fixed. Eventually, they agreed to waive this cost.