Renting car in Canadian Dollars Cheaper?
 

I somehow stumbled onto the AutoEurope Canadian site and found I could rent the same car in Rome for about the same number of Canadian dollars as I had reserved a car for in American Dollars. This represents quite a bit of savings (even figuring a 3% conversion fee) unless I am missing something. Has anyone ever heard of this? Any drawbacks?

Hi Carol:

I would be interested in hearing other responses.

What I CAN tell you is that I live in Canada and when I rent a car via my TA, who uses Autoeurope, the rate she gets me is always cheaper in CAD$ than the quote I get directly from Autoeurope.com's won website (in US$). Often the savings are 30%-40%. For example, for my next trip to Italy, she had quoted me CAD$260 (US$207) for a compact while the quote on Autoeurope.com is US$320!!!!

I had always assumed this was because I used a TA. I never even realized there WAS a separate Canadian site.

regards Ger.

Hi Carol,

>I somehow stumbled onto the AutoEurope Canadian site ..<

What's the URL, please.

((I))

Here it is Ira.

regards

http://www.autoeurope.ca/

Try www.kemwel.com, a sister company of AutoEurope.

Via autoeurope.com, my reservation was for $454USD. I contacted AutoEurope to price match the quote for the exact same itinerary, for $375USD from Kemwel.com; the AutoEurope representative encouraged me to go with Kemwel, since it's a sister company of AutoEurope.

A savings of over $75USD!!!

Topping for more insight. Carol, Did you end up renting on the Canadian site?

Sally

I'm still thinking about it. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking something. I don't want to get there and have them say, this is not good because you're not Canadian, or whatever.

Hi carol,

>I don't want to get there and have them say, this is not good because you're not Canadian...<

That's not how AutoEurope works. They will tell you before you are charged if it is OK.

You get a contract from them which you use to get the car rental.

((I))

This is interesting. I reserved a car with AutoEurope on the Canadian site two months ago. I got a discount and was quite happy with the price. Yesterday, I checked again and the discount was bigger. I called AutoEurope and got a further discount to match their current rate.

I live in Canada. When I lease a car from AutoEurope (five times now), the rate is quoted in Can$. I've noticed that the rates quoted in Can.$ are cheaper than those in US $. It's a mystery to me, but it works in my favour.

Ginny

I think that AutoEurope charges what the market will bear.

For the same car, same dates

US site 567 USD
Canadian site 547 CAD (438 USD)
French site 477 E (620 USD)
Danish site 3615 Kr (629 USD)

((I))

Carol:

I noticed that at the start of the search, you are asked to enter your country of origin. My concern would be that either the rate would not be honoured at destination or that it would cause a problem if you were in an accident. Maybe you would do better to call and asked them to match their OWN rate in Canada.

Best of luck.

Ger

Hi Ger,

>I noticed that at the start of the search, you are asked to enter your country of origin. <

I went to www.autoeurope.ca
I seem to have missed that.
Where is it?

((I))

Ira:

See the top of the page just over where you choose the country in which you want to rent:

"Canada
Please click here to choose your home country if this is incorrect. "

I know that I am usually, of not always, asked for my passport and, of course, my Driver's Licence is Canadian.

Its really strange that cars are so much cheaper when rented from Canada - I can't figure out the logic. My rental in Italy for May is 35% LESS than quoted on the US site WOW!

regards Ger

Hi all,

Just to experiment, I went to the autoeurope.ca website and put in my requirements. I requested a one day rental in Venice for a couple of weeks from now. The price was 115 CAD. I "made" the reservation by putting in all the information except for my credit card - they'll send me an e-mail to finalize (where I will send them my credit card information.) In that section where I finalized, it asks for your country, and I put in US.

I then went to autoeurope.com and put in a similar search. The same car was $115 US. Obviously, I didn't reserve that one becuase the other one is a better deal.

I'll report back when I get the finalized e-mail and let you know if the price went up since I am a US citizen.

This is quite interesting!

Sally

I'm really interested too in finding out since we're planning on renting in France. I bet when we put in our Credit Card - they can tell if its US or not. Will feel pretty put out if they base rates on citizenship. (Well, except, I have duel citizenship US/CA - so must be where card is issued.) Will be eagerly awaiting to see what happens.

If you reserve a car and get a confirmation in Can.$, I think EuroEurope will be able to tell whether you're Canadian or not when you pick up the car. You will be asked for some ID, e.g. your passport and/or driver's license.

Ginny

I thought AutoEurope reservations were to be prepaid, right?

So, here we are in the US reserving a car in Europe and deciding to do it in Canadian funds.

When it comes time to charge the credit card will it be charged in Canadian funds with the conversion fee thrown in by the bank???? Will that be the point when AutoEurope finds out that the CC being used has been issued by a US bank and change the rate accordingly?

Does anyone really think that this way of "sving money" will last very long as soon as AutoEurope figures out (like they haven't already!!!) that people are trying this?

Well, sorry to burst the bubble, but I got up my courage and decided to pay for it and they said I had to be a Canadian citizen (it's funny the first person didn't say this). The person looked into giving me the same rate in USD, but the price had gone up considerably since then, so they couldn't. Luckily, I had already booked the one in USD before the price went up. Sorry to get everyone's hopes up!

It is actually not strange at all the the prices vary. When you reserve a car through autoeurope - they charge your card for the amount in the currency of you home country. BUT they do not pay the rental agency until after (or during) your rental. This is why you can cancel for a full refund at any time.

Why does this matter ? The answer is that it is hedged - you have to pay for autoeurope to take the currency risk for your transaction. Your price in US$ is fixed even though the actual cost (in EUR) is fluctuating. Auto Europe must have a deal with a bank that does the hedge, it may be long term - so the deal may have been worked out when the rate was higher.

I don't know exactly what autoeurope does but they have to cover themseleves for changes in currency.

A interesting example would be if you were an american and paid in Candian dollars for a Euro rental. What if you canceled?

say you paid 125 CAD for the rental
at the time that was 100 USD

you cancel now the rate is lower you get 125 CAD back - but that equals only 95 USD

Autoeurope has to protect itself from currency risk. Another strange thing is that I don't understand why the the rate in France is more (EUR) - the only explanation is some realationship issue, European auto renters don't want natives using a foreign company to rent from their own cars.

Just following up. I got my reservation e-mail. It clearly states back the information that I gave them - that I am in the US, but it still quotes me in Canadian dollars. So I just have to input my credit card information and I would be good to go - and according to the terms and conditions portion, all my terms would be in Canadian dollars.

And I would be making the transaction very honestly - using my own home information in the US - no trying to fake them into thinking I wasn't in the US - except of course that I was on the Canadian website instead of the American one.

I imagine that dgruzew is probably right on what autoeurope does. And it's probably not a secret. I am only considering renting for one day so the savings between 115 US and 115 CAN are not huge, but if it were a two week car rental, the savings could be worth it.

Strange that over the internet it all appears okay, but on the phone Carol A got conflicting information.

Maybe they have a glitch somewhere....

Just my update.
Sally