Here at Economy Car hire, we pride ourselves on our clear pricing and making sure that you get the best car hire for your money. Others, unfortunately, are not so honest. There are an alarming amount of new scams being developed that target holiday makers. It is important that you are aware of them so you can protect yourself and go on enjoying your trip.
We discussed some of the most popular cons in our first article on common travel scams to be aware of, but with more research we have discovered some more that you should familiarise yourselves with…
The Evil Twin
Most of us will want to connect to the internet when we are away for a variety of reasons. Therefore, we will often look for accommodation that offers free Wi-Fi. Be aware of the specific network to which you are connecting.
It has been known that bogus networks are set up with a similar name to the hotel, café or even airport, in order to get us to connect to the wrong router. Once connected the offender can have track anything you do, such as access a bank account, so be careful to connect to the correct service. Make sure you check the precise name of the official network you are trying to join.
Fake Tour Guides
If you are visiting a popular tourist attraction it is likely that there will be many touts posing as tour guides lurking around. These tour guides will be friendly and often very knowledgeable about the site, but don’t let this persuade you that they would be a good option.
If you agree to go with them they will take you to places that are irrelevant. For example, they may take you to a local souvenir shop where they will get commission for anything you buy. There will be a lot of pressure on you to part from your money here so make sure that when you are booking a tour you do your homework and book it through an official office.
Extra Items on the Bill
After a big meal where you have spent an evening eating lovely food and drinking too much wine, it is easy to just ask for the bill and pay it. This is a perfect opportunity for the restaurant or café to catch you off your guard.
It is common for establishments to add extra items to the bill or up the price of what you actually had. Make sure you cross check the prices with the menu if something doesn’t add up, or have an idea of what the total should be before you ask for the bill.
The Fake Ticket
Scamming is not just done by individuals. There is some very advanced technology that can be called upon to devise some big money scams. A common scam is counterfeiting. Not necessarily money but more regularly tickets, from Oyster cards to admission to a local museum.
There are numerous touts that will try to sell you these fake tickets, and some will come across in a very official manner. In order to avoid this make sure you only buy your tickets from an official seller, however big the queue.
The Slow Count
This is a scam that has been around for a long time, and it can happen anywhere. When exchanging currency or receiving change for a purchase the cashier will count the money out before giving it back to you. This seemingly harmless act is purposefully slow, with pauses in strange places to confuse you.
The hope is that you will just accept the change given to you without counting it and leave the premises. When you discover that the change they gave you was much less than it should have been, it’s too late.
These are not the only travel scams that you need to be aware of. Make sure that you are vigilant at all times and therefore give fraudsters less opportunity to scam you. Although it may seem sceptical it is best to question everything and not just take things at face value. It is a slightly depressing thought that everyone is out to get you and of course they’re not! It is just a few individuals who you will have to be wary of.
Make sure you read our article on how to stay safe on your travels and also on how to avoid extortionate bank charges whilst you’re abroad in order to be better prepared for your next holiday.
Written by Nicholas Ferns from Economy Car Hire.
So who should I use to rent a car from at Murcia airport????
Hi Karen,
If you contact our reservations team on 01362 852299 they will be able to give you more information.
We use a variety of customer feedback methods to monitor our suppliers so any of our suppliers should be good, it just depends on your specific needs.
Thanks,
Nicholas
I’m in an on-going dispute with Goldcar following car rental from Tenerife South in March. First, their staff member did an unauthorised currency conversion from Euros to GBP, having handed me a credit card machine showing a Euros payment for me to authorise. The Euros amount also appeared on the paperwork she passed me to sign. Later on I at the apartment I noticed a section showing the final payment as GBP, showing 2% commission! So watch carefully what you sign before you sign it! Second, although Goldcar now give a fuel refund (based on eighths of a tank of fuel renmaining), it is much less than you might expect as their fuel price includes a high non-refundable charge for ‘operations and logistics expenses’. How high they won’t yet tell me, but getting back 35 Euros on 5/8 of a tank, having paid 92 euros for fuel suggests a rip-off charge to me.
On arriving in Malta I was met by the representative of their partner company Citygo Rentals.I was asked to preauthorise €1000 on my credit card against excess etc. I was prepared to go along with this but when the representative used my card the response on his machine was ’emv transaction rejected’. I found this hard to understand because there is sufficient credit on my card to easily cover this amount. The transaction was retried several times with the same result. I decided to try another card, with a different bank, again where there was sufficient credit available. This again came back ’emv transaction rejected’.I ‘phoned my bank who stated that no request for a preauthorisation had been received, let alone rejected. I told the Citygo representative that the problem was on the Malta side not at my bank.He refused to release the car until I took their excess insurance at a cost of €68.25, despite the fact that I already held excess insurance (at about a third of the price).I contacted the second bank for which the response had been’emv transaction rejected’. They also confirmed that no request for a preauthorisation had been received, let alone rejected.It seems to me that there is a problem here. I have never had a credit card transaction declined in my life before, let alone 2, with different banks, on the same day.
If I was suspicious I might just think that this has, in some way, been prearranged to reject preauthorisations, in order to sell their own overpriced insurance.
Hello,
I’m sorry to hear that you were dissatisfied with the service you have received. Please could you could contact our customer relations department on customerrelations@economycarhire.com so that we can investigate this for you?
Best wishes,
Economy Car Hire
Further about hire car company scams especially the deisel car for a petrol one. I have just had this with “Centauro” at Murcia booked through Economy car hire. Had to take car back with 2/3 a tank of deisel (cost 99 euros for full tank – therefore not used 60 euro). Obviously not happy! Can’t Europe Car have a better deal with suppliers for a fair policy (that is rent full and bring back full).
Also another to look out for from Gold Car at Alicante regards hire car rate with no excess. However the basic insurance is essentially 3rd party so if you have a crash and its your fault you have to pay for damage to hire car – but not for a small scratch, covered by no excess. Of course they will give you necessary extra insurance at 85 euro for the week. Economy Car hire should not use Gold Car and neither should any renter. Beware.
We had a “package” from Expedia using Gold Car in Madeira – as standard, roadside assistance and punctures were not covered – extra charge! The car was supposed to be an “upgrade” but we had to use 1st gear so often to get up the slightest incline and keep going……
Check very thoroughly before booking whatever company you’re using.
I have just got back from spain where I thought I had paid for the car in full here.,
I was told if I bought the car back with a scratch I would have to pay €650 but if I took out insurance for €69 I could have a new car and crash it and it would be covered.
I was told by the sales person that the cover I took out in the uk was worthless, so I had to pay another amount of money and my £59 became in the region of £137 in the end?…
Here’s another to add to the list. I’ve just hired a car for a week in Murcia and I knew it was a start with full tank and return empty but they gave me a much bigger car than I’d originally asked for with a much bigger fuel tank. So a much higher bill for fuel that I was never going to use anyway. To make things worse when I paid for the fuel they asked if I wanted to pay in Euros or Pounds on my credit card. I opted for Euros because the exchange rate is usually always better only to find that although they put it through in Euros and the credit slip was in Euros the cost was also listed in Pounds at an exchange rate way lower than the current one. I’m talking 1.16 Euros to the pound when the outside rate was 1.22. I feel completely ripped off.
One “scam” or more accurately “potentially costly trap” that you’ve never highlighted is in respect of loopholes in car hire insurance. “Fully insured, theft protection, no excesses” may not be all they appear. Once on Costa del Sol the 4 wheels on my car were stolen and those on a neighbour’s car. Fortunately I was unwittingly covered but my neighbour wasn’t. He thought he was but the wheels & tyres were un-insured as was the underside, roof of car, windscreen etc. It cost him about £1000 for new wheels. Since then I have always paid locally on collection, usually about 4-5 Euros per day (max 50 euros) so that I pay nothing no matter what happens to the car at all.
This is a scam that was running on some of the Greek islands that a friend of mine fell foul of recently.
If you choose to hire quad bikes from some of the less reputable rental companies, usually with the really cheap deals, the scammers, under cover of the night, will visit the location of the accommodation that you wrote on the rental agreement or even locate the vehicle by using small GPS devices that they have fitted to the vehicle and simply drive them away by using the spare keys. When you report the theft to the rental company the insurance does not cover you because of some clause that does not cover you for where it was parked or because you did not secure it with a certain type of lock or many other disclaimers which unless you read every little bit of the small print you are not to know about. The rental companies have been known to make very serious threats of violence against the victims in an attempt to gain financial compensation and have been known to send thugs to your accommodation who then take you to a cash point to force you to withdraw cash to pay for their supposed loss. The police are aware of such scams but without enough evidence or maybe because they are on the take they advise you, for your own safety, to pay up if you can and just leave the accommodation and resort as soon as possible. They also tell you that other people have been hospitalised for refusing to pay up.
Something to think about when you think you are getting a really cheap deal.
I have stopped hiring cars in Spain. Two times back when getting petrol refunded, I did not immediately check the receipt I was handed and when my bank statement came there was no refund. The receipt did not bear my card account number but something else. It took months of complaining before I was reimbursed. The following time when getting refund for petrol (as agreed on hiring) was told refund went back automatically on to my card and I asked for the receipt. It was given very grudgingly and I was told not to use their company again in a very rude and aggressive way. Annoyed that I was not a scam victim.
I went on holiday to Costa Blanca from 22/04/14 through to 07/05/14, everything was fine until we went onto the beaches at Guardamar and Campomoar where we were constantly asked by chinese girls and men if we wanted massages, we were bombarded every half hour we were on the beaches,Do people not realise by having these massages by unqualified chinese girls they are making the situation even worst for everyone else. Not to mention that they could be fined for having this done. Why are the Police not stopping this,Its illegal.
same old I have hired 4 cars in 2 months and been ripped off by one scam or another ,ie said car was not full on return, gave me a 4 seater fiat lol fit 2 people in and not even 1 case ! made to pay night rate extra because flight was ten minutes late and picked car up at five past 12 and not before 12 and I waited in a que to get served for the 5 mins
One interesting little UK scam is an ecess insurance one. Most of us have probbaly fallen foul of this and watsed our money.
If you book a car for say two or three days (or even more), you often get asked via website if you would like excess insurance (its even at a fair price).
However, the small print of the insurance states that you have to have one or two nights paid accomodation.
I copy below some of the points buried way down in the T & Cs
*The dates you have arranged to hire the insured vehicle, as confirmed on your rental agreement.
*You will only be covered if you are aged between 21 and 74 at the date your policy was issued.
*Any other trip which begins after you get back is not covered.
*A trip which is booked to last longer than 62 days is not covered.
*If you are renting an insured vehicle for use within your home country, you must also have at least 2 nights pre-booked accommodation.
It is the final point that is the problem. Now if you were staying with a relative? you are not covered, if you were only away for one night, you are not covered?
Now the scam part is that when you book say for two days (so the insurance will not be covered as it has to be two paid nights) then they ask you if you want insurance, they ask you again if you want insurance and then they e-mail you. Yet you are never eligable. Given that the car hire company knows you only want two days car hire, why is it offering you insurance that you cannot ever claim on. I rang the insurers and the person i spoke to noted this as an ‘issue’. I spoke the the car broker (one if not the largest in the UK) They said (7 month ago) looking into it and still it goes on.
Imagibe how many people in the UK each day book car hire, buy excess but eithr have only two day trips or stay with frinds and relatives. It must be thousands and yet none can claim a penny on the excess.
Is that true in the small print of Economy UK car hire?
Beware with hire cars if you book say a Ford Fiesta expecting it to be a petrol engine then at check in they provide you with a diesel engine. This means the ‘full tank’ costs more & generally a diesel car is more expensive to hire – check the bill & you will no doubt find that additional cost because the car is diesel added to the bill so challenge it as you didn’t request a diesel car! Also Gold Car have now started reimbursing customers for fuel remaining in the tank if it is not returned empty. We got a repayment on our credit card for unused fuel however they also like the ‘diesel car’ additional payment though when challenged they reimbursed that as well.Can’t comment on other hire car companies at the moment. Happy motoring!
I agree about the car hire.
I think its disgusting that they can charge you for a full tank of petrol. Yes there prices are cheaper to start with but not when an extra £60 is added to the cost for the petrol
As I was only there for three nights I had over half a tank of unused petrol ( which I had paid for)
The next person pays for a full tank and the company only have to fill it up half way. Please get this removed if possible, its a scam that a lot of companys are now doing
Hi Joy,
We’re sorry you had a bad experience, and we agree with you.
Please be aware that we display the ‘Fair Fuel Policy’ badge on our quote results page, where it is applicable. This means it’s easier to choose the quote that is right for you.
Thanks for taking the time to comment,
Superb work, Nick. This should be linked to from websites such as Moneysavingexpert and TripAdvisor: it’s that good.
We’re very aware of the scams that go on out there — especially, it seems, in Spain — and it’s heartbreaking to see the number who are taken in every year as criminal dross finds ever newer ways to exploit the trusting and the vulnerable.
We’ve pointed out before that the Spanish authorities — so clearly desperate for the tourism Euro to prop up an economy that would be dead on its knees without it — should do a helluva lot more than is currently the case to stop the scammers and lock up the criminals. (A nowhere better start would be with some of the car hire outfits based at Malaga airport — one of the many reasons why we’ve used Economy Car Hire for so many years, and in various different countries, too.)
Sadly, a country still riddled with corruption from top to bottom — as Spain continues to be — remains a place where wariness has to be priority, whether it’s hiring a car, booking an attraction, using what seems to be publicly available wifi, or dining out.
Thanks again for an informed and informative report.
Thanks Howard and Val, you’re more than welcome!
We agree that it’s a shame that holiday makers have to be on constant alert whilst abroad, but it’s better to be prepared than to fall foul of some of these tricks.
We hope we”ll be able to help you again and again in the years to come.
Best wishes,
Nicholas
And Car Hire companies that force you to buy a tank of petrol and then return it empty when you are probably never going to be able to do that. And then with the next punter they do the same again, and again, making shed loads of dosh – what a rip off.
Many thanks for the tips. Much appreciated.
No problem, we’re glad you liked them, thanks for the comment.
I encountered a scam in Spain, it’s called the double tax (IVA) scam. At the end of the meal without asking I was given my bill. I wanted coffee so we said could we have coffee and would they amend the bill. What they did was to add the coffee and then total it again then add the tax.
Example. €100 plus tax at say 10% is 110. Change the bill to €104 to include the coffee and add tax equals €114.40. The way they do it is amend the first bill 110 then add 4 for coffee plus 10% tax equals €125.40.
I think IVA in Spain 7% but you get the drift.
Perhaps you could add this one to your next email scam alert. If they bring the bill to your table before you ask be aware and check the bill
Hi Jim,
Alas! Another scam out there to report on. It is such a shame that these cons exist, but we will definitely include this in our next update.
Thanks for taking the time to let us know.
recently left my car at heathrow with a meet and greet service to find the police contacting me in the usa to say my car was parked in a driveway in west drayton and the numberplates had been removed. On arresting the owner of the prominent company he admitted under caution to the police they do it all the time so not to incur the costs of using a secure compound as they advertise.
police report available for inspection.
Hi Martin, that’s terrible! I think we will put a section on airport parking in our next update as there have been numerous reports of similar activity to that which you experienced.
Thanks for letting us know.
Here’s a holiday tip not many motorists know. If you get a parking ticket on the Costa del Sol it could be as much as €60 . With the ticket you get a small envelope if you put €5.50 in it and post in the slot at the top of the Pay and Display ticket machine the original fine will be automatically cancelled. A great saving. There is a tear of portion to put in with the money don’t forget to put it in the envelope.
Thank you Economy your tops are very helpful.
What a great tip Mark, I will have to try that next time I’m in Spain, although I don’t plan on getting a ticket! Useful thing to know though.
Thanks for commenting and we’re glad you liked the article.
Travel scams nearer to home
National Coaches
Open ticket valid only for three months so if your away longer like 6 months you cannot book in advance for this length of time, but they sell you an open ticket
Arrive Heathrow produce your open ticket and its not valid.
you are charged a massive £39.50 as opposed to £25
no where on the ticket or attached documents does it state the ticket validity Only when u read terms and condition does it inform you so why do NC issue an open ticket its this company that is not very honest
Hi Chris, maybe we overlooked scams nearer to home! Thanks for taking the time to let us know!
You make much of the scams but dont mention any car hire scams. How many people have bought what they presumed to be a complete package on the net to find several ‘additional’ charges. Is there any such thing as buying it all before you leave home?
Hi Gavin, we agree. That’s why we try to make our pricing as clear as possible. In fact we have been voted the Top Car Hire Broker for 2013 and 2014 by Which?, which took into account clarity of pricing.
It’s certainly something we feel very strongly about and we are constantly trying to improve our service.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
I hired a car at Guernsey from Avis which turned out to be not them but a franchise. At the Airport they tried to get me to take out excess car insurance which in fact I already had and on return made me pay £120 for what they called damage which consisted of a mark about 2mm wide caused no doubt by a stone from the road.I argued that this must be considered wear and tare without success and referred it to Trading Standards on the Island who would take no action. The hirer also made me pay for petrol in advance which Trading Standards say is illegal.