Beware of Economy Rental Car of Costa Rica, they robbed or cheated me in every possible way! Just returned form 17 day trip to Costa Rica where we needed a rental car. Searched Internet for car rentals and found Economy offered what seemed to be best prices??? Booked a "5 passenger" car for 15 days for $238 plus insurance and taxes. Got my Collision Damage Waver insurance certification from VISA to save $15/day CDW insurance charge. Only needed to pay the CR Government required Liability Ins of $15/day and the taxes I believed. When I got to the Economy counter at the San Jose airport I presented my printed reservation form showing the $238 charge and my VISA CDW form. They then quoted me $922 for the 15 day rental!!!! I called them CROOKS and pushed back and made them recalculate the charges in front of me. Oh, suddenly, $238 + Liability Ins + 13% tax = $525. Next they give me not a 5 passenger "intermediate" size car but a 4 passenger "economy" size car for the "intermediate" size price - the second way they cheated me! Then I asked about additional driver charges - quoted $15/day or $225 for 15 days when later I saw their posted rate on a small print reader board behind the counter that additional driver fee was $10/day. Declined the outrageous additional driver fee and 1 week later was quoted $5/day at Economy's Playas del Coco office!!! Then when I turned in the car, they played games with the exchange rate using an exchange rate of 545 Colones/US Dollar. Quoting me the rental fees in US Dollars and converting it to an artificially high Colone exchange rate and submitting that inflated charge to VISA gave them an extra $15 when VISA used the actual conversion rate to convert to US $ and bill my credit card account!! My Masters degree is in International Finance. Unless you like to be cheated in every aspect of a car rental, DO NOT rent from Economy Rental Car!!!
Beware of Rental Car Scam
Service car rental near the airport is the best. They bring the car to you at the airport. You don't pay taxes because they have no office in the airport. I've used the for four years and I've got no complaints, their cars were new and clean, and the prices were reasonable. Ask for Rember [email protected]
You don't want to have a vehicle brought to the airport, else you will pay an extra 15% on your total bill.
Take a taxi or ask them to shuttle you to their office.
I've had good luck with Avis. Can't say they're the cheapest but they have been very nice and even though I've probably put a few dings in the car with my off-road driving, they have never charged me for it.
Let me add here that you MUST do your due diligence and take photos of the entire car/truck, and especially any damage you see. And make sure the drawing they have showing any damage shows all the damage YOU find and if not make them add it to the drawing.
The guy at Avis saw me doing this and he said "That's a good idea!" and he dutifully added any scratches/dings that I found, to the drawing. Also if you wash it before bringing it back (if you have gotten it muddy) will help them not look so closely for damage (this is my theory, not a proven fact) as they won't realize it's been off road so much.
rmbaker, dividing your posts into paragraphs would make your posts much easier to read! ;-)
First I'd like to correct my last post. It was not Avis I recommend but rather vacationcitydotcom . They were very good and cheapest I have found.
I'll probably use them next month for a 10 day trip but I'm waiting to hear back with their quote for me.
Question in the meantime:
Has anyone used ECONOMY RENT A CAR or specifically Economy via carrentals.com? I'm looking at them based on a recommendation from another site and so far they look cheaper than I've ever seen. Daihatsu Bego or similar for $11.62 a day from ECONOMY.
It says Collision is only $9/day but they don't mention the required SLI coverage for Costa Rica which is kind of dishonest of them not to mention it, and they say "no refunds" after you book which bothers me considerably.
Collision Damage Coverage (recommended)
Coverage may cost less now than at the car counter.
Pays up to $40,000. $0 deductible and receive primary coverage.
Covers damage to vehicle due to collision, theft, vandalism, fire, or hail.
Coverage can be cancelled with 100% refund. See plan for details."
You have to be careful with these add on policies online because I saw the one offered at Expedia was totally effed up. I was getting a quote for a Terios 4x4 and then they offered me the collision/damage insurance BUT it said in the fine print that the insurance does NOT cover 4x4's. WTF?! The above $9 coverage may be the same...
I'll probably go with vacationcity.
I see that servicecarrental offers the following:
TPL Mandatory "Third Party Liability" :
180.00 USD
LPF "License Plate Fee" :
23.88 USD
Taxes & Surcharges :
203.88 USD
Base Rate & Charges
453.74 USD = $38/day
Rental Options :
0.00 USD
SLI "Supplemental Liability" :
60.00 USD
CDW Limited Protection :
180.00 USD
Protections / Coverages :
240.00 USD
Discount Coupons :
0.00 USD
Estimated Total
693.74 USD (for 12 days = $57.84 / day
Last time I rented a car at vacation city my total charge was about $58/day - I just checked - so I guess it's about "6 of one or a half dozen of the other"... By the way "vacationcity" used Thrifty - not sure if they always do, but Thrifty was fine.
It's the insurance that drives the price up so high in Costa Rica and SLI is mandatory at around $15/day - I think $20 or more a day at some places - and then collision/theft can run up to $28/day ...
So it looks like the cheapest would be carrentals dotcom but not sure I trust them.
Anyone have experience with carrentalsdotcom?
The part that bothers me about them and/or Economy rent a car is:
" This pre-paid reservation cannot be changed or refunded.
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