Having wheels makes for a full FKK experience. Reports about good deals and warnings about rip-offs should be gathered in a dedicated thread.
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Having wheels makes for a full FKK experience. Reports about good deals and warnings about rip-offs should be gathered in a dedicated thread.
I find Hertz at FRA location to be very honest and no scam. Good thing about Hertz is you can use any coupon code and they will accept it.
Be aware of the possibility of scams if you don't have a 100% full tank on redelivery, and not just 85-90%. I was tried getting charged for over half a tank at 3.50 e per liter by hertz in Germany. Hertz in Austria told me they were not legally allowed to charge extra for the tank unless they had a deposit on it prior to when I was handed the keys. Much higher integrity I must say although the internet site never mentioned the extra deposit. Maybe they had my history with Hertz, LOL. I did get a settlement with the German Hertz scam in the end. Refunding me about 50% of what they originally charged for the missing fuel.
Normally Europcar or others are cheaper, but Hertz have been very competitive on pricing this year so far.
Get yourself some excess insurance from an independent company, it should cost a small amount per day. It saved my ass on one trip when something hit my car while driving along the autobahn and left a 6 inch scratch. Eurocar car rental charged me over 800 which the insurance paid me back.
I made a booking through Check24 showing, among other things, the insurance package below. It covers everything beside luggage. But how can I be sure that the firm with which I enter the contract (Europcar) will adhere to these clauses? I subsequently got a voucher but on it I don't see theses insurances black and white, just "Vollkasko" which means all-inclusive.
Renting a car in Germany / Europe is very different from renting in North America.
Make sure you check the car over and if you see anything you call one of the car rental employees over. They put a sticker on a scratch on a bumper prior to leaving the lot. When you turn it in they will give the car the once over again. Very different than the 100's of cars I rented in the USA. And much more expensive for this POS roller skate with a clutch.
The big thing last year was I got flashed twice and tickets were sent to my office. Avis charged a fee. I had a few issues with the damn car and the rental process to begin with so I complained to Avis and they did nothing. So I called the travel agency my company uses and guess what? The fees were removed and I did not pay the tickets. I just go back last week. Let us see how many times I was flashed. Hopefully I wasn't. It is a huge issue there these days. Money hungry bastards.
As for driving in Europe: Yes it is great to get to out of the way clubs but two of the three I went to this time were very convenient by rail. So I used the trains the first part of the trip and I drove the 2nd. I got to say, I like the trains.
Just a couple of added points.
It is essential to take photos before picking up the car and after dropping off, including of the mileometer and the fuel gauge. It helps if you are seen by the staff to be doing so.
It is a normal part of the hire agreement that you pay a fee, maybe 25 euros average, to the car hire company for passing on to the Police your name and address if the car is caught speeding. If you got the charges removed by your agent you did very well HungryStud101.
I have had several run ins with car hire companies and found that the only thing they responded to was threats of complaints to the European Trading Standards Agency (not sure if US citizens, or UK citizens post Brexit will have this option :( ). Last time I got 1000 euro refund when a company claimed it had to repair a car and in fact quite clearly had no intention of doing so (I caused a minor scratch which was within the company's declared de minimis size), being unable to produce invoices for work done.
No one company is reliably honest. I have had excellent service and appalling service with companies: even paying for a premium company does not guarantee good service.
I keep an extra credit card for the sole purpose of vacationing. After my bimonthly holidays, I always report the card lost so I cannot be automatically charged. Europcar sent me an invoice once but when I called to see what it was about, they just cancelled the charges. Point is, when you make them take an extra step to contact you before trying to scam you, you can usually avoid these false charges.
I now discover that crossing borders is something that should be cleared beforehand and that companies can charge an additional 5 euros / day for it. I never thought this would apply to countries like Austria, Holland etc.
In case you do not know this already, speed limit is 50 km / h by default if there is no speed limit sign posted anywhere. I made that mistake once and got flagged down by the police. Luckily I was not too much above the unposted speed limit, and the fine came out to 20 Euros. The police was even adamant that they can only accept credit card payment, and the fine had to be paid right on the spot..
At least this is cheaper than getting caught by the speeding camera. If you are to drive around the city of Darmstadt, be careful as the area has several speeding cameras. You will be charged at least 25 Euros by the car rental company when authorities make inquiries, and then you still need to pay the fine.
Regardless, if you are touring FKKs, renting a car is a must, since it is a huge hassle and in some places not possible to get there with public transportation.
Apologies for the short novel, but I had some issues with rental agencies last year.
In June, I rented a car in Amsterdam (Hertz), drove all over NRW. Returned the car, no problems at all. That got me hooked on renting a car for ease of hitting out-of-the-way clubs.
In November, I rented a car in Frankfurt from Europcar. Drove to all sorts of places within 1-2 hours of Frankfurt. Hit Dietzenbach 5-6 times. Returned the car, no problems at all, or so I thought. A couple months later, I got a bill in the mail from Europcar, saying I owed them for 2 extra days. They wanted something like 50 Euro. I found their website and dug around until I found a customer support email address. I sent them an email with my rental number, customer number, invoice number, etc. I told them I had paid in full when I dropped off the car and didn't think I owed them anything at all. I got an immediate email response saying someone would contact me within four hours. About a MONTH later, I got another email saying they were looking into the matter. A couple of weeks after that, they sent me a check! It was for something like 20 Euro. No explanation, no nothing. I cashed the check. I have not heard anything since.
In December, I rented a car from Hertz in Amsterdam again. Drove to Frankfurt and spent around 5 days at Dietz. Drove back to NRW and hit several clubs there. Drove back to Amsterdam and returned the car, no problem at all. Or so I thought. About a month later, a charge for around $40 appeared on my credit card from them. I called them up, and they said it "was probably a service fee" if I got a ticket or something. I told them I would not pay for anything unless they could definitively tell me what it was. They could not. So I called my credit card company to dispute the charge. A couple of weeks later, THREE more charges, all for around $40 showed up on my credit card bill. I called my credit card company to dispute those charges as well. I ended up on a 3-way call with Hertz and my bank. Hertz could not specifically say what the charges were for, but they guessed they were service fees for when a foreign country asks them for contact information for tickets. But Hertz could not show me a rental agreement (or anything that I had signed) that said I was responsible for service fees in case of tickets. My bank removed all four charges. Meanwhile, I did get two tickets. One near Koln and one near Utrecht. I am definitely responsible for those. But apparently, you can dispute those fees if they are not in the rental agreement you signed.
So, I think my next TriptoFKKLand, I will probably go to Frankfurt and use the S-Bahn to get to Dietz. Eventually, I'll probably rent a car in Germany again, but when I do, I'll probably drive like an ancient lady with cataracts. Look for me doing 50 kph in the far right lane!
Ahh yes Triptogamont, it is the mystery charges which up 2-3 months after you turn the car in. I suspect I got mine on my way to Oase last year. I was fucked over on that trip by everyone. I really enjoyed the high speed trains this year. I drove a lot less this year and I incorporated trains as much as possible. I have my fingers crossed but if I get charged I will call my agency and fight this BS once again. What a racket. It is about making money and not about safety.
It seems like they started with the extra charge for speeding last year. I have had 3 speeding fines in Germany, but only on the last one did they charge me 27 euro. I believe I used europcar in all 3 situations.
Takedown: my credit card bank now charges about 12 e for sending me a card replacement in case the date has not run out. I tried that tactic not long ago. I suppose some other credit cards don't have the same charge, but I like the bonus points. These things are annoying.
Indeed watching the speedometer is becoming increasingly important in Germany, and using the cruisecontrol. There was a new camera appearing on A3 last fall for example too. In Austria between Salzburg and Villach it is far worse though. Must have been around 15 cameras. Usually near or inside tunnels.
Wondering about whether the renting company charges both the ticket + overhead charges to the credit card or just the overheads. Do the police get paid from the credit card or are you supposed to get the ticket through the post and pay it separately?
[QUOTE=XXL;2159464]Wondering about whether the renting company charges both the ticket + overhead charges to the credit card or just the overheads. Do the police get paid from the credit card or are you supposed to get the ticket through the post and pay it separately?[/QUOTE]In my experience the company charges the "admin" fee only. In 80% of cases there is no subsequent ticket issued by the Police. My experience is limited as I don't often get flashed.
Responsibility for thevadmin charge is a specific part of car hire agreements in all the hires I have made.