Renting a car in Germany

[Neurosynth]

Sometimes while I'm in Germany I VPN back to the US and reserve the car from the US site. It's sometimes cheaper that way.

[XXL]

In Germany two middlemen, check24.de and billiger-mietwagen.de, are very popular and get good marks from consumer organisations. I once tried out ckeck24 and I now have them on my black list. What happened was that I got a very good deal, 30% cheaper than what I got booking direct. But when I read in the small print of the vehicle provider it said that if I wanted to cross borders it had to be cleared in advance. I wrote to ckeck24 about this and got an automated reply that they would get back to me within 2 days. Getting no answer 4 or 5 days later, I had no alternative but to cancel. I got another nice mail stating no worry the cancellation was free of charge etc. Only the amount had already been booked from my credit card. I should've got that amount back within days but, surprise, 2 weeks later the money had still not be credited back. I called my bank to effect the charge back.

Another scary thing is you deal with a broker you have at least 3 parties: the broker, the insurance, and the vehicle provider. Each of these parties have their own small print. In case something goes wrong, that's a tangle and my fear is that they probably send you automated replies until you take a lawyer. It's difficult to know as it is to whom to complain when you're dealing with the firm direct, let alone with middlemen all over the place. I the case of check24 I couldn't even get a timely reply from the broker when I asked whether I would be allowed to take the car into puny Benelux!

I might give billiger-mietwagen a try for August though because I rent for long periods and the prices I'm paying renting direct are too high. When you rent direct it's difficult to get unlimited mileage included. Sixt in particular has a very low mileage included (104 km / day).

I returned a car booked direct from Europcar in May with some scratches on the wheel rim. I had full waiver insurance and was not too worried about this but what happened is they didn't check and I've got no news from them so far. So the issues of minor damage goes both ways. Sometimes they will try to get you for ridiculously small scratches, sometimes they will overlook more substantial damage. Go figure.

[UltraHappy]

Next time I'll reserve directly through the rental company, not Expedia. Which brings back the question of who's better, more honest, less expensive, etc. My order of preference to date was Europcar, Enterprise, Hertz. I may try the Enterprise next time, never had any issues with them in the past.

I stick to Sixt and Enterprise, whichever is cheapest. Usually, Sixt is cheaper, but occasionally Enterprise wins out. When checking on prices with Enterprise, you have to check the Enterprise prices when booking through Kayak, because a Kayak-booked Enterprise car is often cheaper than a car booked directly through Enterprise. I have rented a lot from both Sixt and Enterprise in Germany and never had a problem with either of them.

I've found the other rental companies to be substantially more expensive (or have a bad reputation).

Another important issue is privacy. I am NOT advertising to my wife any travel arrangements I make in Germany. Likewise, a letter in a mailbox from a car rental overseas is NOT a welcome addition to what she already knows about my modus operandi.

You should consider giving your friend's mailing address as your residential address, so that the tickets get mailed to your friend. Just FYI, with Sixt, you can access the details of all of your past tickets through your online account anyways.

Usually, most German cities won't bother to even send you the ticket, but occasionally, some cities do send on speeding tickets, in which case, your friend would have to make sure that he gave you that ticket quickly, so you can pay the discounted fine if you pay within the early, short deadline.

[Smoke Light]

I truly appreciate everybody's comments on the subject of what appears to be the airport surcharge, or the premium location surcharge. However, since the car was reserved via expedia at that specific location months in advance, I consider this to be a scam, which benefits both expedia as it gets more business for its "low rate" and the rental company, who rips you off in the aftermath.

Next time I'll reserve directly through the rental company, not Expedia. Which brings back the question of who's better, more honest, less expensive, etc. My order of preference to date was Europcar, Enterprise, Hertz. I may try the Enterprise next time, never had any issues with them in the past.

Another important issue is privacy. I am NOT advertising to my wife any travel arrangements I make in Germany. Likewise, a letter in a mailbox from a car rental overseas is NOT a welcome addition to what she already knows about my modus operandi.

[UltraHappy]

I think what they call "airport surcharge" is not really a surcharge. You will get the same "surcharge" whether you book from the airport or from a place in town. This is what the price included last time I booked with them:

In Frankfurt, both the airport location and the central train station (Hauptbahnhof) are considered premium locations. If you rent from any other location, including the Bad Homburg location, you will not receive this premium location surcharge.

But, to take advantage of the lower prices available at a location like the Bad Homburg location, you would normally have to buy train tickets to get out there. If you run the math on getting out to the other locations (for example, getting to the Bad Homburg station), you'll end up paying about the premium location surcharge in train ticket fees to get out there to rent your car and back again after dropping your car off. So, Sixt has essentially carefully calculated their premium location fee, taking into account the average cost to get to one of the outlying rental locations and back.

In effect, if you're flying into town for a short trip, it's usually advisable to pay the premium location fee. The only time it makes sense to rent from an outlying Sixt branch is if you are staying for a longer trip, for example, two weeks. In this case, Sixt charges a lower premium location fee, but it's still cheaper to rent from an outlying branch -- you just have to deal with the hassle of taking the train there and back.

[XXL]

There is a 19% tax for airport rentals, as well as railway stations apparently. However, if you rent at other city locations, the tax does not apply. I have rented several times from the Hertz office on Camberger Strasse and the Sixt office at Zeil 5 without that tax.

The thing is I was not sure the overall price was lower than you would have paid renting from the airport. However you're right, I've just ran a simulation for an automatic transmission car, same car same period (from August 14th till September 25th). It's 27.39 euros per day if you rent from Zeil 5 and 33.28 if you rent from the airport. Same car of course. I logged onto a VPN for the 2nd quote, just in case. Note that not all non-railway non-airport locations waive the surcharge (there's a heated debate about this on German forums). It would be interesting to collect data about Frankfurt locations that qualify for this waiver. The Zeil station comes up as "Frankfurt a.M Zentrum-Zeil". The closest S-Bahn is Konstablerwache, but that's also the S-Bahn close to Breiter Gasse! One thing that can be different when renting from town locations is opening times.

Note that the quotes I got had the same typical Sixt crappy free kms (104/day).

[XXL]

Can anyone tell me the best way to pay a camera speeding ticket I got in the Stuttgart area? I got flashed on my trip in April twice, once in Stuttgart and once in Ulm, and got 225 Euro charges from Sixt a month ago. In the mail last night I got a letter in German for the Stuttgart ticket it appears they are charging me 15 Euros (58 kph in a 50 zone). As luck would have it, I will be in Stuttgart next week (FKK addict after 1 time, I also am doing some autobahning and tourist stuff) there is an address at the bottom of pg 1 that when I put in google maps tells me it is a government building. Can I go there and pay the ticket? It is about 10 km from my hotel. I also see on the internet you can go into any bank and pay? Is this right, and what are the charges for this service?

It would be about time car rentals in Germany got their act in order and introduced a system where fines can be paid straight from your credit card. Rental firms will not hesitate to charge hundreds or even thousands of euros from your credit card weeks later for "scratches" but they can't be bothered to settle a twenty-euro fine to the police. This is infuriating.

To pay directly I would go to a "Postbank" which you will find most post offices.

[Jimmy Boy 99]

Snip. I ran a simulation for a booking from Frankfurt Central Station and it showed the same surcharge as from the airport. I have no idea where you would have to book to avoid that surcharge since all car rental subsidiaries will be at "premium locations" (as opposed to "in the middle of nowhere"). I surmise this is something they emphasize in their invoice for bookkeeping/tax reasons. Snip.

There is a 19% tax for airport rentals, as well as railway stations apparently. However, if you rent at other city locations, the tax does not apply. I have rented several times from the Hertz office on Camberger Strasse and the Sixt office at Zeil 5 without that tax.

[Smoke Light]

Airport surchage, additional mileage? Ring them up and check if you want to be sure, especially if you are planning to get another rental from them in August.

Was reserved through expedia, normally always good rates. Mileage unlimited. Why any surcharges wouldn't be already included? I think I'll just pay and bring the letter with me when I am back in Frankfurt at the end of July to get the answers. Thanks for you replies, XXL and Warsteiner!

[XXL]

Two weeks after renting a car from Europcar at Frankfurt airport a letter from Europcar Services Unipessoal LDA arrives. The return address is in Portugal. Contains an invoice in the amount of 48.23 EURO. The "Your Rental" section specifies "14 days charged" which is the entire rental period. Then it contains Vehicle category "IDMR" and "Carbon foot print 124 g / km CO2", according to.

http://www.acriss.org/pdfs/sellingguide.pdf

"IDMR" means Intermediate /4-5 Door / Manual Unspecified Drive / Unspecified Fuel with Air Conditioning. It was Opel Grandland X, not a diesel, was a regular gas car.

Then "Your Costs" literally: Surcharges 23.50 percent 172.46 Euro price, amount 40.53 Euro, tax 19%, total price including tax 48.23 Euro.

The next line says "value added Tax 19%" and "Pay to Europcar Autovermietung GMBH", company address in Hamburg Germany, and Commerzbank IBAN.

Wonder if anybody had similar invoices in the mail. I plan to pay this nonsense. I have previously reserved another Europcar rental in August from the same location. Any ideas WTF is this and why?

I think what they call "airport surcharge" is not really a surcharge. You will get the same "surcharge" whether you book from the airport or from a place in town. This is what the price included last time I booked with them:

"Price includes.
Unlimited mileage.
AIRPORT SURCHARGE.
Winter Equipment (WIN) (WIN).
Licenses & Fees (LAF) (LAF).
VAT (See full T&Cs)".

If you read their conditions you find a definition: "Premium Location / Airport / Railway Service Charge: an additional charge which applies at certain central-city, airport, or railway locations".

https://www.europcar.com/terms-and-conditions/online-booking

I ran a simulation for a booking from Frankfurt Central Station and it showed the same surcharge as from the airport. I have no idea where you would have to book to avoid that surcharge since all car rental subsidiaries will be at "premium locations", as opposed to in the middle of nowhere, although there may be cases in some countries other than Germany where the location is not premium owing to very low local taxes. I surmise this is something they emphasize in their invoice for bookkeeping/tax reasons. All the same, some elaboration on their part about this would not be amiss.

Maybe avoidance of such a surcharge is the loophole some 3rd party brokers use to be able to broker cars from major firms like Europcar at discouted prices.

P.S. I just checked my provisional invoice for the car I am now renting from SIXT (Frankfurt Airport) and it has a "Standortzuschlag" of 21.5%. "Standort" mean location and "Zuschlag" means additional charge.

[Warsteiner]

Two weeks after renting a car from Europcar at Frankfurt airport a letter from Europcar Services Unipessoal LDA arrives. The return address is in Portugal. Contains an invoice in the amount of 48.23 EURO. The "Your Rental" section specifies "14 days charged" which is the entire rental period. Then it contains Vehicle category "IDMR" and "Carbon foot print 124 g / km CO2", according to.

http://www.acriss.org/pdfs/sellingguide.pdf

"IDMR" means Intermediate /4-5 Door / Manual Unspecified Drive / Unspecified Fuel with Air Conditioning. It was Opel Grandland X, not a diesel, was a regular gas car.

Then "Your Costs" literally: Surcharges 23.50 percent 172.46 Euro price, amount 40.53 Euro, tax 19%, total price including tax 48.23 Euro.

The next line says "value added Tax 19%" and "Pay to Europcar Autovermietung GMBH", company address in Hamburg Germany, and Commerzbank IBAN.

Wonder if anybody had similar invoices in the mail. I plan to pay this nonsense. I have previously reserved another Europcar rental in August from the same location. Any ideas WTF is this and why?

Airport surchage, additional mileage? Ring them up and check if you want to be sure, especially if you are planning to get another rental from them in August.

[Smoke Light]

Two weeks after renting a car from Europcar at Frankfurt airport a letter from Europcar Services Unipessoal LDA arrives. The return address is in Portugal. Contains an invoice in the amount of 48.23 EURO. The "Your Rental" section specifies "14 days charged" which is the entire rental period. Then it contains Vehicle category "IDMR" and "Carbon foot print 124 g / km CO2", according to.

http://www.acriss.org/pdfs/sellingguide.pdf

"IDMR" means Intermediate /4-5 Door / Manual Unspecified Drive / Unspecified Fuel with Air Conditioning. It was Opel Grandland X, not a diesel, was a regular gas car.

Then "Your Costs" literally: Surcharges 23.50 percent 172.46 Euro price, amount 40.53 Euro, tax 19%, total price including tax 48.23 Euro.

The next line says "value added Tax 19%" and "Pay to Europcar Autovermietung GMBH", company address in Hamburg Germany, and Commerzbank IBAN.

Wonder if anybody had similar invoices in the mail. I plan to pay this nonsense. I have previously reserved another Europcar rental in August from the same location. Any ideas WTF is this and why?

[UltraHappy]

Even easier: On the ticket, you will find the police bank account's IBAN number. You just need to make a payment to that bank account using your ticket number as the reference number for the payment. To make a payment to a German IBAN account, you can use Transferwise (https://transferwise.com/us/ - also available as an app for your phone), which will charge you something like $3 for the international transfer / currency conversion. Very easy.

Just make sure you are paying the correct amount (usually there is a discount if you pay in the first 10 days but it goes up after the first 10 days) and make sure you use the correct reference number so your ticket shows as paid. If you wait too long to pay the ticket, you may not be able to pay the ticket in this fashion as jurisdiction for the ticket will pass to a different office. You can call the phone number on the ticket to double-check you are paying correctly.

Do not pay by doing a wire transfer to the IBAN number as the normal bank wire transfer fee that banks charge will exceed your ticket amount ($25-$35 usually).

Can anyone tell me the best way to pay a camera speeding ticket I got in the Stuttgart area? I got flashed on my trip in April twice, once in Stuttgart and once in Ulm, and got 225 Euro charges from Sixt a month ago. In the mail last night I got a letter in German for the Stuttgart ticket it appears they are charging me 15 Euros (58 kph in a 50 zone). As luck would have it, I will be in Stuttgart next week (FKK addict after 1 time, I also am doing some autobahning and tourist stuff) there is an address at the bottom of pg 1 that when I put in google maps tells me it is a government building. Can I go there and pay the ticket? It is about 10 km from my hotel. I also see on the internet you can go into any bank and pay? Is this right, and what are the charges for this service?

[Beeoch]

Can anyone tell me the best way to pay a camera speeding ticket I got in the Stuttgart area? I got flashed on my trip in April twice, once in Stuttgart and once in Ulm, and got 225 Euro charges from Sixt a month ago. In the mail last night I got a letter in German for the Stuttgart ticket it appears they are charging me 15 Euros (58 kph in a 50 zone). As luck would have it, I will be in Stuttgart next week (FKK addict after 1 time, I also am doing some autobahning and tourist stuff) there is an address at the bottom of pg 1 that when I put in google maps tells me it is a government building. Can I go there and pay the ticket? It is about 10 km from my hotel. I also see on the internet you can go into any bank and pay? Is this right, and what are the charges for this service?

[Pistons]

Manual transmission should be outlawed worldwide. It constitutes a security risk.

Let's agree to disagree. I prefer manual since it let's me stay awake. With automatic I just fall asleep.