{"id":3550,"date":"2016-08-28T02:05:12","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T02:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.carro.sg\/?p=3550"},"modified":"2025-11-18T19:00:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T11:00:34","slug":"4-ways-to-save-money-on-your-holiday-rental-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/4-ways-to-save-money-on-your-holiday-rental-car\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways to Save Money on your Holiday Rental Car"},"content":{"rendered":"Renting a car abroad is more often than not, the most\u00a0convenient way to get around\u00a0on a holiday and the best way to experience a foreign country. If you're traveling with friends or family, a rental\u00a0car becomes an extremely economical option and can be a great asset to your\u00a0adventure.\r\n\r\n<span class=\"m_first-letter\">Don't let your holiday start badly at the car rental desk. T<\/span>o help avoid the car hire pitfalls, we have\u00a0compiled a guide to every aspect of\u00a0hiring\u00a0a vehicle abroad, from keeping costs down, to which insurance policy to buy and what to check before you drive away.\r\n<h2>1) Do your research<\/h2>\r\nAvoid hard sell at car rental desks by planning your car rental ahead of your holiday. Don't fall into the trap of booking your car hire based on the first bargain you see. Securing your rental car early can save you a significant sum of money, and browsing through\u00a0<strong>reputable<\/strong> car rental companies will give you a good gauge of the price you will pay for your holiday.\r\n\r\nBeware of companies that advertise low prices on their rental cars, but add in taxes and 'necessary overheads' that eventually add up to a larger amount than your base rental cost. Choose your rental car based on: size, fuel consumption, practicability; Also remember to factor in additional surcharges when comparing between prices offered by different companies.\r\n<h2>2) Choose\u00a0the best insurance<\/h2>\r\nNo matter how confident you are of your driving skills, it is <strong>always<\/strong> advisable to purchase excess insurance.\u00a0Car hire excess insurance can be a tricky concept for many car renters but\u00a0you can save up to 65% off the price you\u2019ll be charged at the rental desk\u00a0by buying\u00a0your\u00a0insurance online in advance.\r\n<h2>3)\u00a0Check the fuel policy, mileage and every\u00a0minor\u00a0detail<\/h2>\r\nA growing number of firms (especially in Spain) now insist on a full-to-empty fuel policy on rentals of more than three or four days. How it works is that you pay for a full tank of fuel and bring it back empty. This\u00a0is fine in theory, but if you aren't going to use the car much, you'll end up paying for three-quarters of a tank of fuel you didn't use. This is especially prevalent in Spain whereby driving around the smaller island never consumes nearly as much fuel as you are given.\r\n\r\nHere are the three most common options:\r\n\r\n<strong>Full to full<\/strong>:\u00a0You will be given a full tank of petrol and expected to return the car full. Do not wait until it's time to return the car to replenish your fuel as petrol stations near rental companies usually charge higher prices per litre.\r\n\r\n<strong>Full to empty<\/strong>:\u00a0You will be asked to pay the rental company upfront for a tank of petrol and can return the car empty. While this may seem like a steal,\u00a0returning a car empty is extremely hard to do and you\u2019re likely to be charged at a premium for the fuel whether you use it all or not.\r\n\r\n<strong>Pay for what you use<\/strong>:<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>You\u2019ll be expected to return the car with the same amount of fuel it had when you left the rental company. Make sure you keep a note of this.\r\n\r\nAlso, remember to check if your rental company limits your vehicle mileage in any way. The rental company should also have noted down the initial mileage in print before handing you the keys.\r\n<h2>4) Be firm and stand your ground<\/h2>\r\nAt the rental desk counter, it is very easy to be\u00a0pushed into something you don\u2019t need. The sales representatives at the rental company will try every tactic to try to persuade you into buying their promotional add-ons\u00a0or insurance plans. It is extremely important to be firm and prepare adequately beforehand, so that they cannot leverage on your unpreparedness to sell\u00a0you any products.\r\n\r\nRemember not to be\u00a0conned by the hard sell, especially if you\u2019ve taken out adequate insurance beforehand. The standard rule is: If you don't need it, don't buy it.\r\n\r\nFor a more comprehensive step by step guide to renting your next car hire, hop over to read our <strong>essential checklist when renting a car abroad<\/strong>.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Renting a car abroad is more often than not, the most\u00a0convenient way to get around\u00a0on a holiday and the best way to experience a foreign country. If you&#8217;re traveling with friends or family, a rental\u00a0car becomes an extremely economical option and can be a great asset to your\u00a0adventure. Don&#8217;t let your holiday start badly at &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[725],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle-car-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16818,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions\/16818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}