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Here’s a smart way around the early-return rule

August 7, 2007

I’ve written about the early-return rule imposed recently by car rental companies, where you return your rental before your contract is up, and get charged more for the car. But I haven’t found a good workaround — until now.

A reader wrote in today with a strategy that’s absolutely brilliant. He asked me to keep his name out if it, for obvious reasons.

So here, without further delay, is the secret for getting around the early-return rule. It all starts at an Alamo rental counter somewhere in the United States:

“When I got to the counter and they told me I’d pay significantly more for the rental,” he writes. “I said, ‘Forget it. I’ll just keep the car till the end of the contract.’”

And that’s exactly what he did.

“I drove the car off the lot and parked it on a street with no parking restrictions, just feet away from their entrance gate. I put the keys in the glove box and locked the car. I got on the airport shuttle and flew home,” he recalls.

On the morning the car was due, he made a phone call.

“I called roadside assistance, which is included with my auto insurance, and told them where the car was, its make and model, and license plate. I told them I locked my keys in the car and to tow the vehicle for me, since I wasn’t there.”

The truck showed up, towed the vehicle to the car rental location, and the story had a happy ending.

I think it’s time the car rental industry abandon this misguided policy of “recalculating” its rate when there’s an early return, once and for all. Otherwise the parking areas around their rental locations could soon be filling up with early returns that are waiting for a tow truck.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

11 comments

  • Karin

    Priceless!

  • Joe Farrel

    This one is easy to get around. And you do not need tow trucks and roadside assistance.

    I dropped off a vehicle early at the airport. My wife made the mistake of getting an Alamo res and the local manager refused to adjust it.

    So, I simply parked the vehicle in his lot. Right by the front door in the visitor area. The car was 48 hours away from the drop off time.

    I called the manager over, pointed out the vehicle parked in his visitor lot, and asked him if he wanted the keys now or wanted me to leave the keys in the car. I’d call them in two days and tell them to close out the record and move the car the 25 yeards to their return
    area. The girl working the counter was laughing at me. She’d heard his recalcitrance to not collect their fee.

    At that point he realized he lost and agreed to waive the fee. I asked him to close out my record right then and there and to note the fee waiver in the notes section and to print it out for me. He gave
    me a dirty look but these days, you can’t be too careful.

  • jon

    I also have done similar to what Joe did and it does work. But do get it in writing… The ones other than the manager do get a good chuckle. They (the other counter workers) do see the sense of it. Enterprise on the other hand has never given me a hard time about early returns. As was mentioned they like the idea of being able to rent it out again early. They don’t give a refund, but they haven’t billed me extra either.

  • Clear Voice

    While I love the idea, I can see rental companies figuring away to combat such ideas.
    They are big while we are small.
    They might charge us for towing a car or some other method that will apply the old “thumb screw”

  • Barfeld

    I think the secret is simply to avoid renting from companies that have this stupid policy on “early” returns. Doing so would have two valuable effects:

    1. Reward companies that treat customers properly and encourage them not to follow the ones who don’t.

    2. Give an economic penalty for bad behavior.

    I often return my cars early to Budget and Hertz and they cheerfully reduce the charges from the orginal estimate. In fact, I regularly set the return time to my “outside” estimate with a plan already in mind to arrive at the airport earlier if I can (usually meaning earlier the same day; I want to be fair, too).

    After you take account all of the “extra” garbage fees, these companies’ rates seem basically competitve with Alamo, too.

    I have had less personal experience with Avis, but I think their policy on early returns is the same as Hertz and Budget.

    In fact, this silliness seems basically to be solely an “Alamo” problem, and I think it would serve travelers better to make that clear.

    Barfield

  • Jim

    I haven’t rented from Alamo since an agent berated me and called me stupid for not buying his insurance. Never mind that my policy coverd me…never mind that I was traveling on business and my place of employment covered me…never mind that even my credit card covered me.

    This happened 11 years ago and I haven’t rented from them since.

  • Rich

    I did something similar to Jim, parking the vehicle directly in front of the main door – but I didn’t offer Alamo the keys (which would have made the car available to rent to another victim).

    Instead, I told the manager that I was going to simply leave the car there and would FedEx him the keys from California upon the termination of my contractual obligation, unless of course, he agreed to let me out of the contract early without a penalty. Sometimes managers are smarter than you think.

  • Scott

    All of these “early return” clauses are rather silly but are simply the rental car companies’ way of ensuring they get full revenue for their car – every time the vehicle is sitting on their lot it’s not making money for the company.

    However, it’s very easy to tell if you’re open to being charged these crazy rates: when you make the reservation you will get the full details of your rate plan: weekly rate, daily rate, and hourly rate – if it is a weekend rental (four days or less starting on Fri or Sat) you should get a weekend daily, weekend hourly, week day daily, and week day hourly. Before you confirm the reservation make sure the daily rate equals roughly 1/4 to 1/5 of the weekly rate. If it’s more, then you open yourself up to the possible higher rate. Search for a different rate plan to get a better, non-adjusting rate.

    Of course, this doesn’t cover the Alamo change fee, however I believe they remain the only company levying a surcharge for an early return. The solution is quite easy: there are dozens of car rental companies, choose another. As the adage goes, “you get what you pay for.”

  • r.savicki

    Here is the problem……..that is a nice idea IF you are flying out of a smaller airport(example ABE). However, go and try that at LAX or SFO. You will wind up paying more for it getting back late….
    I think that it may be workable if you are returning the car a day or so earlier. What irks me, is that they (Dollar) are now adding the fee if you bring the car back 60-90
    min. early!
    To make it crazier……it is a (roughly) $15 fee to bring the car back 1 hr early. To bring it back 1 hr LATE costs only $10 (and change).

  • http://www.clarkecomputer.com Charles Clarke

    Cute idea.

    Make sure you take pictures if you leave it with them. I can just imagine some pissed off manager beating on the car and then taking it to CostsALot Mechanics and sending you the bill.

  • Bill

    It is absurd to be charged for bringing the car back an hour early.  Change car rental companies.

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