Good “Domestic Security Fee” and you’ll find it’s required to be collected ONLY by rental car companies by the State of New Jersey.

The Vehicle Licensing Fee is also also a state tax. It’s not something the rental company made up to scam you. Lots of states have started doing this. I don’t there’s any rationale behind it other than “Here’s another way to squeeze a couple bucks out of travelers.”

It might interest you to know that some of the big car rental companies like Enterprise & Hertz have actually spent their own money in the past trying to fight new government rental fees because they don’t think you should bear the burden either.

The contract fee is the only thing I’ve never heard of before. That sounds like it might be Avis imposed.

I noticed on my reservation confirmation that I am being charged, as follows:

“Daily Freq Flyer Service Charge $1.50

Everyone knows that advertisers and marketers are really responsible for the convoluted pricing game played by companies. First off the companies try to “hook” us by advertising a low base price, hoping that once we see all the additional taxes and fees we will be to lazy to go elsewhere for a better price and buy their product. As well when companies reveal their internal costs to us they are trying to deflect customer concern over high prices by making it seem like it is not their fault that such things as taxes and security fees have to be paid and we shouldn’t blame them for high prices.

Does it really matter to us what the cost of doing business is for the car rental companies? This is a capitalistic society, meaning that the ultimate goal of any company is to make as much profit as possible. So let the companies raise the price of their products to what ever level they want and let the consumer decide if they think the price is reasonable buy purchasing the product.

The bottom line for me is what’s important. I haven’t been taken in by their game for a long time because I look at the advertised price as a starting point not a finishing point and compare the total price, taxes and fees included, of different companies for the same product before making a purchase.

Should marketers and advertising agents ever conclude that consumers are smart enough to compare the total price they may decide to advertise the total price. But as long as even one of them continues to advertise a base price they all have to advertise this way because everyone knows that a low advertised price gets our attention.

We always rent online, and always with a coupon.

Our printed confirmation shows the exact costs and any fees charged. This is the time to check and question fees.

If your online confirmation and your final contract show different amounts, then you at least have a hard copy to dispute.

We have rented exclusively from Enterprise the past few years and have nothing but praise for the company. They seem to be consistently cheaper than the competitors.

Once this practice began, the pandoras box on fees opened up. For those of you who remember renting cars in the 80′s and 90′s, fees were non-existant, and in some states, illegal.

With a few exceptions, there are almost no mandatory fees in the industry. Instead of factoring the costs of doing business into their rates, rental car companies keep coming up with unique ways of hitting their consumers with new fees. The only major exceptions are some true taxes that some municipalities charge for their pet projects, like new stadiums or tourism taxes.

The vehicle licensing fee does not cover just your share of the rental. In most states a rental car company is now allowed to recover a certain percentage of their total cost of licensing and registration of their entire fleet for the year. The percentage you are assesed may be far more than your “share” of the rental. But this fee in not a legal requirement. It was created by the rental industry as another way to make money. Again, when this was instituted and copied by everyone else, no one lowered their rates.

While concession and VLF fees are here to stay, I recommend that you shop around. It is going to be hard to get away with a lot of these fees, however some of the smaller competitors are taking advatage of the frustartion of consumers and not charging them.

Also, if you have never noticed before, the airport concession fee is also assessed on all of the other so called fees on your rental bill. If these other “fees” were in deed some kind of tax or legally required, they would not be taxable. Airports and municipalities don’t complain because it’s just more money in their pockets. Check your next bill and you will see that any true taxes will have the word “tax” somewhere on the line item while everything will have “fee”.

Until we as consumers rise up and start hurting these guys by flooding them with complaints and complaining to our AG’s, this practice will only get worse. At a minimum, they should advertise their rates withh all fees included so that you can accurately compare rates. Just like the banking industry, a good chunk of the rental car companies profits nowadays are coming from fees and not their actual rental rates.

Maybe the way to save money is to find a place that will rent you a car for something like $40/day. There are plenty of them out there… I do it all the time! Even with the fees, a three-day rental shouldn’t cost more than $150…