UK car hire more expensive for non-UK residents

I recently tried to book a hire-car at Cardiff airport through the Hertz UK website. The price for 4 days was very reasonable, I thought, at sixty eight pounds (no 'pound' symbol on my German keyboard!). However, after entering my credit card details I was asked to enter my address and yes, there was no option to enter my German address, where my Natwest credit card is registered - only a UK address. OK, I then went to the .com Hertz site and went through the whole procedure again - same airport, same hire period, same car only this time the price was eighty eight pounds! I can think of no justifiable reason for this price difference. Why should this be? Is there a way around this, short of registering my credit card at a UK address?

Cruiser

I've found this to be the case for many car hire companies, and even brokers; there were big differences between expedia.de, expedia.fr, expedia.co.uk etc. for the same itinerary. There isn't any way around it as far as I'm aware, except to try some of the broker sites like Holiday Autos, Expedia etc. They might offer lower rates and/or accept foreign credit cards. It's probably not worth changing your card address for the sake of £20, especially as the price could have gone up in the time it takes to sort it out. Console yourself with the fact that you save far more than £20 by living in Germany rather than in Britain.

Did you try other car hire companies? I've always found Hertz and Avis to be the most expensive. I often use Europcar.

This website might be useful, I've found it quotes cheaper rates than using the actual Hertz or Avis etc websites ... http://www.travelsupermarket.com/travelmer...aspx?package=6

I either use holidayautos.de or once fly.de when booking a hire car in the UK.
Has resulted in either Hertz or Alamo...

Just have to be careful if you plan to return at a different time-of day than
the pickup (had a discrepency between Hertz & Holidayautos).

I use AutoReservation.Com all the time, very happy with the prices and services, only thing you have to watch is the deposit is in pounds (no pound key either) but the quote is in euros (euro key doesn't work)

Holiday Auto's is also excellent. They always seem to get me really cheap deals.

I have just tried to hire a car for my visit to the UK next month.

I went to the Hertz website (I only want a car for the time I am near my parents - Hertz is the only major car hire company locally). I went through, selected a ford fiesta which seemed fairly reasonable at 101.17 GBP for five days. As with the OP I entered my address - however I couldn't change it to Germany. I went back to the first page, changed my country to Germany did the same search and the cheapest car was a ford focus (much bigger than I want) for 347.87 EUR. The website won't even offer me a small car. I have just switched my country back to the UK and if you have a British address the same car costs 117.44 GBP. I'm surprised with the free trade in the EU that this is actually legal.

Anyway my question is the following. The website asks me for my "Home Mailing Address" when I try to book. Would this be in any way tied to the insurance? I'm just concerned that I would be driving round uninsured if I lied and gave my parents address.

Thanks in advance for any help.
Rich

I just booked a car with Budget ( to be picked up at Stansted) and there was no extra charge.

I just checked both holidayautos.de and holidayreservation, and they are both much more expensive than travelocity.com.

For the same car, the above sites list the rate at 225 and 229 euros. I can get the car on travelocity from enterprise for $211, or thrifty for $238 (yes, US dollars). Or there's this wacky company called "practical" for $108.

Try travelocity.com (the us site). Haven't done booking yet though, so not sure what their requirements are on credit cards and addresses.

I always use ebookers when hiring a car for the UK, it's the best i've found bar none.

seattle, are those $ prices including CDW? holiday autos always includes fully comprehensive insurance (CDW) so is usually a good deal. Prices quoted on US sites tend not to include CDW unless you add it on specifically.

Its the same when renting a car in the US. Use a US address, or fill out "US" as citizen and the end price will be more and not include insurance.
Fill in "German", and the price is less and includes insurance. This goes for all the major rental companies (Avis, Hertz, Enterprise, etc.)
This is why it pays to shop around and vary the info you put into the online searches.

OK,

So I looked at ebookers on bluedaves suggestion - they for some reason suggest a Hertz branch that is miles away from the location I asked for (and a pain to get to) and give an intermediate between the two prices quoted direct by Hertz.

I managed to find a thrifty car rental place that I can also get to - there I could put my address in as Germany and the hire price came out as 110 GBP. As I was intrigued, I hunted round the site to see if there was an option to be a German resident. This bumped the prive up sixty quid when I searched again... I have e-mailed them to ask which quote I should believe.

Will check holiday autos and travelocity.

Rich

Sorry, i should have said use ebookers.de NOT .com, it's cheaper and in euros.

@OG: No, travelocity does not include insurance (and you're right, most US sites do not). We have our own insurance and I always decline the rental car one, although they may charge an additional small fee (4 euros, etc) per day to do so.

Our US credit card states that you must decline CDW for the credit card to cover the insurance.

When we were home recently I used National with pick up at Stansted and drop off at City, it ended up being £140 for 5 days, but that was a £25 drop off and premium location fees. Also always check the specials section as a lot of the car hire website won't give you the deals unless you actually put in the code, at one site I checked (europcar I think) it was cheaper for 7 days than 5 as they had a special offer for a week.

We have had some very good rates with Easy Car, which we usually rent from Stansted, but also from some other centers too. They have their cheapest prices online, in fact last time I phoned to see if they would have an even cheaper rate over the phone and was told that the "walk in" price was about £90 more. Try doing both, ie check the rates on line and then by phone. I have never had problems about my address, and we have even booked when we were living in Africa. Another friend who was living in Africa near us, used to check the prices on line, then call them and arrange something better. Perhaps if you need to make sure from the first page that you are not on the UK home page - that has sometimes happened when I have been booking flights on line. If the price really is more when booking from Germany, then dump them. There are enough companies around to not have to faff around with idiots.