Car hire firms 'making profits at drivers' expenses'

There is a breed of car hire firms out there which are in the businesses of making profit at drivers' expenses, one expert has said this week.

According to the Guardian newspaper, these companies are offsetting the increasing cost of fuel and their own outlays with damage surcharges.

These are sneaky extra costs which can "infiltrate [drivers] credit card statements clandestinely", weeks and sometimes months after the memories of lazy days by the beach have long faded.

Furthermore, firms seem to able to charge what they like for these extras and are completely unregulated as to what a reasonable cost would be, for a minor damage, the newspaper says.

Eric Baker concluded after a trip to France that there reality is very little a driver can do, the paper reports.

Car hire firms are determined to bore the cost of having to buy and maintain a fleet of cars on their customers.

He writes that during his trip he hired a Ford C-Max from Europcar and returned it to the firm's office.

"A uniformed official inspected [the car] … and noticed that part of the plastic trim under one of the doors was working loose," he writes.

However, the official did not inform Mr Baker that it was looking worse for wear.

"But she accepted the car as undamaged, told us there was nothing to sign and sent us off with a smile," he told the paper.

Strange behaviour indeed. Or not. When Mr Baker returned home Europcar had levied two surcharge damage payments onto his credit card, which totalled £975. The firm did not specify what this handsome sum covered.

Unwilling to accept losing this money, Mr Baker wrote to the firm, to ascertain what the fee was to cover. He received no reply but expected a refund as he had booked the car through Holiday Autos and paid for a damage excess waiver.

"However, the terms and conditions require a damage report before they will pay out and there never was any damage," Mr Baker said he learned.

Motorists are also warned about the pitfalls of car hire in the Burton Mail this week.

The paper reports that a Burton MP has lost her rag with car hire firms after being made the victim of unreasonable surcharges herself.

Liberal Democrat Liz Lynne told the paper that she receives many letters from constituents who return home to find that they have been charged without notification or permission.