Hiring a Car in the USA

A few numbers to try in the UK before booking:

Alamo: 0800 272200

Avis: (020) 8848 8733 ( www.avis.co.uk )

Budget: 0800 181181 (www.budget.com)

Thrifty: (01494) 442110 (www.thrifty.com)

Hertz: (020) 8679 1799 (www.hertz.co.uk)

Dollar: 0800 252897 (www.dollarcar.com)

Holiday Autos: (www.holidayautos.co.uk)

One of the best sources for rental information is Breezenet's Guide to Airport Rental Cars (at www.bnm.com) where for each US city best deals are listed, with online booking instructions, including a useful introduction to the jargon and acronyms. The best Web site is Expedia (www.expedia.co.uk).

Questions to Ask

What's the collision damage waiver (CDW), loss damage waiver (LDW) and the personal accident insurance (PAI) situation? US booking clerks will assume you know what these terms (or even initials) mean, and may never have had to explain them before. Ensure that you know what they mean!

Without CDW you are liable for collision damage (up to something like $3,000). For peace of mind CDW is probably essential, though costly (an extra that can be up to 30 per cent on top of the quoted or pre-paid costs). LDW covers tyre damage, vandalism, theft and loss of use (if your vehicle is being repaired).

PAI is more modest, but may be unnecessary if you have already bought adequate health insurance for your trip before leaving the UK. Check your policy's small print for whether you need extra PAI. Don't rely on advice from the sales clerks: they won't know, and anyway they make commission on every policy they sell.

Remember: your UK car insurance will not cover your trip to the USA so you will need a complete coverage. US clerks are used to dealing with American customers who already have their car rental insurance needs covered by their domestic policies. And complete insurance is expensive if bought in the USA: buy it at home.

Don't rely on the £3 million cover in your general travel insurance - its personal liability section covers everything except driving. So in case you are sued by a third party (someone you hit) you do need extra cover. And don't think the free travel insurance you got by paying with a credit card will give you third party cover - it doesn't. Personal liability insurance (PLIS) cover is advisable, to protect you from being sued by third parties in the case of an accident.

• Is the car hire restricted to the one state? What about a trip from a Florida base over into Georgia? Is this permitted? Is suitable insurance cover available? At what extra cost?
• Can the booking be done via the airline company at the time you buy the airline tickets? Pre-booked rates are considerably better than last minute, at-the-airport rates which are always the most expensive.
• What's the minimum age for hiring or driving a hired car? Premiums may be required for under-25 drivers. Under 21 is usually prohibited.
• What size of car would be suitable? A family driving any distance (Miami to Orlando is a 6-hour drive on the freeways!) should avoid sub-compacts (Metro equivalents) and go for at least a mid-range 4- or 5-door saloon (or at least a Ford Tempo) which will have adequate luggage space, a good air conditioning unit, and plenty of inside room. Travelling 55-65 mph on the US highways may be smooth, but it may also be very boring, so comfort, room to stretch, and a suitably powered engine (less noisy if nothing else) are essential.

Remember: Travelling just around Florida is like travelling up and down the length of Britain in terms of distances. Travelling around the USA is continental travel. Would you drive the family from London to Athens in a Fiat Uno or a VW Beetle? If you can, fly. If not, use as large a car as you can afford.

• Can a trip start and end at different places? If so what are the drop-off charges? These can be very steep: sometimes equal to the initial hire charge. But having driven from Miami to New York City who wants to drive back down 195 to avoid a couple of hundred dollars drop-off charge? It may be worth paying the charge to be able to stay and enjoy New York City rather than to end a family holiday with four days driving flat-out on the freeway (plus motel charges that would probably equal the drop-off charge alone).
• Can all payments (except petrol of course) be made before leaving for the USA? Or will there be extras, such as state tax or deposits on the vehicle? Taking a 'fly-drive' package from a major UK or US airline may mean low or no deposit, minimum hassle, and priority booking (at an advantageous price). Will there be a fuel charge? This may involve an additional service charge but means no need to refuel before returning the car.
• Avoid 'fuel purchase plans'. They encourage you to prepay for a full tank, or return with a part-filled tank and pay for what you have used. If you pay for a full tank you inevitably hand some back at the return check in. If you pay for a refill, petrol is charged at twice the retail price.
• If your credit card is used for ID (identification) will it also be used to block-off a line of credit as a deposit? This question needs some explaining. Even though you may have pre-paid for your care hire (perhaps as part of a 'fly-drive' package) most hire companies will still require Mastercard, VISA or American Express as ID.

So far so good. But beware: they may well use your card to block-off a credit line of several hundred dollars as a deposit. This is not a credit from your account into theirs, to be recredited upon your returning the car intact. Rather it is blocking off a part of your unused credit line.

For instance, if you have £1,500 as your limit with £500 of outstanding debt, then you have a credit line of £1,000 left. If the car hire company were then to block off £200 for the duration of your hiring their car you would only have £800, not the £1,000 you might have thought you still had.

This only becomes a problem if you have only, say, £200 left of your credit line (surely enough for an occasional extra on a prepaid holiday given all the travellers' cheques you are carrying). All your £200 may well be blocked off, without your being made aware of this. Upon arriving at a motel cash desk you present your card, only to have the central computer in New York say that you have no credit left, not even the £200 you expected. At the end of a three-week stay you may well have spent more than you expected, relying upon that £200 for the last couple of days.

Such inconvenience might even continue after you have returned the car intact - it takes time to unblock a blocked line of credit.

Ask exactly how much of a credit line is being blocked, and if possible, before leaving home pay off as much of the credit card debt as you can to enlarge your line of credit. And do this in enough time for the central computer to have the new state of your account before you use your card in the USA.