Best car rental deals – Rent a Car for 30% Less (Guaranteed)

If you are paying full price for your rental car, you are losing money. And I’m not just talking about a couple of dollars or euros. I’m talking about 30% or more, especially when you realise you’ve been paying $40 a day just to buy an overpriced insurance. 

In this guide, I’m going to show three decisions you can take to save, and I will show an example on a real booking.

Rule 1: Never Book Direct

Rule number one: Stop booking directly on the car rental company websites.

Usually, the car providers lower their base rates on comparison websites to win the initial booking, betting you will buy later an insurance, an additional driver or any other add-on. 

Recently, I rented a car in Malaga with DelPaso. It was less than half the price with the same level of insurance and add-ons as on the company’s website. 

What I noticed is that the global players tend to have similar prices on the comparison websites and their own website; however, there is a huge difference in price when you go to the next step, which I will show you briefly in the next Rule.

Now, talking of comparison platforms, honestly, there are so many around and suggesting one or the other is always hard

Personally, for the last 5 years, I have been using a platform called DiscoverCars that works as an Airbnb of car rentals, where all providers are rated between 5 and 10 stars based on genuine customer feedback, like mine.

I noticed Google Maps tends to have too many reviews from friends and competitors that ultimately generate a fake star system, especially on a small number of reviews.

I usually filter above 8 or even 9 stars to get the most trusted operators, and I book from that shortlist. The final result is a win-win: a hassle-free experience and a typical saving of 5 to 15%.

By the way, I will do a quick summary of the savings I can have for a car booking in Malaga/Spain, at the end of this guide, just to show how these are all actionable points.

Rule 2: Stop Buying Counter Insurance (Your 2 Better Options)

Now, let’s move to the second rule, which is also the single biggest money-saver.

You must stop buying insurance at the rental counter. 

The most expensive part of your rental isn’t the car; it’s the Collision Damage Waiver excess cover, also called deductible cover. This is often sold for $20 to $40 per day, or even more at the counter. It’s a huge profit centre for them, and it is entirely overpriced, in my opinion. 

For example, searching for the best price on the EuropCar website for 4 days in Malaga, the basic price may be competitive, but a full insurance covering the excess, windscreen, glass and roadside assistance costs much more than the daily rental price, almost $90/day on my last search, a bit less if you exclude a few things.

Should you avoid full insurance?

Not at all. In fact, I highly suggest having it, but just not from the rental company, especially at the counter, after a tiring flight, when you won’t be able to read the small print and the exclusions.

Keep in mind that they can charge you $300-$500 just for a small scratch or dent if you don’t have full insurance. Other car rental fees may also go on top of it.

So what next? First, check if your Credit Card Travel Insurance offers rental car insurance. For example, mine covers part of this excess but still leaves me with a deductible, or out-of-pocket, of $1,000, which helps, but it’s not great 

Secondly, if your card doesn’t cover you, the next smartest decision is to buy a third-party full insurance to cover your excess before you start your trip.

There are a few providers; however, I personally prefer to do it directly on the comparative website DiscoverCars, which I mentioned before. It costs a fraction, for example, for the days in Malaga, it costs just 9 euros a day instead of the 50 euros charged by EuropCar.

Just keep in mind that full insurance from a third-party website or credit card works by you paying for the damage at the rental company, and the third-party insurance will refund you, usually within 1-2 weeks. And that’s what I experienced two years ago when I rented a car in Melbourne/Australia.

Rule 3: Avoid Location & Timing Fees

The third rule is to avoid the Airport Tax. These are Airport fees and surcharges that can add an easy 10 to 20% to your bill. On-site renters usually charge more for the car because they have to pay huge fees to the airport authority.

Sometimes these rental companies may give you a competitive base price on the web, but at the terminal desk, they will tell you there is an Airport Surcharge. I know, very annoying.

My rule of thumb for saving money is to always go for an off-site car rental company. They typically provide a free shuttle service to a location just outside the airport perimeter, and the difference in the final price is often substantial.

My second hack is to make sure I book on a 24-hour clock. What does it mean?

Rental days are based on a 24-hour clock. If you book your car from 10 to the next day at 10am, that counts as one day. But if you book it till 11am the next day, that is 25 hours, you trigger a charge for an extra full day and the booking is considered for 2 days.

So make sure to plan your car and flights to save some money there.

A real booking in Malaga for 4 days

Now, let’s assume I have a flight arriving in Malaga/Spain at 3 pm on Monday and leaving 4 days later, on Friday, at 6 pm.

If I book a car from 3 pm Monday to 6 pm Friday, any booking website will count that as 5 days. However, considering the luggage collection and the Border control, it’s safe to assume to be out of the terminal around 4pm. Also, on the last day, I would drop off the car at least two hours before the flight, so I can safely book the car from 4 pm Monday to 4 pm Friday, that is exactly 4 days.

In this way, I have already saved a day or 20% of the original price.

Secondly, I use the comparative price DiscoverCars to search for the cars with a filter of above 8.5 stars to get only the most trusted companies. I can find a Fiat 500 from an off-site local provider called Centauro at an excellent price. I check the rental conditions for the inclusions and to avoid the excess, I also buy a full insurance for just 9 euros a day.

In total, I spend roughly 67 euros fully insured.

I have checked on the Centauro website, and the same car would cost a total of 110 euros, so I have saved around 40%.

Let’s assume going with the cheapest global player, which is usually Budget. The final cost is 84 Euros, but that’s still with the excess that you can reduce, but not to zero at the desk, for roughly 20 euros a day or 80 euros for 4 days. 

So the final rental cost would be roughly 2.5 times the price of the local provider, and you would still be missing the full zero-excess insurance. 

This example proves that by stacking these three decisions—choosing the right platform, avoiding the counter insurance, and timing your pickup—you can definitely save more than the promised 30%.