wco81

Looked up a rental for Munich, 12 days, late April and early Sept on rentalcars.com.

Some of the best rates that came up were from Dollar. In fact almost too good to be true, like 3-series BMW in the Premium category for about $450, for 12 days.

Click the fine print and it's limited to 100 km per day so too limiting.

So I went on the dollar.com site itself and it came up with 424 Euro out of the same office in Munich, near the train station, with unlimited miles. Oddly, if you choose the train station office, it's much more for the same car except Dollar calls it full size car, not Premium, as rentalcars.com displays it.

The office I chose is just east of the train station, a couple of blocks away.

Of course, by the time I get to the desk, they could substitute it anyways.

I read the fine print, which says for instance that crossing into any other country costs 47.60 Euro extra.

Still not a bad deal, if it is a "premium" car that I get. Maybe it'll be a VW Passat or something more basic but still a "full sized" car.

But I couldn't find the info about cancellations so I booked through and it never prompted for a credit card. It emailed me the quote, along with a confirmation code.

The email just lists the location as:

Location:
MUNICH DOWNTOWN, GERMANY DSH

But it does list the phone number which on their site corresponds to:

Car Rental – Dollar Rent A Car
ELISENSTRASSE 3 | MUNICH, , GERMANY 80335
49 89 369897
Neighborhood Location

Yet when you read the find print, it says the rental will be serviced by Hertz.

I have a feeling I could show up at that counter 8 months from now with that email and they won't know what I'm talking about.

Has anyone else booked a car reservation on dollar.com without giving a credit card number and still got their car?

AutoSlash

You shouldn't have any issue. This sort of arrangement is fairly common now that Dollar/Thrifty is fully integrated into Hertz. We do tons of these reservations at AutoSlash and none of our customers have ever reported an issue.

All of that said, you might want to track the rental with us. You've got some time, and there's a good chance rates will drop in the coming months.

wco81

Hmm, I had to change dates, add two more days of rentals.

The total is actually about €10 less!

Seems way too good to be true.

wco81

I found this thread on TA, about problems with Dollar and Hertz:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...a_Bavaria.html

So I better rent with someone else looks like, unless I can give them a letter from my credit card bank which they will accept. Even then they may claim damage or make unauthorized charges.

I would expect this kind of shady practice in Italy or Spain but not Germany.

rcspeirs

Not specific to any particular brand. None of the rental companies in Europe will ever deal with a third party policy - such as a credit card insurer. If there is damage, you (the renter) are charged and it's down to you to reclaim from your insurer.

wco81

Yes you're ultimately liable.

You pay in advance and then get reimbursed by the credit card bank.

But what is being described in that thread is that the car rental agency is trying to force you to take the CDW or LDW, not allowing the renter to refuse the rental agency insurance (LDW or CDW).

Then adding various surcharges anyways.