alamo cross border charges
 

hi - I'm landing at MUC in Aug for a 5 day road trip including Austria, Liechtenstein and possibly crossing the border to Switzerland. I have a car reserved with Alamo, was comfortable with the rate of less than $200US including the premium airport fee. I do know that I'll also need a vignette for Austria. Now I'm reading the rental policy and notice this blurb:Cross Border Policy
Vehicles can be driven in Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Great Britain, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Northern Italy, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain... Additional charges will apply for all cross border travels. In all cases, customers must inform the rental branch of their intention to leave the country with the vehicle and require authorization.

Does anyone have experience with this? I tried searching the Alamo website and can't find how much the fee is but when googling it, I see some companies charge per border that is crossed. Worried about how much this is going to add to my rental charge.
Thanks in advance!

This is a relatively new thing, rental companies in Germany have started charging a one time fee to allow you to take the car outside of Germany. The fee ranges from 20 to 40€.

If you drive into CH, you will also need a vignette, sold only in the 1-yr validity for 40 CHF. You could get lucky and some prior renter bought/attached it already but don't count on it.

I wouldn't say the car hire companies charge 'per crossing' necessarily, but a one-time cross border fee. Then again, Alamo might be different.

Yes, unlikely to remain attached. The cross-border fee is there, ostensibly, to cover any recovery costs, if these arise.

Thanks for the responses, I guess I will have to budget the additional expense.
mlin32 - I'm not planning to visit CH but it looks like the best way to go from Vaduz, where we are visiting friends, up to Neuschwanstein Castle, will take us across the border into CH for a bit. I guess I still need to purchase the additional vignette? I could possibly take back roads up to E60 and stay in LI.
Thanks again!

I think so, it will cost you some "Fränkli". Switzerland is a paradise for "latzare" (iaw: paying a lot).

It is better to be safe than sorry.

Either pay up for the vignette suisse (assuming you take the principal autoroutes/roads) or risk a 200 CHF fine, plus the purchase of the vignette.

You can get to vaduz on roads that don't require the swiss vignette, just stay on the Austrian side and take the B190.

Indeed

It must be a very new thing. I had a Alamo rental from MUC around Christmas that we drove in Austria without a cross-border charge.
When we picked up the car, the rep asked if we were driving outside of Germany and just kind of shrugged when we said we might cross into Austria.
I don't see any cross border charge on the receipt.

Was this something that showed up on the booking screen prior to confirming the reservation?