Do You Spain/Malagacar

[Pamela1]

[quote="chrissiehope"]Just got my credit card statement - on 17th Nov I was debited 290€ by Malagacar - £247.04, and on 3rd Dec I was credited 290€ - £159.56 That's a difference of £87.48 - more than the hire cost in the first place !!!! Somebody somewhere is making a fortune, and it's not me or Malagacar....

[Pamela1]

Sorry Chrissie,

I was trying to use the quote to write a post but for some reason I sent it accidently.

What I was going to say was that I was confused by by posts, if Malaga car had took a deposit of 200e and you were waiting for it to be credited back to your card then why were you credited with 290e, maybe i'm missing something?

[chrissiehope]

Yes - they took & returned 290€ ! But the conversion to sterling when it was refunded led to the huge loss

[Pamela1]

Yes, that was a huge loss, if you hire a car again it might be worth asking if they can reserve the deposit in sterling, just a thought.

[gerryh]

Long time since I hired a car in Spain but I thought the normal practice was to send an "intention to claim money" to your credit card company, it would then show up as a payment pending.
If when you return the car and there isn't any damage then they just cancel the "intention to claim money" so no actual money comes out or gets repaid to your credit card account.
Cheers
Gerry

[Nimrod]

Chrissie it would have been cheaper to take their extra insurance,food for thought.

[Pamela1]

Long time since I hired a car in Spain but I thought the normal practice was to send an "intention to claim money" to your credit card company, it would then show up as a payment pending.
If when you return the car and there isn't any damage then they just cancel the "intention to claim money" so no actual money comes out or gets repaid to your credit card account.
Cheers
Gerry

Yes that is still true when hiring a car with some hire car companies but not with others as I have also learnt, I don't know what happened to Chrissie but I don't remember losing out. it is better to check the small print about whether they actualy charge the card or reserve an amount without actually claiming payment.
Since then I have always taken the insurance as Nimrod suggested because then they don't take a deposit, it wasn't worth nervously waiting to see if the amount had been credited back to my card not especially after reading many horror stories.

[scotty]

Any of the times I have used my Insurance at Helle Hollis they refund the money to my debit card before I leave their office.

[Nimrod]

Helle Hollis undoubtedly a good company but their prices are horrendous compared to malagacar.
I suppose you're paying a premium up front price so they don't rip you off on the charges the other companies wack on.

[chrissiehope]

I have an annual excess policy, so never take the daily insurance. I don't know for sure how much it is these days, but I bet it's at least 5 € a day, which for 14 days would have been 70€, so yes this time it would possibly have been cheaper. I'm thinking that this time the rate must have dropped drasically just at the wrong time... or the bank is taking a ridiculous cut...

Some companies we have used in the past have, as you say Gerry, just 'held' the deposit until the return - I probably should have checked their policy on this.

On the bright side, the deposit could have been 600€ plus with some companies...

[Nimrod]

I think it would be the bank taking their cut,official rates have only varied by pennies.

[Pete'nKim]

Can I just check are people talking about Malagacar or malagacarhire? We have used malagacarhire a few times and have had mainly good experiences. The cars aren't great but for trips of up to 10 days they're fine. We had a car with really bald tyres once but should have checked better I suppose. They do full/full (or qtr/qtr on our last trip); they don't get too excited if there's a scuff to add to the many already on the cars.

We always collect from Niza cars a couple of minutes from the airport and have never waited too long. Tried Record recently and they only do full/full for less than three days and when all the extras are added are much higher than Malagacarhire.

[Nimrod]

The one recommended on the forum is malagacar.com
They do half a tank and do not charge refuelling....a hidden cost included by many.

[chrissiehope]

Just an update on my previous post !

Having spent most of the day going round in circles, I have finally got to the bottom of the large discrepancy on my credit card:- the first figure was the costs of the hire plus fuel plus the deposit of 200€. The second figure was the return of the deposit, so the discrepancy was in fact the cost of the hire plus the fuel

I do feel a bit of an idiot now , but in my defence it is not at all clear from the credit card entries ! One thing I did discover is that transactions in foreign currency are not always converted in UK, but sometimes by the merchant before presenting it for payment - I know I have been asked before in Spain if I wanted to pay in € or £, but I certainly wasn't asked by Malagacar, as I always choose to pay in the currency of the country I am in.

Something to watch out for

[ashtondav]

I Booked a car with centauro through DYS, for 5 days €35. I needed to extend the hire for 3 days and they only charged me an extra 30€. In addition when I picked up the car I refused their extra insurance and they blocked 950€ on my credit card ( note that they only "blocked" it and didn't charge it). Unfortunately I had a scrape against a concrete wall and made a few scratches, fully expecting them to charge 300 or 400€ against the card. Today I got my credit card bill, and they made no charge at all! The only extra was a fuel filling charge of 25€, payable even though I picked it up and returned it full/full.

So top marks Centauro! You are now added to my favourites HelleHollis and malagacar.com.

Firefly, Delpaso, Goldcar, Record, please take note and change your shoddy, shameful and downright disgusting customer service. I still don't understand how those guys remain in business.

[LITTLEMO]

I always use malagacar.com Just noticed today that a booking i made for 18 days end of Aug beginning of Sept is half the price this week. 150 euros for a renault megane for the 18 days. Cancelled 1stbooking and then re booked. Don't forget to use promo code hellofan.

[Nimrod]

Thanks for the reminder Littlemo,I've just rebooked my car for 12 days in September and saved 40 euros.
Cheers

[LITTLEMO]

Your saving will go towards a night out :

[Nimrod]

Or a bl00dy good night in!

[kerbut]

Beware of Delpaso ,I had my credit card scammed there (it was a brand new card ,not used anywhere else before ) to the tune of £3600.