5 Things You Need to Know About Returning Your Hire Car to Heathrow Airport
Before you return your car to Heathrow Airport, there are a few things you should check. We’ve listed the top 5 things that you should bear in mind before you drop off your car hire.
5 Things You Need To Know
1. Return on time: If you return your car late you may be charged an extra day’s rental. Different car hire agents have varying grace periods but it’s usually only an hour or two.
2. Petrol: car rental agents have different policies regarding returning with a full tank of petrol (or gas if you’re American). If you do return with an empty tank then the agent will charge you the price to fill it up with their own pump. This could work out more expensive than if you’d stopped off and filled the car up yourself.
3. Check for damage to the car: When you return the car it will be checked for damage (scratches, dents, etc.) and if any are found you’ll be liable to pay a certain amount for repairs. You can avoid this however by availing of the Excess Insurance.
To ensure you don’t get charged for damage that wasn’t your fault be sure that you have had the car checked before you left. If someone else tips the car and it wasn’t your fault make sure you collect all the insurance information so you can give it to the car rental agent.
4. Other charges: If your car was caught on a speed camera or having passed through Central London and incurred a congestion charge; you’ll still have to pay these even though you don’t own the car.
If the bill comes back to the car rental agent they will pass the charge directly onto you. To avoid any surprises pay any charges yourself (as soon as possible as these charges can inflate over time).
5. Other returnables: Sometimes you can rent other equipment from the car rental company be it child car seat, a GPS device, or something similar. Obviously you’ll want to be returning these intact.
With these in mind you should hopefully not have too many surprises when you return your car. Anyone planning a trip out of London should definitely take look at our car hire Heathrow Airport page.
If we have forgotten anything and you would like to ask or comment just leave your message in the comment box below.