Lessons Learned

Rental Car

WARNING - If you're renting a car on your next vacation, make sure you either; plan on the rental car company tying up $1,400 for the duration of your trip, or paying an extra $10 a day for their insurance.

On our recent trip to Ireland we discovered (the hard way) that Hertz had swiped our card at the beginning of our vacation for $1,400 (without telling us.)  Hertz later explained (after it tried to withdraw money and couldn't at the ATM, called my bank to find out what was going on) that this pre-approval was used to cover the rental car cost and a $900 deductible.  This was all due to the fact that I had declined to use THEIR insurance (my USAA covers rental car.)

Of course Hertz didn't bother telling me at the time.  Luckily we discovered this in time to correct the problem and not TOTALLY ruin our vacation; however, you may not be so lucky.

If your vacationing on a budget, you can't have $1,200 tied up!

Cell Phone

If you take your cell phone on vacation with you, don't expect that because you call home and have them call you back that your cell phone is not being charged too.  While trying to work out our money problems, we called home and had Alan call us back to save on our cell phone.  Within minutes our phone was dead and no way to recharge it.

A better way (what we had to do later) is, go to the closest phone center and get a calling card to call with.  This way you only get stuck once by the phone company.  Using a cell phone in a different company charges you twice.

Something to think about!

Is it just me or are rental car and cell phone companies really sticking it to the traveler?

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