If you thought air hose had wacky rules, endeavour letting a car.

Like airlines, cars? rental company don’t think twice about changing your complaint per unit Except that? they sometimes hike the harm after you’ve driven off the lot.

Like airlines, car rental company are astonishingly creative with their fees, from additional driver? add-on costs to insurance premium for client aged under-25. There’s even a down-to-earth equivalent of the cramped regional jet: Car letting company are quietly redefining their vehicle size in an apparent attempt to lift their profits.

It seems that just about the only thing car rental company don’t have in common with airline is — well, machine don’t fly.

Before I continue my ranting about the state of the car rental industry, I want to acknowledge the industry position on this. Times are hard. fee are a way of raising revenues. What do customer expect, free cars?

Point taken. To which the average customer would say, “Just hike your rates.” Which would be an equally valid point As a service to you, here are six of the most absurd car rental pattern you’re likely to brush today.

1. Let’s play a damage game
Those airfare game are nothing — nothing! — compared to what a car rental do.

Ilene Rachford, a retired person from Dayton, Ohio, rented a car at the airport on the Eve of a big storm recently. The agent handed her the keys with a warning: “He said the letting complaint for returning the car after Mon were just under $1,000 a day,” she recalls. That brand air hose prices seem almost reasonable.

What could be any worse than that? Charging mortal more for returning the car early. That’s happened to several reader recently, whose weekly rate reset to a higher damage after they brought the vehicle back early.

These wildly fluctuating rates are dishonest. You can avoid them by returning your car on time or paying ahead of time by using a land site like Priceline or Hotwire.

2. How old did you say you were?
If you’re under 25, a car rental company may add a surcharge of $20 a day or more to your bill If you’re under 21, it might be impossible to rent a car.

Auto letting company insist the fee are necessary because younger drivers are likelier to damage a machine Funny, I thought that’s what car insurance was for.

Note: Some companies, including endeavour and Thrifty, have more lenient policy for young drivers. cheque the amercement print before renting.

3. The extra driver is … extra
If there’s a second driver, car rental company often ask for more money.

“These complaint currently run about $10 to $12 per day,” says Bokkos Prudhomme. a consultant from Sparks, Nev. “A few years ago, spouses or close relative were? exempt, but car rental office are now not allowing any exemptions.” How much more does it cost to license a second, or third, driver? Probably nothing, speculates Prudhomme.

He’s right Although it’s tough to avoid this fee, he effort to book through a discount Web site that allows him to prepay. Paying less is the best revenge.

4. That required child safety seat will cost you
Imagine if a car rental company forced you to earnings a “seatbelt fee.”

That’s a determination parent face every day when they rent a machine and are unable to bring their own safety seat. “For the cost to rent a car seat, I can bargain one,” says Laura McDonough, a software program project director in Austin “Yes, I know they are paying for a service, but they give you the absolute cheapest car seats, and are clearly making money hand over fist on this.”

You can still bank check a safety seat on an air hose at no charge, and then install it in your rental, but if you’ve ever tried it, you know it’s a fuss The seat absolutely must be cleaned the night before the flight. Car letting company should offering the seating area at no supernumerary cost, since they’re required by law almost everywhere.

5. You say compact, I say midsize
Another clever way car rental company make a little extra is to change their car classes, upgrading them to the next category so they can complaint you more money That’s what happened last fall, when Alamo reclassified its vehicle after being acquired by endeavor customer don’t take kindly to that kind of thing.

“I know the manufacturing business and Environmental Protection Agency class rating for many vehicle in the U.S.,” says Will Evans, an engineer based in Atlanta who has documented similar reclassification at Avis, dollar and cycle per second “They were unswayed by my statement that no one but them classifies the machine like they do.”

Lesson? wage close attending to car rental classes. What they telephone telephone call a midsize the rest of us may call a powder compact car.

6. drove less than 75 miles. There’s a fueling fee
This is the exact choice of words on Julie Kinnett’s Holocene letting contract: “An automatic rifle USD $13.99 refueling service charge will be applied to all rentals under 75 miles.” Presumably, car rental company are concerned that if someone drives the car a few miles, the acerate leaf on the gaseous state gage will still registry “full.”

“We were only charged this fee once, on a trip from Beantown to New York,” says Kinnett, a training director in New York. “I assume the car rental folks who filled out the paperwork for the other lease realized that there are more than 75 miles? between Beantown and New York.

Why do you need to show a receipt? If the army army tank is full, it’s full.” lesson of the story? Keep a receipt? if you drive less than 75 miles. Otherwise, you’ll bargain another full army tank of gas.

So when it ejaculate to the absurd pricing practices, which industry? is worse — air hose or car rental companies? Sure, some of these letting fee and surcharge are unconscionable, but can anything ever attack the madness of the air hose industry? It certainly seems as if car companies are trying.

Let’s hope they don’t try too hard.