Hertz Perth - 1.5% credit surcharge?

[markis10]

They are not shown upfront because no one is forced into them, they are avoidable by paying cash. The best comparison is to the hotel front desk: when checking in you will always present your CC for the deposit, and when checking out they all have the little sign on the counter "Please note CC fees of 1% to 2.5% blah blah", these fees are never added to the room rate upfront as you can choose your payment method when checking out.

The Admin Fee (at Hertz and at Avis, and all the others) is not avoidable, therefore included in the upfront price. Just 2 different ways of presenting it to the customer, who in 99.9% of cases will not take notice at all.

The ability to avoid the fees is irrelevant though when it comes to action under the TPA, it must be clearly stated that the estimate if for cash only and payment by credit card will result in a different price, I refer to the ACCCs info on fair trading in the rental car market:

What happens if you cannot calculate all the charges at the time of the representation?

Where the final price will be a mixture of quantifiable and non-quantifiable charges, you must state the single figure and indicate that it does not include all components of the price.
For example, if you have a surcharge based on the number of kilometres the customer drives, you should add that to the daily rate. Obviously this cannot be quantified at the time of advertising because you do not know how many kilometres the customer will drive. In this example, you would state:
• the single total price, which includes all fees and charges the customer must pay
• in a clear fashion, that a surcharge will be added to the price after calculation and indicate how that calculation will be performed.

Just like KMs, a CC charge is avoidable, but as per the above it must be stated in a clear fashion, as someone who rents 60 times a year, your example of the hotel rings true, I always see the sign when checking in, but never when collecting a hertz car nor is the charge verbally noted!

http://www.accc.gov.au/content/item...&fn=Fair trading in the rental car sector.pdf

 

[jsoprano]

Just like KMs, a CC charge is avoidable, but as per the above it must be stated in a clear fashion!

If you follow this logic, the provider would have to list all fees and charges for services it provides which are avoidable: baby seats, refueling charges, delivery charges, sat-nav ...

In my view you have to separate kms and CC fees, as additional kms are part of the service you buy from a rental car provider ("mobility"), while the provision of a CC payment facility is an enhancement to offer the customer a more convenient way to pay, at a certain cost. As long as the standard method of payment (= cash) is generally available and free of charge, I do not see a problem with this.

Also, the fee is mentioned on the homepage: https://www.hertz.com.au/rentacar/byr/index.jsp?targetPage=rentalQualificationsView.jsp , to be found under Reservations > Qualifications and Requirements > Fees and Surcharges.

 

[oz_mark]

They are not shown upfront because no one is forced into them, they are avoidable by paying cash. The best comparison is to the hotel front desk: when checking in you will always present your CC for the deposit, and when checking out they all have the little sign on the counter "Please note CC fees of 1% to 2.5% blah blah", these fees are never added to the room rate upfront as you can choose your payment method when checking out.

On advance purchase rates, the CC fee is hard to avoid.

 

[AdMEL]

This might be correct as they do not charge a seperate fee for CC transactions, but one can argue they have "burried" these charges within their so called "Administration Fee". While this fee sits at 3.5% with Hertz, at least Avis' charges are beyond 5%.

But the argument is correct that when geting a quote from Avis these charges are included in the price, at Hertz they are not. But at Hertz you can avoid them paying cash on return, at Avis not.

This not correct. Avis admin fee is the same as Hertz at 3.5%. There is no credit card fee at Avis, not even buried in any other charge, including the admin. fee.

Makes me wonder how susceptible to action Hertz are in the case of not being up front with fees (although I like how they display all the cars rates unlike Avis - mind you the same functionality can be had by using Qantas.com to check rates at all companies), Avis are only up front because they were forced to be after massive refunds:

Avis were forced to be because their quoting system was allowing extras (such as excess reduction, car seats, gps, etc) to be included in the quote without the quote including the admin fee, GST and airport surcharge applicable to the extras.

They have since fixed this, but their website still not does not discount the quote if you have a discount coupon, which is annoying (Hertz does).

It is also annoying that you have to select the car with Avis before the price will be displayed, whereas Hertz displays the prices of all cars at once. The only annoying thing about Hertz is they do not give you the oppotunity to include the credit card fee in the quote.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Ok so I'm going slightly OT, but I just booked two europcar rentals and asked if I could pay by cash (but CC for the security).

Answer - NO. Cash is not accepted for any transaction at any Europcar location.

That got me thinking, so I rang Hertz with the same query.

Answer - You can, but.......... to pay cash you have to be pre-qualified including the $200 bond and references :shock:. I said this is cash we're speaking of, why the references??? So we know you're reliable :shock:. Alternatively, you can book through a travel agent and get pre-paid coupons.

So I guess all those saying cash is possible are technically correct (with Hertz, not for Europcar)........realistically though?????????????????

Disclaimer. I couldn't be bothered ringing anyone else, so I can't comment of Thrifty, Avis, Budget etc

 

[Moopere]

Ok so I'm going slightly OT, but I just booked two europcar rentals and asked if I could pay by cash (but CC for the security).

Answer - NO. Cash is not accepted for any transaction at any Europcar location.

I'm not surprised. None of these guys want the hassle that comes with taking, storing and banking cash. Europecar does not charge a CC fee though so far as I am aware so they get off the hook.

That got me thinking, so I rang Hertz with the same query.

Answer - You can, but.......... to pay cash you have to be pre-qualified including the $200 bond and references :shock:. I said this is cash we're speaking of, why the references??? So we know you're reliable :shock:. Alternatively, you can book through a travel agent and get pre-paid coupons.

So we know you're reliable? Thats funny. Its cash mate, I put it in your hand and you walk away. Goodness me. Another sign that they really _really_ don't want to deal with it, so they make it as difficult as possible.

Hertz don't get off the hook though because they _do_ charge a surcharge. Ultimately, they are charging you extra because you comply with _their_ preferred payment method.

Its just rude. They should bump up their standard pricing if they are going broke and really need the extra 1.5% that much. Offer a for-cash discount if they think its warranted (of 1.5% for cash).

They are obviously embarrassed or sneaky or both else they wouldn't bury the additional cost deep in their T&C, it would be up front and centre on the quote once they know (from your web selections) that you intend to pay by CC. Its easy to do and easy to make it clear. But the thruth is that they know customers are sensitive to it.

Mind you folks, they won't budge an inch if we keep eating the dogfood they hand out.

 

[markis10]

If you follow this logic, the provider would have to list all fees and charges for services it provides which are avoidable: baby seats, refueling charges, delivery charges, sat-nav .........
Also, the fee is mentioned on the homepage: https://www.hertz.com.au/rentacar/byr/index.jsp?targetPage=rentalQualificationsView.jsp , to be found under Reservations > Qualifications and Requirements > Fees and Surcharges.

If you read the link you will find that these must be mentioned if they are part of the expected price, so the logic is sound . As for it being mentioned on the homepage, a homepage is just that, not a sub page with two click throughs needed!

All it needs is a simple "*credit card payment will incur xx% surcharge" statement on all reservation pages, defending it's absence is a futile exercise IMHO when it's such a small thing to change, and it avoids upsetting customers like the OP.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Europecar does not charge a CC fee though so far as I am aware so they get off the hook.

Yeh they do! Actually Europcar are the ones most on the hook as there is no alternative payment method, so the CC fee should certainly be part of their overheads and included in the base rental charge!

 

[AdMEL]

Europecar does not charge a CC fee though so far as I am aware so they get off the hook.

As per my earlier post on this thread, Europcar charge a 1.65% credit card surcharge (I think the Hertz 1.5% is effectively 1.65% when GST is added). Europcar also allow you to include the surcharge in the quote.

 

[jsoprano]

All it needs is a simple "*credit card payment will incur xx% surcharge" statement on all reservation pages, defending it's absence is a futile exercise IMHO when it's such a small thing to change, and it avoids upsetting customers like the OP.

Okay, I agree with you on this one. More transparency wouldn't hurt.

This not correct. Avis admin fee is the same as Hertz at 3.5%. There is no credit card fee at Avis, not even buried in any other charge, including the admin. fee.

I see were I made my mistake when I calculated it from a test booking. Yes both charge 3.5%, but Hertz charges 3.5% of the base rate, while Avis charges 3.5% of base rate + Rego Fee + Location Charge. With the 3 test bookings I made on the Avis page the % on the base rate (as Hertz does it) was between 5.1 and 7.0% :!:, depending on length of rental and location fee.

I don't want to say one does it right and one does it wrong. In my opinion the winner would be the most transparent provider, but I do not think we will find one in this jungle of fees and charges.