Can I return a rental car early?

score:11

Accepted answer

You can return a rental car early, but whether you get any refund, or even get penalized for the early return, depends on the terms and conditions spelled out in your particular rental agreement.

  • By returning early, you may forfeit certain discounts. For example, a rental car agency may be willing to give you a weekly rate for a five-day rental, but switch to the daily rate for a four-day rental. By returning the car early, the rental car agency may further claim that your original contract has been violated, allowing them to charge a higher rate, but that will not be true for every company or for every jurisdiction.

  • Some agencies may charge an early return fee for postpaid hires. Alamo is well-known for charging $15 for early returns, and there are many anecdotes of agency absurdities like Budget charging $11.80 for returning a car 10 minutes early. The reason for the charge, as Hertz puts it is

    to compensate us in part for our inability to rent your vehicle during the time reserved for your use.

  • On prepaid rentals, again, whether or not you receive any refund for the time remaining depends on your agreement. Budget advertises that they will recalculate charges based on the actual time rented, while their competitors Hertz and Alamo do not— but see above for other shadiness from Budget.

Upvote:1

In the United States, the rental charge generally is not applied to the credit card at the start. The credit card used is used as a reserve, then charged at the end for the time used. If you trim back from the end, you receive a lower charge. I've done this in the past. I generally reserve for all the days needed, spend the final night near the airport, turning in the car the evening before. This saves the rental charge of a day. I then get a free shuttle back to the hotel, and again to the airport in the morning. Hasn't failed so far - I generally use "We're #1!" (you'll know)

Upvote:3

For Alamo. Booked week rate via Costco, $139. Pickup San Diego ran LAX.

Asked at counter what would happen if I returned 1 day early. The answer was SHOCKING. Extra $500 of I returned one day early, the new total charge would have been $660. I was horrified. Nothing he could do so had to speak to the manager who had some.common sense and agreed to allow me to return one day early and avoid the penalty of over $500. Lucky I checked otherwise I would have been screwed royally with no recourse. BE VERY CAREFUL. CHECK THE MINIMUM RENTAL PERIOD IN THE CONTRACT AND IF UNSURE.DONT SIGN !! Hope that this helps.someone.

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