CUSTOMERS hiring cars for their holidays may be able to claim back some charges after one of Britain’s biggest firms admitted that it levied fees in error.

Hertz, which has links with a number of travel websites such as Ryanair, was forced to make a refund to a tourist after unfairly charging him because he wanted to drop off his car at a different location from where he picked it up.

Last year the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA) helped 75 customers to obtain refunds from hire firms after unfair charges were levied.

Their contracts are often riddled with obscure fees that can easily double an initial quote. Although most are mentioned in the small print, some fees are charged illegally by sales teams around the world.

The total cost is usually discovered only when holidaymakers return home and get their next credit-card statement or a receipt from the rental company. Others find they have to pay extra when they reach the pickup point, so are unable to cancel easily.

Last year more than 1,300 complaints relating to car hire were received by the watchdog Consumer Direct – 180 specifically about misleading prices.

Peter Conradi, a Sunday Times journalist, booked a Hertz hire car through a Ryanair website on April 27, for a trip to Croatia. He arranged to pick up the vehicle the next day at the airport in Pula, returning it on May 5 to Zadar, about 220 miles down the coast.

The site quoted an “approximate rental charge” of £163.18. When he picked the car up, however, he was told there would be an additional one-way charge, but was not told how much it would be.

“I expressed my displeasure, but had little alternative but to accept at that point: my return ticket had already been bought and, in any case, my credit card had already had £163.18 debited from it,” he said.

It was only when he brought the car back a week later that he was told that he needed to pay a further £90 – an increase of just over 50% on the base price.

He said: “What is unjustifiable is that such a large extra charge was not mentioned either in the price quoted to me or in the material sent confirming my reservation.”

His confirmation letter states that the initial price was based on available information at the time of reservation. “The fact that I wished to pick up the car in Pula and drop it in Zadar was, however, part of this ‘available information’,” said Conradi.

He hired the car on the basis of the £163.18 quote. “Had I known it would have been £90 more, I would have looked round at other companies before choosing Hertz, or perhaps modified my route.”

Hertz said: “Mr Conradi was charged this one-way fee in error and we will refund the full amount to him. There is no one-way fee charged for Hertz rentals booked via the Ryanair website and we are investigating how this mistake was made. Customers who feel they have been charged incorrectly should e-mail Hertz customer services at customer-relations-uk@hertz.com. Their booking will be investigated and they will be refunded for any charges made in error.”

If a charge isn’t made clear in your contract, you may be able to claim back some of the fees. Here we highlight some other tricks of the trade.

Extra insurance

Rental firms have to provide a basic level of theft and damage cover, although there is a hefty excess in most cases. You can purchase a collision-damage waiver to reduce the excess to nothing, but prices for this are usually only available when you pick up the car or call the company directly.

Hiring a medium-sized car for a week to be picked up from Alicante airport in Spain, for example, will cost about £236 from Avis. However the excess is quoted at £640.

The Avis website says you can cut this to nothing by paying an “excess reduction” fee when you arrive at your location, but does not provide details of the daily cost. Calling Avis reveals that excess reduction costs £9 a day or £63 for the week.

However, there are ways of reducing the cost. One is to book your car through brokers who act as intermediaries, such as Holiday Autos (0870 400 4461, holidayautos.co.uk) or Car Rentals (0845 225 0845, carrentals.co.uk). Both offer “damage excess waiver” insurance on their bookings and the fees tend to be far lower – £2.50 a day, and you know what you are paying.

Another option is to use Insurance4carhire (020 7012 6300, insurance4carhire.com) which offers annual excess cover for car rental in Europe for £51.45. If the vehicle is damaged or stolen, the rental company will charge your credit card and you can subsequently claim reimbursement from insurance4carhire.

Age limits

Hire firms often impose an age-limit charge on those below 25. With Avis, this adds another £7.60 a day, or just over £53 for a week. If you decide to pay after returning the car you’ll also be charged an extra £35. An additional driver costs another £4 a day.

With full cover, the cost of the hire from Alicante with Avis, could be £415 – almost double the original price when you add tax, as most of the prices above exclude this.

Child seats

Child booster seats, which are compulsory within the EU if you travel with children, are charged at about £4 a day for each seat.

Refuelling charges

Avoid taking a car with a full tank and then returning it half-empty and facing a refilling fee. This can be twice as much as it would cost to fill it yourself. The standard charge levied by Hertz is £1.69 per litre plus Vat, against 69p at a Spanish service station.

Anyone who feels they have been misled into paying more than they expected, should take up the matter with the firm involved. If the matter does not get resolved, they should call the BVRLA on 01494 434747.