Note: This post uses my real-world example of a rental car that I booked through Expedia and Payless Rental Car. However, the issues illustrated of “mandatory, local insurance” and customer complaints of “hidden fees” are common at nearly all rental car companies in Costa Rica (though they may vary depending on the rental car company you use).
A standard SUV for $10.38 a day? Sign me up!
And just like that, I proceeded to book my Payless Rental Car standard SUV through Expedia. Taxes and fees were extra, but the total for six days was confirmed via email as $68.86, a great price for an SUV picked up at an airport (LIR) in Costa Rica.
But what’s that ol’ saying? “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”.
Renting a Car in Costa Rica:
I strolled into the Payless Rental Car office just past 6:00 pm per my reservation. It’s been a long 6 hour flight to Costa Rica, and I was eager to head to my hotel in Papagayo.
When I walked into the office there was an Italian couple in tears because the rental car company wouldn’t accept their form of payment, so the husband was on the phone trying to get approved for a $3,000 advance of some sort. Next to him, was an older American couple arguing with the front desk staff about the very expensive “mandatory insurance” they were being “forced to buy”, going so much as to call it a “hidden fee”.
Emotions were escalating quickly, and I wanted to know if this was some sort of scam or if it was a legitimate charge included in the Terms that was a part of renting a car in Costa Rica. At this moment, I whipped out my Expedia reservation thinking to myself, “oh great…time to read the fine print”. I found the following information from Expedia.
The Expedia Fine Print:
I noticed the last line which read, “Your rental may have mandatory, local insurance requirements that result in additional charges at the time of rental”.
Translation: “Uh-oh”. I clicked on the hyper-link and got the following information:
The “Mandatory, Local Insurance”:
There it was in black and white: “Purchase of liability insurance is mandatory unless you can provide written evidence of Costa Rican Liability Insurance Coverage”. Ouch. But the sentence that hurt the most was this one: “The minimum cost is 20.00 USD per day…”. Then we had to factor-in the unpublished “airport taxes”.
Just like that, my rental car rate ballooned from the Expedia-quote of $68.86 to $295.10. This was a massive and unexpected increase of $226.24! I had just witnessed the same thing happen with the American couple in front of me, so I was semi-prepared for the sticker shock.
I had really no choice at the time except to pay it, but I too felt this was totally a “hidden fee” that should have been included in the original Expedia quote – especially because it was “mandatory”.
The Forms of Payment and Mandatory Deposit:
I realized quickly that the Italian couple had a much worse problem then I did, Payless did not accept their cards for an acceptable deposit.
Never-the-less, I too had to put down a $3,000 deposit.
The Bottom Line:
As soon as I got to my hotel, I wanted to see if other tourists had ran into this issue before. How could there not be others? Costa Rica is a popular tourist spot where many people rent cars, right?
Sure enough, I found this great blog post from mytanfeet about renting cars in Costa Rica and how the mandatory insurance can more than double your car rental price. Turns out the “hidden fee” experience is a very common complaint from tourists, and the charges can vary wildly depending on the car rental company you are using.
If anything, this experience was an eye-opener for me and a reminder to “always read the fine print”. If you know what you are getting into then you can be prepared for what you’ll actually pay in Costa Rica for a rental car.
Pura Vida!
Cheers!
H/T: mytanfeet.com/
