Last summer I hired a car from Avis in Montenegro. When I picked up the car, I was asked if I wanted the additional excess insurance, and I said no, as I had already bought some from a third party. They then told me they needed to take the car hire deposit in two separate credit card payments because of transaction limits.
It was only when I got home that I realised I had signed up for the excess insurance at a cost of hundreds of euros. Only one of the card payments had been the refundable deposit. It appears that other customers who used the same Avis site have been complaining of similar treatment on Google reviews.
Despite that, Avis refuses to refund me. My credit card company claims it can’t do anything because I stupidly signed the contract (it was presented on an iPad, and it wasn’t clear that there were other pages).
I feel that the employee at the agency tricked me into paying for something I had explicitly said no to. Is there anything I can do?
LS, by email
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Despite considerable improvements in recent years – these kinds of stories were common across Europe a decade ago – hiring a car is still something of a leap of faith. It is very difficult for people to know exactly what they are signing up for in such circumstances, and this wouldn’t be the first case of a car hire customer paying for the extra insurance without realising it.
After I took up your case with Avis’s UK division, it had a change of heart.
A spokesperson says: “After reviewing the fee, we have apologised to LS and issued a refund. We appreciate the customer bringing the issue to our attention and encourage our customers to fully review their rental agreement before signing. We are taking preventive steps to avoid this happening in the future.”
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