Renting A Car Always Sucks, But Here’s How We’d Avoid The Common Tourist Scams

While most people would never turn down a flight to a tropical locale for fun in the sun, vacations immediately become a divisive proposition once rental cars are involved. Driving a rental car seems like, forgive the pun, the perfect vehicle to be unexpectedly separated from your hard-earned dollars. We’re going to run down the best practices to avoid getting scammed while renting cars, as outlined by the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau.

The worst scams involving rental cars happen before you even get your hands on a set of keys. You should only contact rental car agencies through the methods posted on the company’s official website. Don’t rely directly on results from or AI summaries from search engines. Many phone scams involve unsuspecting victims dialing fake phone numbers and handing their sensitive financial information to people posing as customer service representatives. The next layer of defense is to always pay with a credit card. If you fall victim to a scam, you can dispute the credit card charges and your checking account remains untouched. However, if a representative wants you to pay with a gift card, you’re likely being scammed and not booking a rental car.

Once you finally pick up your rental car, it’s time to be aware of all the extra fees that you could be charged. The easiest one to avoid is the gas fee. Nearly every rental car agency wants you to return their vehicles with a full tank of gas. If you don’t, the agency will charge for the refill and typically at a rate far higher than if you went to the pump yourself. Also, double-check any documentation you’re asked to sign when returning a rental car. Be sure that you aren’t unwittingly agreeing to charges for damage that you didn’t cause.

Rental car agencies can also charge you extra for a plethora of other reasons. Renting a car at an airport location comes with an additional fee. Including additional drivers comes with another additional fee, with the charge being even higher if that driver is under the age of 25. While customers might be drowning in fees, rental car companies are raking in eye-watering sums of money. The industry made an estimated $37.9 billion in 2024, a slight decrease compared to a record-breaking 2023 when the industry generated $38.3 billion in revenue.