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I will be traveling to San Jose, Costa Rica in February, 2007. I am interested in renting an auto in San Jose. As there will be 6 people in my party, I will need an auto large enough to accommodate all of us. On the Internet, I have found a 7 passenger Kia Sedona (Advantage Rent-A-Car) for a cost of $621.60USD for a 3 week rental, beginning Feb. 1, 2007, insurance Not included. Has anyone had any experience with Advantage? Also, I am confused about what insurance is required and the cost of any required insurance. I will be using a Visa Platinum card to make payment and I understand that Visa covers certain insurance requirements (CDW). What additional insurance charges will I be required to pay, if any? I am trying to determine what the Total cost will be. Can anyone help clarify this for me?
Check with advantage but my guess is the additional fee for the minimum insurance required is probaly $35 dollars per day. Your visa platinum will provide CDW but check the fine print as there are exclusions such as no coverage on dirt or gravel roads(lots of these in C.R.). Also if you should need the CDW coverage Visa will reimburse you but advantage will charge the damages not covered to your card. Bottom line it is downright expensive and confusing to rent a car in this country. A small Yaris with “full coverage” will run you about $400-500 a week. We always struggle with this insurance issue last time we passed on full coverage and rolled the dice with dollar, no problems or extra charges. The cost of renting a car can make an in expensive trip expensive!! Perhaps David will have some other insights into this?
The few times I’ve rented in Costa Rica, I’ve relied on my Platinum VISA to cover the optional insurance coverages. Whatever’s mandatory is . . . mandatory. Ask Advantage and bite the bullet.
The rental companies will be very picky about any damage whatsoever that you inflict on their car, so insist on a very careful inspection inside and out before you accept custody of the thing, and be very careful where you park it, so you don’t get door dents from somebody else.
Also, pick up your rental at the agency’s office, not at the airport. The airport imposes a hefty tax (about 15%) for picking up a rental there. Either ask the agency to meet you or take a taxi to their office which will be nearby.
We rented a car for two weeks in June. We searched for the best deal on the internet and reserved our SUV. When we got there and got into the paperwork the insurance issue arose. I am looking at my contract with Economy Rent a Car, which is an Advantage Rent-A-Car affiliate, and here is how the insurance worked. Depending on which credit card you use at the counter, you may get your C.D.W. (Collision Damage Waiver) waived which was $10.00 PER DAY. The A.P.I. (Personal Injury) which was described as Mandatory was $8.00 PER DAY. The Liability that is Mandatory was $20.00 per day. So, if you get your C.D.W. covered by your credit card, like I did, your PER DAY insurance cost could be $28.00 or $588.00 for the three weeks. If you want to make a run at the A.P.I. and the Liability, you must have a letter from your insurance company or credit card company that states you will be covered by them in the Country of Costa Rica. When we called my insurance company and credit card company, at first they BOTH said that they would fax a letter to the agency. After waiting for the fax and calling back they BOTH recanted saying that while they normally would provide the coverage, they couldn’t provide the coverage in the Country of Costa Rica which is on the excluded list. So, upon my return, I acquired an American Express Business Platinum card and I had “rental car coverage” added to my card. At first they said that it covered EVERYTHING but now they say it covers everything but liability which means I will probably have to pay for the liability. While in Costa Rica, I checked with a half dozen other agencies and they all confirmed that the daily insurance charges were between $28 and $42 per day depending on the situation. If you plan on having an additional driver their is a daily charge as well. It was $5.00 per day at Economy/Advantage and at the other agencies it ranged from $0.00 to 10.00 per day. According to them you need to name an additional driver to even have them covered if they drive you in an emergency. Having said all of that, I agree with Dave, bite the bullet and enjoy your trip! And definately rent off site and save the additional tax. Jerry
This amount doesn’t sound right for a 3-week rental. I would check out a few things before signing:
-Will your vehicle be older and in relatively poor condition? This happens frequently in CR.
-Will your vehicle be able to carry your party of 6 plus all of your luggage items? I once had a party of 5 and normal amount of luggage. We ended up with a Suzuki Grand Vitara (seats 7) and we still had to load items on top. Good thing it wasn’t raining.
-Costa Rica is not the United States. Attorneys don’t make their living off of litigation. Why the great concern with liability?My advice: get yourself a CapitalOne VISA and use TriColor. CapitalOne provides CDW with no apparent hassles and there is no 3% exchange rate charge for use overseas as of July. I’ve been using it all over CR for the last couple of years. TriColor has its snags as they all do but they are reliable and reasonable. This is so important in CR. I just returned a vehicle with a piece of the front fender missing and scratches and scrapes along the periphery. They conceded that this particular model should not be driven in CR where the roads are unsuitable. BTW, the damage was not my fault and they charged me nothing. No arguments.
Hope this helps.We were in CR in January and rented a little 4 seat Diatsu Terios from Europacar via. Tico Travel for 3 weeks. It cost $1200 total including minimum required insurance with other damages on my CC. This was the second time I rented from these folks and I was very happy.
However, this is nearly the bottom of the line in a 4WD 4 passanger car. Larger cars cost more. The back seat is designed for small people or young children. It DID have luggage space in back and a rack on top. If we had been 4 adults traveling together we would have had to have been very very careful about luggage OR brought a tarp and tie downs to put lugage on the roof (plan on bringing your own). We wanted the extra space for friends that live in CR (no luggage)
Rates vary depending on if it is high season (dry) or low (wet). Jan-Mar is peak high season.
You can get a similar car for $35/day ($735 three weeks) from http://www.renta4x4incostarica.com. However, they were all booked up when we tried to get reservations AND they are smaller cars than you want.
I’d expect to rent the size car you want during high season for $800/week including insurance.
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