Travel

Convenience Fees, Documentation Fees, Application Fees, Delivery Fees, Facility Fees, Big Toe Fees and on and on and on!! And, then we have taxes: sales taxes, county taxes, PST, VAT, and BST.

To give you an example, we bought tickets ONLINE for a baseball game. The tickets were 12 dollars apiece, but when all was said and done and the credit card was charged, the total came out to 34 dollars for two tickets. This was for a pair of tickets that weren't printed by a clerk, or taken over the phone by a receptionist. The information required was entered by ME and processed by a computer. No labor was involved. Top it off, the tickets were WILL CALL. Which meant they won't get printed until I show up, so there isn't even paper or ink involved. 

Yet, on the invoice we have sales tax of 7% and a "Convenience Fee" (who is convenienced here?) totaling 7.50. By my math, 7% of 24 dollars is 1.68. So this Convenience Fee that got bundled together with the 7% sales tax was 5.82, or nearly TWENTY FIVE percent of the total price of the ticket. 

It doesn't stop there! Then we have an Order Processing Fee (which includes delivery). Oh thank you so much for adding another 2.50 to the total when I AM PICKING THESE TICKETS (which haven't been printed yet) UP!!! So, what was the "convenience" fee for?? 

Well, this little frustrating exercise in itemizing charges is nothing compared to the frustration you feel when you turn in your car at the rental car company and you find out that the total bill is almost double what you were quoted. You see, it seems like politicians are always looking for new ways to put their grubby hands in your pocket so they can hire some more patronage workers in their city. Now that the citizenry in the city has been taxed to the gills, the natives have gotten restless. Where to find money to fund new boondoggles like sports stadiums and other publicly funded nonsense??

Why, lets attack the tourist!!!

Never mind that it took years and millions of tax dollars (how ironic) for mayors of big cities and governors of states to lure people into their cities and states. Now that people are staying closer to home and exploring the great cities of our country, these very same politicians see the potential for raking in millions of extra tax revenue without having to harm the natives.

On a recent road trip, I decided to rent a car rather than risk my 8 year old car on a long trek. What I found was that if I rented the car at the airport, it was going to cost me over 500 dollars (including fees) for the week for a Dodge Intrepid.  However, if I went off site, it would be almost half, or around 300 dollars. 

Since most out of town travelers rent their cars at the airport, rather than taking a shuttle to a remote location, local politicians slap all kinds of charges, fees and taxes to the bill of a rental car rented at their airports. It's amazing how these things can add up. According the the Houston Business Journal, at Houston's International Airport, the cost of a rental car is raised by a whopping 71% by fees, charges and taxes. It doesn't get much better at Hobby where these add ons add another 61% to your bill. 

Up until recently, it was very difficult to comparison shop on line for a rental care. Most rental car companies advertise their base rate along with the caveat that fees, taxes and charges MAY apply (what do you mean MAY??). As we've demonstrated, it makes a big difference where the rental car location is when it comes to how much gets tacked on when you actually PAY for the rental. 

Now, Orbitz at least gives you some insight as to how much MAY get added on. They still list the rental car prices in their grid format, and those prices still don't list the TOTAL cost of renting the vehicle for the day.

For instance, renting a vehicle at BWI (Baltimore), we can rent an economy car from National for 16.99 per day. That's a pretty good price, considering Dollar is quoting 26.99 for the same class vehicle. Clicking on the 16.99 price reveals that in fact, the price is 19.99 per day, not 16.99. By clicking on "reserve" you are taken to a page which lists your car and the rate. If you scroll down the page you will find a link under "Review rental rules, terms and conditions" called taxes and fees that will open a pop up box listing the extra fees that are to be paid for when dropping the car off.

We will pay a whopping 11.5 per cent tax (which includes state and local taxes, how nice for them to combine them!) which adds another 2.30 per day to the cost. Then, we add another 3.25 per day for "customer facility charge". I thought the prices for things should include things like over head. Do you buy a donut at Krispy Kreme, only to be charged a facility charge?? Then, we have a Concession Recovery Fee of another 10 percent, or 2 dollars PER DAY. I thought you only RECOVER the car on the LAST day. Oh well, we also have a Vehicle License Recoupment Fee of 49 cents per day. Anyone care to explain what Recoupment is supposed to mean here??

Bottom line is that with all the fees, charges and taxes added on to the car, the car will cost us 28.02 per day. Quite a bump up from that nice 16.99 rate that was ORIGINALLY quoted to us:

To their credit, Expedia makes verifying the cost of fees a lot easier. You simply click "Verify Rate and Continue" and your base rate and taxes are included in the final price. However, they don't itemize the taxes and fees (its always fun to see what other clever names they can up with for the word "taking"). The cheapest rate we found was 21.99 however, and as a rule we usually find lower rates on Orbitz. The total price of the rental was 61.19, which included 17.21 in fees and taxes. This constitutes a 39% mark up, which isn't nearly as bad as Houston.

Bottom line: you have to dig deep to really find out what you are paying for a rental. This will make it ultimately harder to comparison shop. Don't forget, the rental car company will add their own fees like a fuel surcharge, or insurance to the bill if you aren't careful. Find out from your own insurance company if your coverage covers you on damages on a rental car before you commit to more fees and charges.

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