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One way car rental fees

We are looking to rent a car in Paris and fly out of Frankfurt this summer. The fees to return a car in another city are significant!!! Does anyone know of a rental car company that doesn't charge these fees?

Posted by
11032 posts

NO

It may vary, but $600+ is not uncommon. Every company has the same problem to 're-patriate' the car, so the fees will be very similar

Posted by
6175 posts

You need to pay the cost of sending the car back to France as it is of no use to the office in Frankfurt.

Your choices are:

  • Pay the fee
  • Replan your trip and take the train across the border
Posted by
11053 posts

Don’t return a rental car to a different country unless you’re willing to high fees.

Posted by
694 posts

As both Joe and Badger said-all of them charge the fees. We did rent in Florence this past fall with a return in Bologna. That drop fee was $90-yes in dollars. Now, Italy is less expensive than France and since you are crossing into another country, that will mean a higher drop fee.
Depending on why you want the car-proposed itinerary-might it work to drop the car in Strasbourg, go to Frankfurt and rent again?

Posted by
1117 posts

One way rentals are sometimes expensive, sometimes not. But renting in one country and dropping off in another is almost always prohibitive.

Posted by
694 posts

If I did it correctly with Autoeurope, the one way drop fee in Strasbourg came up as $10.63. I chose two weeks in June, but time frame usually doesn’t affect the drop fee. Chose to pick the car up at CDG and drop at Strasbourg train station.

Posted by
5 posts

Thank you all! We're going to modify our plan and return the car in Strasbourg then take the train to Frankfurt!

Posted by
610 posts

Europcar does not seem to charge one way fees within France but we've never tried to return a car to another country. In any case I would check with Europcar as their fees have always seem to be less than the competition. Try booking the whole thing through
autoEurope.com. We have use them for 20+ years and have had excellent results.

Posted by
10178 posts

There is a big difference in cost between a one way rental within a country and a one way rental where you return the car in another country. I think you made a good decision to drop the car in Strasbourg.

Posted by
7981 posts

We have twice lucked out and gotten cars that needed to be returned home -- so we got a car in Amsterdam and drove through Belgium and dropped in Paris with no fee because it was a Paris car. Similarly decades earlier, Rome to Paris. But you can't plan that -- sometimes you get lucky.