what EXACTLY are the fees for taking a rental car out of country

This is a duplicate post. See: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/croatia/what-exactly-are-the-fees-for-taking-a-rental-car-out-of-the-country

We are also renting a car picking up in Munich and returning to Rome. I found that when I booked early, there was little information. Now that we are within 9 months I am getting the drop off fees, sometimes listed on the internet and sometimes by calling. The drop off fee for a van was over $1800, which was more than the rental. At the current time we are renting a van for 4 nights Munich to Venice with a drop off fee less than $1000 and then getting another van after our stay in Venice which has a small drop off fee due to it being Venice to Rome, or Italy to Italy.
Dean

The fees for rental cars are often the same as flights.... they can change daily or weekly and by the rental company. You can check the approximate cost for the company you want to rent from by just making up some dates that are a few months out. You might find a pattern that will help you make some choices when the time is near. If you find that the cost is too much you might drop the car within Croatia as close to the northern border and then take a train. I have done that a number of times because there is usually not a drop charge for a different city in the same country. What is a LARGE fee to some people may be just fine for others for the convenience of keeping you car and luggage together...

Actually just did a little search on priceline with random dates in Dec. pick up Croatia drop off Slovenia and the weekly rate was about 250 and total price about 500... so drop off fee and taxes about 250...not bad, but obviously dates will make a difference. If you find something on Priceline you can book and hold it without prepaying, keep checking and then rebook a new reservation if you find something cheaper, then simply cancel other reservation. I do this all the time and save hundreds on my car rentals. Just check every once in a while. I would never prepay for a car.

We picked up a Hertz rental in Ljubljana, drove around Slovenia for a couple days (Skocjan Caves, Soca River Valley, Vršic Pass, Lake Bled) then dipped down into Istria (Rovinj, Motovun) for a few days before dropping off the car in Rijeka. I did this because the drop off fee at Rijeka was less than any other destination in Croatia (83 euros). There was an unadvertised 'cross border fee' of 29 euros which I complained about but never got a response. I then made another rental reservation to pick up another car at the same location, which I drove to Split. There were no drop fees going one way from Rijeka to Split.

Even considering the fees, this was more convenient than trying to drop off the rental in Slovenia. I considered bringing it to the Hertz station in Portoroz, and trying to take a bus or Ferry across the border into Croatia, but this was very hard to work into our schedule given the limited hours of public transit & rental car offices in smaller towns.

Gareth,

a Hertz rental ... There were no drop fees going one way from Rijeka to Split.

I'm not finding Hertz NOT charging a drop off fee. Each of my queries (including just now repeating your Rijeka to Split choice) shows, in the details, a 50-euro drop off fee to be "Paid at Counter." Did you have some special plan when you made your Hertz rental? (We are Hertz Gold members so perhaps our "special deal" is to have that extra fee! )

I have seen other posts on the Forum that say there is NO drop off fee for an in-country, other-return location rental within Croatia and we're wondering if having a drop-off fee is a change for 2015 -- or is there some 'secret' way to avoid the charge?

You might check economycarrentals.com. They are a wholesaler and you don't know which actual rental company you will get until you receive an email confirming your reservation. You can use them to get an idea of the price, though don't know if you can get a quote for more than one year in advance. The one way fees are included in the price and we have found them to usually be less expensive than other wholesalers or individual companies. We used them last year in Croatia, Mostar, and Montenegro and had no problem. We did indicate that we would need a cross border card which was included free of charge. We did, however, pick up the car in Croatia and return it in a different town in Croatia. We rented a car in Slovenia but returned it there and took the bus to Croatia to avoid the costly fee of returning it to a different country. Depending on where you are going in Croatia you may be able to plot a circular route including Mostar and returning to Croatia and then take the bus to Slovenia and get another car there. Hope this was of some help.