Car rental cross-border fees, Spain to France and back to Spain?

In September 2019, we rented from Budget and drove Spain-France-Spain without additional fees.

Thank you!

While a fee can be charged, I’ve never been charged one. Just ensure you let the rental company know you will be crossing borders, otherwise it could affect the insurance.

Please let me know which car rental agencies you used! Thanks!

I’ve been going through through Costco to rent the vehicle when possible and the company is Enterprise.

After reserving your vehicle check back periodically to see if the rate goes down. Like airline fares, rates continually change. For example, for my upcoming trip the original rate was €750 for 22 days, but I re reserved the same class vehicle twice, most recently this morning, with the current price €610 and an automatic rather than a manual. I’ll continue checking back ever couple weeks.

We love Costco and prefer to rent with Enterprise when possible, but now Enterprise owns Alamo so I know their cross-border fee is 55 Euro, but so far the Car Rental rates on Costco seem comparable to Expedia and Priceline, which have some of the best rates. If you experience other advantages to renting a car through Costco instead of one of these, pls. let me know. And yes I always do check back periodically and change the reservation once the rate goes down. Thanks for your response!!

We plan to rent a car in Bilbao, drive through France along the Pyrenees and return the car in Girona. I assumed that if I rent the car in Spain and return it in Spain, I should be OK. I never thought I had to let the car company know I was going into France. Am I wrong?

In addition to everything above, be sure to check how tolls are paid in the additional
countries you would travel to. You may need to get a vignette or be vigilant to use
the manual lanes to pay tolls. Most likely the rental car company will not equip their
cars for traveling to neighboring countries.

Even though when renting through Costco there is a section that says there is a fee, I’ve never been charged (for Germany, Scotland, England, and Spain a few times) one.

One advantage of renting through Costco is one gets to have a second driver for free. Usually that’s €10 a day.

The last time I was on a toll road in Spain, there was a manned booth (farthest to the right) if you wanted a manned booth. Both card and cash were accepted for tolls in both manned and unmanned booths. I usually take back roads and avoid the toll ones.

No vignette is needed for either Spain or France. An IDP (you can get from AAA) is required for each driver although nobody will probably ever ask to see it. When picking up the vehicle the company will ask to see your passport and valid drivers license.

Remember, if you rent though a third party like Expedia or Priceline, if there is a problem you’ll need to go through that party to resolve the issue. I recommend renting directly through the company or Costco. With Costco you’ll receive both Costco and Enterprise/Alamo/National confirmation numbers.

Also, note that there are price differences even on the Costco site for the different companies, but same class vehicle. For example, the Alamo price for a compact SUV is often cheaper than the Enterprise price or vice versa. For my current reservation it started out with Enterprise, then I re reserved with Alamo, and this morning re reserved with Enterprise. If you do re reserve, after receiving confirmation, remember to cancel the previous one.

Good to know about free second driver with Costco thx!
My questions are about cross-border fees which apparently relates to the car rental agency you book with (Avis, Budget, Alamo, Enterprise etc. NOT who you book through (Costco, Expedia, Priceline etc.)
And when I did a booking with Hertz and with Alamo through Expedia and Priceline, I was told to contact Hertz and Alamo directly about the cross border fees, but their agents in the US did not seem to have an idea of the price and told me I had to call the rental offices in Barcelona directly.
I dropped the Hertz rental bc even though their cross border fee is cheaper (16 Euro) vs. 55 Euro at Alamo, one of the main travel websites has 40 reviews of Hertz in Barcelona and they all are only 1-star reviews, with lots of detailed stories of all kinds of terrible treatment of customers.

ALL of them say that you need to declare when you rent the car, you need to say when you pick it up that you are planning to cross the border into another country, otherwise you violate the rental contract.

But also I hear you saying that you have rented cars & you told them you plan to cross a border and they had no fee?
If so would love to know which rental companies these were! Particularly if you rented in Spain and then crossed a border into another country like France or Portugal? Thx very much!

Definitely inform the rent company that you intend to cross the border when picking up the vehicle.

But also I hear you saying that you have rented cars & you told them you plan to cross a border and they had no fee? - correct. I’ve never been charged, including my trips to Spain in 2017, 2023, and 2024. In 2017 we crossed into France and the other two we crossed into Portugal. Each time the rental company was Enterprise. In 2022 we stayed in Spain.

In 2023 we rented in Germany and went into France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. No charge. Again, the rental company was Enterprise.

In 2022 we rented in Scotland and went into England. Ditto the previous.

Although I’ve never been charged a fee, it wouldn’t be a deal breaker if I was. That fee is minimal when considering the cost of airfare, the rental car and insurance.