It’s no new thing that car rental companies are fond of having hidden fees on their rent, only shown to customers after the end of a rental period.
If you’re planning to rent a car from Turo, you might want to keep these fees in mind, to avoid making payments out of your budget in your next rental. This article covers a comprehensive breakdown of these fees.
Does Turo have hidden fees?
From Thrifty to Dollar and Budget car rental, we can see all these platforms do have hidden fees.
Obviously, they’re car rentals, which bills are paid in arrears after the respective rental period, a drive for the unnecessary extra charges (hidden charges) usually added to this bill.
But, for a car-sharing company like Turo, which bills are prepaid, do they also have hidden fees?
Yes. Turo does Have hidden fees and extra charges, even though rental bills are prepaid. You pay these fees by either deducting them from your deposit or paying it to the Hosts.
Below’s a typical video complaint about this:
Read on to the next section to find out this list of the most occurring of these fees.
Lists of Turo Hidden Fees for Customers
Of course, you’d want to know the list of these hidden fees so you don’t get stranded out of budget when you rent from Turo. Below they are:
Cancellation and Non-refundable fee:
Even though Turo has a straightforward cancellation and refund system that allows you to easily cancel a trip all on mobile, without having to contact customer service, it’s still a bit strict.
According to the company’s cancellation policy, you’re required to cancel a Trip 24 hours before the rental period, otherwise, you have to pay a percentage of your trip fee.
Read also: When does Turo charge your card for a trip?
In more detail, it would cost a daily average fee of your booking to cancel a trip less than 24 hours before the reservation is due, even without having to use the car.
Underage fee (Young Driver fee)
If you’re below 25 years, then you must be familiar with the restriction under 25 years have when renting cars. From being limited to certain cars, up to the extent of having to expensive fees.
Generally speaking, Turo is not generous when it comes to its young driver fee, relative to other car rental companies.
On Turo, you have to pay a $50 young driver fee if you’re aged between 18-21. On the other hand, people between the ages of 21–25, are also required to pay up to $30 in young driver fees.
Note that this fee is calculated by the multiple of days you booked the car.
So for instance you are 20 years and booked a car for 5 days, the total young driver fee sums up to $100.
Dropoff and pickup fee
If you do select a pick-up location where you’d like to pick up your rental car, you’d be required to pay an extra fee for that.
If you did this when booking the car, it’ll be added to the trip cost, which is almost not invisible.
However, if you request a pickup service after booking the car, you’d be required to pay a “pickup fee.”
This is no new thing, as it is being practiced by many companies. It’s just worth keeping in mind.
Toll charge
According to Turo, you’re responsible for paying any extra charges incurred while driving. This includes any form of ticket, like parking tickets, moving violations, and even driving charges like Tolls.
Always make sure to check for a transponder device on the Turo’s car, because in most cases, the Host must have installed one on the car’s windshield.
If you fail to do this and pay manually in the traffic, you could end up paying double for charges if there’s actually a transponder installed.
This is because the Transponder must have recorded the tolls itself, resulting in extra charges for the Host.
It’s also worth mentioning that Turo doesn’t charge extra bills for administration.
But if the Hosts require their effort to make the reimbursement possible, you’ll be charged 3% for the processing fee.
In essence, you should be ready to easily pay off any toll fee you’re guilty of.
Sales Tax
Recently, we’ve noticed fees like “Sales tax” coming up on the checkout page for most people after booking a trip on Turo.
Here’s what it looks like:
Well, there’s no general rule as to how this fee is determined. However, the basis of it depends on your location.
Late return fees
If you keep a Host’s car for more than 2 hours past the trip’s scheduled time, you’re liable to pay a late return fee.
According to the company, the general charge for late returns is $20. This could also be more if the car stays above 24 hours or more.
Now, this is dependent on the Host. But you should expect to pay this amount when you drop off a car at least 2 hours late.
Cleaning violation fee
Tuo doesn’t check the state of a car when returned, unlike car rental companies.
However, they would only act on a cleaning offense when a Host makes a report for it, which they can only do within a time limit of 72 hours.
If it is found that you’re guilty of messing the car up, you’ll have to pay a cleaning violation fee of $150 in addition to a 3% processing fee.
Extra Miles
The official mileage limit on Turo is a maximum of 200 miles or 300km per day. However, this actually depends on the car and Host you book the car from.
If you should exceed the given limit on your trip, you’ll be charged by the Host, peradventure they tracked or limited it.
How much is this?
The extra mileage is calculated by the initial mile/the average trip daily price all multiplied by the extra miles you took.
How you can avoid Turo’s Hidden fees
- Avoid drop-off and pickup services
- Booking a trip on a car-sharing service like Turo is expensive for underage. You might want to avoid these.
- Always keep up with the return time of your trip
- Make sure the car is clean before returning them
- Take a picture of the interior and exterior of the car before returning
Final Thoughts
Over the years, Hidden fees have been growing popular among several companies.
In the Car rental industry, they now contribute a big percentage to most companies’ earnings, making them almost inevitable.
However, Hope you find our Turo Hidden fees list. Thanks!
