East Coast Car Rentals Questions & Answers

We paid for insurance with the booking which was with a 3rd party, East Coast Rentals then tried to sell insurance to my husband again. I have worked in Travel so understood that we had already paid for it. It appears the staff are on commission for insurance sold so don't really care if you pay it twice. We had to leave a credit card guarantee with East Coast Rentals which is released when the car is returned without damage.

Thank you

Did you book directly with East Coast or through a 3rd party booking agency? Sometimes difficult to tell the difference. Eg Rentalcars.com operates worldwide out of Switzerland. Most disputes are because people use booking agencies and then don't read the details sent to them by East Coast. I worked there and know how honest they are ..... NOT!

My understanding is that this should never apply for gazetted roadways in Australia.(Normal roads with normal traffic). Of course, rental companies can put all sorts of unreasonable restrictions on hire if they don't mind losing customers. Try another less-restricted company.

No just fill it with fuel before you return it or like most I suspect they will charge a filling fee. There is a petrol station next door to the rental depot, which was near the Gold Coast Airport. A shuttle comes to collect you at the airport but you need to ring and advise them you have arrived.

No only fill fuel tank. They hardly looked at the vehicle when I returned it, too busy getting rid of us so we couldn't ask questions about the refund of $1000 insurance bond on car.

Thanks guys ☺️

Hi SSS,
At Eastcoast car rentals customers are presented with 2 options at the time of pick up.

Option 1: Leave your current liability as $3300 in an event of multi vehicle accident or damage and $5500 in an event of single vehicle accident or damage. If you decide to take chances or if you have already purchased insurance with your third party booking agency and decide not to reduce your liability then the company will hold $1000 in your bank account as deposit. And NO they don't take $1000 from you, the amount is still in your account, frozen by your bank and the hold comes off within the specified number of days automatically.

Option 2: Reduce your liability to specified amount including cover on windscreen, tyres and other various unforeseen circumstances for the peace of your mind for some extra amount. And as per your question, if you decide to go for option 2, the company would not hold any deposit.

I hope this answers your question.

Hi, Idon't think i'm qualified to completely answer this question. All car hire companies require a bond fee - I thought East Coast required $5500 but may be wrong.
My problem with this company is being charged for emercency service when the vehicle would not start.

I have had good service from East Coast every time except last hire the car was not up to normal cleanliness and no problems with any extras added on . The $1000 bond is a held and returned to your bank within afew days. The $5500 fee is but can be reduced. The pickup and drop off points are outside the airports with transfer by van. Hope this helps you.

Hello,
you will be given two options on pickup.

Option 1: staying with standard excess (5500 for single vehicle accident, 3300 for multi vehicle accident). Here, east coast will require a Bond of AUS 1000.00.
Option 2: you reduce excess for an extra fee. In that case no bond is required.

Usually there is a excess reduction waver which you can get at the counter from East Coast. I had East Coast once through an German Agent and the excess (usually 3-5k) was covered by the agent. Maybe cartrawler has something similar? If not there are companies which an cover also the excess (e.g https://tripcover.com.au/ but I never tried it). East Coast take 20 AUD per day. If you rent for a longer period, a third party is significantly cheaper. We usually take the car for the weekend so the price is the same. Hope this helps.

Thanks Markus . It's helpful to me! Appreciated :) good day to u!

All you need to do is take out travel insurance and this will generally cover the excess for a hire car..eg. One weeks basic travel insurance was $34.00 or the waiver was about $130.00

You have come to the right place. This company has it all

East Coast Car Rental are Australian based...

what a shame, are you affiliated with any other car rentals in UK

Unfortunately they don't. but the good news is you can re-create the East Coast experience. From Heathrow, catch a bus to Caerphilly, Wales. Find a homeless person, and get them to yell at you. Then get into a dirty car. Then receive a 400 quid fine for road tolls that you thought you had paid but East Coast had not processed it properly, nor passed on the letters from the road toll company. Congratulations, you have recreated the East Coast experience.

My problem with them is this. If you get the smallest scratch they keep the $385 and you cannot get a quote for the damage. They do not reply to

Rent some where else. The internet booking mob are just as bad.

They were fantastic! Had a fantastic vehicle . Cheap on petrol. No dramas at all with 7 of us zipping round to theme parks. Get insurance through them as if you go via 3rd party, you then have to get it with them also which leads to confusion. Thank goodness I rang the rental car directly and got the ins and outs. Insurance for 4 days on an 8 seater ( which had less than 50.000ks) and extra driver was around $120.
Staff were friendly and very helpful. Will use them next trip !
Happy customer.