Renting a car in America is a consumer experience that’s fraught with pitfalls. Hidden fees and fine-print conditions abound. After publishing the frustrations people have had with new AI-based damage fees, somebody emailed us to share another rental car company “gotcha” that might not be on your radar: Extra charges for driving across a state border.
This week, an email came in complaining about a rental car service called Routes—a brand I personally hadn’t heard of, but one that does have quite a few agencies across the country. It also has a pretty deep catalog of reviews. Bad ones. As of this writing, it’s at 1.3 stars on TripAdvisor.
“I recently rented from ROUTES in Atlanta (slightly lower cost and wanted to support an upstart), but my savings were dwarfed by a change they have for leaving the state,” our reader told us [sic] over email. “Yes of course it is on the rental agreement, but under a category of Cross Boarder, which I assumed dealt with going into a foreign country like Mexico, Canada or maybe Texas. I had prepaid my rental and ten had zero option to resolve this. Oh and even though they have GPS on the car they charge me for every day of my rental, not just the ones that I was in South Carolina. The price for getting caught was $30 plus tax and the cost of paying up front was $21/day.”
I looked into this and, sure enough, an out-of-state driving fee is plainly stated in Routes’ rental policy, though I found it under the subheading “Geographic.” As the rental company states [sic]:
“Mileage: Unlimited mileage is offered only within the state where the vehicle is rented. Vehicles are not allowed to leave the state of the renting location without written permission otherwise, an out-of-state/state crossing fee will be applied up to $29.99 USD/per day. Please check with the agent at the time of pickup.”
Looks like Routes is following the RyanAir model of offering an ultra-low base price, then slapping fees on as many details as possible once you’re committed. Scammy? No. Scummy? Maybe a little. But the moral of the story here is that you absolutely positively have to read your whole rental agreement, especially when you’re going for a budget option on something like a car rental or flight.
I could totally see somebody hastily scrolling through the terms and conditions at a car rental counter, not realizing, or expecting, something as trivial as crossing a state border to incur an extra fee. Hence, my inclination to share this with those of you who might need to hire a car in the near future. I’ve certainly never heard of such a fee, and like the person who wrote in to us, if I saw a “cross-border” clause, I’d probably think that referred to driving to Canada or Mexico.
Stay vigilant, folks.
Run into any other rental car shenanigans like this? Drop the author a note at [email protected].
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