Fillin' Up the Rental

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Story Published: Jun 26, 2008 at 8:07 PM MDT

Story Updated: Nov 20, 2008 at 10:53 PM MDT

By Rick Montañez

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If you think $4 a gallon is hard to hand over, try about $7, at least that's what many car rental companies will charge you when you return the car with an empty tank.

But, you do have two options to avoid paying almost double per gallon.

We called just about every car rental company in town and each one of them allows you to pay in advance to fill the tank on the rental, or they will charge anywhere from $5.50 to $7 a gallon.

"Its ridiculous."

In areas like east Idaho, travelers need a way to get around town and car rentals are key for some visitors. But with high gas prices, you might end up paying double for a tank of gas in the end.

"Normally, I fill up myself, otherwise they charge a high price."

By they, he means places like Avis and enterprise along with other car rental companies. When you return your car at the end of your rental with an empty tank the rental place needs to fill it and that cost will come from you.

I checked with every place in town, here are the charges:
Alamo and National will charge you a prepaid fee of $3.50, but that one has to be agreed to before you rent the car.
If you return it empty its $5.99 a gallon.
At Avis it's a little less than $3 prepaid and $7 without an agreement.
Budget is $3.99 pre and $5.99 post.
Dollar and Thrifty are around $3.75 to $4 pre and $6 post. Enterprise is $3.75 and $5.50.
And hertz is $6.19 per gallon post.

"I think that kinda sucks, but i guess that's their way of making extra money."

Which really isn't the case, a national survey claims that extra money goes to maintaining underground tanks at some rental lots.

Another problem renters are running into across the country, most economy cars are booked, leaving plenty of SUVs on the lots. But when I checked online at local stores, you can still rent those little gas friendly vehicles.

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