Car Hire Your Thoughts

Reputable companies, well certainly avoid Goldcar and Guerin like the plague. Google reviews will tell you they are legalised fraudsters. There are 3 modes of operation at Faro airport. The big six plus a few others truly operate out of the airport from a car hire compound acessed by an undeground tunnel from the first arrivals exit door. If you are looking for a bargain it's unlikely you will be going here. Don't be confused by all the lovely shiny hire car kiosks in the arrivals hall, these were put there when the airport was redeveloped 4 or 5 years ago. Of course they have never been used. Many of the budget companies claim to operate from the airport, which I guess is true because they are based in a portakabin in car park p4 a 400m walk from the terminal across all the other car parks. This might be OK in November but in holiday season it is chaos. There are a lot operating from here, they will each have only one agent there at a big long bar. Depending on the company they may have a uniform, they may not. You have to shout up to identify your company and then try and suss out which of the other waiting customers are waiting for the same guy as you. Here you will be paying budget prices and getting budget service. This usually means seeing the agent filling out the paperwork manually, making your various card payments and then he calls his mate on the phone who will deliver your car to the car park 5-10 mins later depending on how many customers he has. On quiet days the agent himself often disappears across the car park towards the petrol station across the road and returns with your car. Having said all of this I have used 6 companies from here and have never been ripped off and of course when you return the car for your flight home you are conveniently at the airport. The last mode is off airport which at Faro is no bad thing as most of the companies are on the airport approach road just 3-5 mins away. The common thing with all these companies is that they will try to upsell you full insurance. This is often twice the cost of the rental. I just did a search for 21 days in November and you can get a Fiat Panda, C500, VW Up for 5,62€ a day. a Seat Ibiza or VW Polo for 6.16€ a day to add full insurance is 5.80€ and 6.25€ per day respectively. So effectively doubling the hire cost. Of course you can buy Excess insurance for 35€ a year or as little as 9€ a trip. website Moneymaxim*

Just checked and they have changed the web site To   www.emovis-tag.co.uk

It works by registering your car going through one of the overhead gantries on the N125,

AJ that's great advice. Do you do this with hire cars? I looked into getting a Via Verde transponder which it says you can buy at a post office but when it said you had to link it to a card and a car, I backed off as I could see problems as the car hire company had already linked the car to one of theirs. Then presumably you would have to get the hire company to take theirs out so there wouldn't be two lots of charges?

As an after thought my tag is not registered to my car and there are no photos of the car going through the tolls, its all electronic via the tag.