How Not To Fall For Costa Rica Car Rental Scams

Is the promo link still working? I am heading over to CR and looking to rent. Thanx!

BEWARE! I never post reviews but needed to in order to save others from the horrible experience we just had at Payless at the San Jose airport in Cost Rica. I reserved our car through the Payless web site and was given a rental price of $267.00 USD. I have rented cars many times before (but not from this location) and this was a fair price. When I arrived at the car rental in San Jose to pick up the vehicle, Payless tells me that there is an ADDITIONAL $338.60 charge for their required insurance!! There was no option to NOT pay this! Apparently, they said that their Payless branch is a franchise so they need to charge all of their car rentals this additional fee. Our rental bill came to an incredible $605.60!!! Begrudgingly, we had no choice but to go ahead with this. To make matters worse, the car we received was a piece of crap. There were so many dents/scratches to the exterior that we had to video the car’s exterior because it was easier than taking photos of each mark. The interior seats were also ripped. The USB charger did not work and there was no cigarette lighter so there was no way to charge phones on our long drives (which we needed for directions). The car engine was extremely underpowered so the car could not perform like the four wheel vehicle we had rented. I am thankful my family made it through the Costa Rican roads safely. In addition, it ate through gas. BUT…the saga continues…when we returned the car we got lost and were late making it to our flight. We called Payless and the person we spoke to was very helpful. He said to save time, leave the car at the departure gate and they are sending someone to pick it up. He said they do this and it is “not a problem”. My husband did what the man said and waited with the car as long as he could for the Payless person to pick it up. We end up making our flight and when we returned home called Payless to make sure everything was ok. Come to find out they are now charging us an ADDITIONAL $679.98 because they said the car got a police ticket. I can’t see how this could happen since we left the car where they told us and it was there at most two-four minutes from the time my husband left it until Payless picked it up! It seems like a complete SCAM to us. We must not be the first Payless victims of this. AND, who ever heard of a $679.98 parking ticket?? YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!! So beware…do NOT rent a car from Payless at the San Jose airport!!! Trust us! We are normal people like you and never imagined this would happen to us! I want to warn others so they don’t get scammed like we did. Shame on this company for ruining the Costa Rican tourism their country works SO HARD on and the Costa Rican people/economy depends on. Our $267.00 rental ended up costing us $1,285.58 and it was an unsafe car!!

WARNING: Take photos AND video of your car when you pick it up to document condition. I just rented a 4-wheel drive from Ace Rental Car in San Jose. Booked it through Expedia for $369 for 13 days. Read all of Nikki’s articles on insurance and ended up buying some hefty insurance package (Titanium Protection Package) for $376. With all the additional fees, total was $849.
ATTEMPTED SCAM: When I returned the car in Liberia, the agent said, “Oh there is damage to the car. This piece is missing from the luggage rack….” AND he showed me a picture on his phone that purportedly showed the car when I had picked it up with the [missing] piece. ACTUALLY he was showing me a picture which WAS NOT MY CAR. I had the picture on my phone of my car, which showed the luggage rack with the missing piece. AFTER I showed him that, the agent turned his computer monitor toward me and showed me the same picture on his computer, corroborating my photo. WHAT A CROCK! If i hadn’t had the REAL photo on MY phone, and called him on his shit, he would have never shown me his computer screen which was on the whole time. So…. caveat emptor. ACE RENTAL tried to screw me. But I was prepared with extensive pictures I took when I picked up the car. YMMV … or not.

Hi, thanks for the useful tips. I am some days here in CR and a little bit bothered by high prices for everything even though local people have a small average income. I wanted to rent in LOW season for FIVE days only a car in Uvita and the prices range from 100 (for a 2wd) to 200 Dollars (4wd) per DAY. I find that that ridiculous and kind of a scam. They know that its hard to get around without a car so they can get away with it?

Hello,
please do you have anyone experience with FAST RENT A CAR rental.
Or you have a tip for a good local rental (I’m not interested in international agencies).
Thank you

I just returned from a trip. My mom has been using the local Tico company solid rental for many years. There’s always an issue this time the mini Toyota suv she was given had a dead battery. Since they were sold out of cars the man had to bring a new battery. No one showed them where the 4×4 button was on the rental. My mom complained multiple times and the company couldn’t help her find the 4×4 or send her another suv as at this time she was in pavones. Then a week later I flew in and took an Uber from sjo to hermosa. ( one tip when using Uber at the airport is go upstairs to departures) then I took another Uber from jaco to pavones. I immediately found the 4×4 on the rental and assured my family they could use the four wheel drive if needed now.

My aunt ended up getting national rental to bring a another rental from the golfito or paso conejos office to drive back to sjo. This was a brand new rav4 4×4 much nicer suv and the company had a better customer service procedure.

You can get cars delivered or you can leave them at domestic airports around Costa Rica just beware you ask the extra fee first.