I am so over rental car companies. We’re down to about 42 hours until our scheduled departure time, and I’ve been trying to confirm reservations and make sure all the loose ends are tied up so we don’t have any major surprises on the trip.

So everything is going well until I call the rental car company. First, the fees they tack on for additional drivers and age restrictions is simply ludicrous, to borrow my Aunt Amy’s phrase. As I should have expected, the price that was quoted to me when I made the reservation was missing some rather substantial fees. Think charges to the tune of $40-$60 a day for 12 days. You do the math. I’m a journalism major. All I know is that is NOT in the budget.

And to further complicate matters, there can only be one driver under 25 per rental. And my travel partners are both 21.

It came down to us losing one of our drivers, but all the fees for additional drivers and under 25 drivers are being waived. Now, Josh at Hertz doesn’t know I know that if one has a AAA membership the additional driver fees get waived anyway, and that Hertz has an additional special currently running where drivers under 25 get their fees waived. I’ll just let him keep thinking he’s my new BFF and be happy we’re not out any more money on the rental. 🙂