There is often a time when most of us will need to hire a car or van for a short period of time. This may be due to your vehicle being in for service or repairs or possibly to assist you with moving house. Whatever the reason you need to be aware of the contract that you are agreeing to when hiring a vehicle and make sure that you shop around for the best prices.

Most companies will hire vehicles out on a daily rate, be sure to check what the price quoted includes, such as VAT, insurance and breakdown cover etc. I was surprised when I recently hired a vehicle to find out that it was not covered for breakdown unless I paid an additional fee. What also surprised me was that the excess on the insurance policy was set at £1000 unless I was willing to pay an additional £12 per day to bring it down to £100.

Once you have all the information about additional costs etc you can then make a true comparison between companies to see who is actually offering the best rate for car or van hire.