WHAT'S THE STORY WITH UNEXPECTED CAR HIRE CHARGES?After returning his car late one evening to a Spanish airport in what he thought was pristine condition, a Pricewatch reader who contacted us recently was surprised when a member of staff took the keys and crawled under the car with a torch.

There was a dent under the car, a dent which would cost him serveral hundred euro.

He was mystified as to how she knew exactly where to check for damage and was deeply suspicious that the damage had been done before he'd taken possession of the car. His insistence that he was not responsible for the dent fell on deaf ears and, because he had already signed a form agreeing to cover any damage, there was very little he could do to stop the money being debited from his credit card account.

He had not been the only person complaining about car hire companies in recent weeks. Another reader used a website to hire a car in Cork at what he thought was a very good daily rate of €34. He drove the car less than 50km to his destination, parked it for the day and then returned it to the rental depot, only to be billed more than twice what he had been expecting once all the "extras" were factored in.

Someone else who contacted us was mystified when asked to pay over €70 for a child seat when the car hire itself cost little more than that and another reader was fuming when he returned his car to an Italian airport 10 minutes after it was due back and was hit with another full day's rental.

Several others complained about the practice, common amongst all car hire companies, of charging ridiculously punitive rates for petrol unless you return the car practically overflowing with fuel.

A sense of powerlessness connects all the correspondence we have got recently about car hire companies. It doesn't matter how vociferously you complain to them, the companies have your credit card details and can bill you pretty much whatever they want, when they want, without you having anything by way of comeback.

Earlier this year the European Consumer Centre (ECC) published a report into the car rental sector and its findings were less than flattering. "Credit cards are charged for damages that the consumer did not cause. In many cases, consumers are not even notified that their credit card is debited and they are not given any chance to clarify the position," it found.

The ECC received 117 complaints against car rental companies last year. It said people were not aware of the need to carefully inspect rental cars when picking up and returning them and said contract terms "could in certain cases be considered unfair", as they placed a much higher liability on the hirer than the trader.

"Car rental companies should not be allowed to charge consumers' credit cards without providing an appropriate explanation of the charges," the report said, and it called on rental companies to provide checklists to be filled out by the customer before the car is hired, with clear information on possible consequences.

The problem is that many people collect their rental cars in a rush and don't fully understand what they are getting into, both literally and metaphorically. Contracts give the hire company the right, without "specific consent", to deduct any subsequent charges it believes it is entitled to. Once the near-blind contract is signed, it is binding, and credit card companies rarely issue refunds in the event of a dispute arising.

THE CAR RENTAL sector puts around 22,000 new cars on the road every year and there are approximately 10 major companies doing business in Ireland, many of which are operated as franchises by major car dealers dotted throughout the country.

It is big business but there is no regulatory authority which has responsibility for the sector. The head of the Car Rental Association of Ireland, Paul Redmond, says he is frequently called on to intervene in disputes between consumers and the businesses he represents.

"A lot of the cases I have investigated are when the person returns the car outside of office hours in a place where they are not supposed to," he says. Some cars are subsequently damaged and the driver is hit with a savage bill.

Redmond says the most important thing is to carry out a thorough inspection of the car in the presence of rental staff so there is agreement on the state of the car before it is hired. People "should make sure they leave back the car during office hours - people leaving it back in the middle of the night leave themselves exposed".

Another major gripe is the potentially misleading prices that are advertised on car rental websites. While a price of €34 for a day's car rental may seem attractive, the chances of getting it for such a nominal sum are minuscule. Charges which are frequently left out of the original quote include airport surcharges, Vat, insurance and breakdown cover, all of which see the prices increase dramatically.

Redmond says many people are trying to hire cars "on the cheap without proper waivers and insurance". He says that there are a lot of small-time and large-scale brokers operating online which are driving down the top-line prices but they sell very spartan deals which create a false sense of expectation amongst customers.

"Companies are not supposed to sell a product without the taxes in place. I am not saying that everyone does, but they are supposed to. The waivers are all optional and whether or not people take them out depends on the risk they want to take." He says airport surcharges are "identified in the terms and conditions and normally when someone books directly with the rental company they get a confirmation in which they will also be given details of the surcharges. This doesn't always happen when you book with brokers."

Brokers are the third parties who are, Redmond says, responsible for creating problems in the sector. "Rental companies have found themselves competing with brokers who are advertising very low lead rates. This forces the rental companies to do the same. But we are living in that sort of world and people need to be aware of that when they are making bookings."