I rent cars often from Holiday Autos. They're especially good for US expats heading back home, because you get all inclusive insurance coverage that I find can be hard if you go through Hertz and some of the other players. This is really, really important to pay attention to.

When I first came to the UK, I already had CDP discount codes with Hertz, as well as being a Hertz Number One Club Gold member. When I'd do a trip back home, I'd get a rate that often wasn't all inclusive, since Hertz seemed to assume that I had my own insurance.

US residents know that your own car insurance often covers you for other cars you drive. UK insurance doesn't work that way, not even in the UK. It covers you to drive a particular car. So good insurance coverage is essential.

I'm about to rent a car for another trip back to the US, so I'm going to check up on Hertz and see how easy it is to ensure I'm getting an all inclusive rate on their web site. In the past, it's been disappointing. I end up having to call Hertz direct, to be absolutely sure of what I'm getting.

Alternatively, I go with Holiday Autos. They're often cheaper, plus the inclusive policy is all spelled out. They've clearly got a long history of working with Brits going over to the US who are worried they'll face a big liability bill if there's an accident.

The downside to Holiday Autos tends to be the lines. They simply resell cars for other rental agencies. In my experience, this tends to be Alamo -- but you won't know in advance. On my last trip back to Search Engine Strategies San Francisco in August, the line was a nightmare. There was easily 20 or 25 people in front of me, and it took about an hour to go through.

I didn't mind, because I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere and I'd learned to expect this. I cracked open my paperback and had a good read. But others who came out to SF to play tourist, it wasn't so fun for them. They saved some money, but they wasted lots of time. Worst of all was for those with small kids. The rental terminal at San Francisco is boring, and in the middle of summer, hot. You renting with Holiday Autos and going to San Francisco in the summer? Make sure the kids have something to play with (I recommend a Nintendo DS) and pack plenty of water.

I just used Holiday Autos again over New Year's and had a real bad experience. I booked the car on Dec. 26 for a Dec. 29th trip to Munich. I was told it couldn't be confirmed, and that it would take up to two days to do so. OK, I called Hertz and reserved a car over there, just in case. Two days pass and no word from Holiday Autos. So I go to the web site, fill out the submission form and ask if I do have a reservation. I suspect I do, since they billed my card. But I didn't have any voucher to go with it.

Come the 29th, no word. We flew, arrived, and I felt OK knowing that I had Hertz as a backup. But just in case, I went over to the Alamo desk to see if they had a Holiday Autos reservation for me. Yep, and with a short call, I was all set. FYI, the voucher from Holiday Autos arrived in the mail this week, well past when I needed it. As for getting a customer service response, I'm still waiting.

It was also kind of a bummer to be told I had to pay about 80 euros more to get a car with winter tires. I suspect that if I had gone with Hertz, which was about that much more expensive than my original booking, the car would have had these as standard. In fact, you'd think by default, Alamo would want all their customers driving cars with winter gripping tires.

One other issue I had with Holiday Autos was a trip two years ago to Munich that was handled both good and bad. I was parking and pulled into something that dented the bumper, some metal thing or another I couldn't see. I had to pay the 500 euro excess, but Holiday Auto covered that through a refund process. That went smoothly, so kudos except for one thing. By the time they processed it, the euro-pound rate had changed. My refund turned out to be something like 470 euros, since the pound had dropped.

It was a small amount, but I still went back and said that if the policy was to cover the excess, they should have paid back exactly what I was ultimately charged, the full amount in pounds that hit my credit card. No luck. So be forewarned if you should for some reason hit a country with big currency fluctuations.

Overall, I'll keep with them likely if there's a huge cost difference. Otherwise, I'll pay a bit more for Hertz because I can cruise over to my reserved car, bypassing the lines because of my gold membership.

One last thing. Had to laugh at the Holiday Autos newsletter. If ever there was an argument for increasing usability by not relying on images, this is it:

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