A cautionary tale on refilling charges for a full to full car hire from Barcelona Airport
Recently returned from a trip to Spain where I'd returned my hire car with a full tank.
Shortly afterwards I received an invoice for the hire which included an extra 51 euro charge for refilling, this consisted of a refilling surcharge of 23 euros with the remainder for fuel; this was charged to my credit card.
I queried this with the hire company, stating that I'd refilled before setting out on my journey and that the car wouldn't have used the amount of fuel I'd been charged for on the trip and that I had then topped up the car near the airport.
The hire company have subsequently agreed to refund the payment. However it would have been difficult for me to provide proof the car was full on return; at best I could have dug out the fuel receipts or proof of payment.
In future I shall take a picture of the fuel gauge on return as well as trying to ensure that the car is very low on fuel before refilling prior to return and making sure I keep the receipt from the filling station.