Rental Car Mileage Charge: Avis Billed 18,000 Miles

A rental car mileage charge for almost 18,000 miles in one week landed on a Toronto renter’s bill this fall. Avis charged about C$5,900 for 28,933 km that nobody drove, and it took a TV newsroom to get it fixed. I read the three reports on the case, then checked Avis’s own help pages and the dispute rules from the CFPB and Canada’s consumer agency. Below is what happened, why the number cannot be right, and what I would do before and after any rental.

I wrote this on Oct. 24. Avis says it is processing a refund, and I found no report yet that the money has landed.

What the Avis rental car mileage charge looked like

Yuehao Huang flew from Toronto to Montreal on Sept. 11 and picked up a prepaid Avis car for a seven-day family trip, per CityNews Toronto. The route ran through Montreal, Mount Tremblant, Ottawa and back to Quebec. Huang’s iPhone tracked about 1,400 km (870 miles) for the whole week, and that total included time on foot while hiking.

Then the bill arrived. Avis added about C$5,900 on top of the more than C$1,000 already prepaid, saying the car had covered 28,933 km (17,978 miles). Road & Track puts that at roughly US$4,200, while MoneyWise says $4,300. The conversion differs a little between outlets, but the size of the charge does not.

Next came the part that bothered me most. Huang sent in the phone data, and Avis agreed to investigate. Weeks later there was no refund, and Huang was told to submit the complaint again. Huang also disputed the charge with American Express. According to CityNews, Amex replied that Avis had told it the charges were valid.

Only after CityNews contacted Avis did things move. Within a day, Avis said: “Following a thorough review, we confirmed that a data entry error resulted in the customer being incorrectly charged for excess mileage.” The company added that it was processing a refund and reinforcing its procedures.

Why the 28,933 km figure could not be real

You do not need the car’s data to see the problem. Road & Track did the division: a week has 168 hours, so the billed distance means an average of about 172 km/h (107 mph) with no stops at all. CityNews framed it as roughly 4,100 km a day. Huang added one more point, that a car which really drove 28,000 km would need an oil change and maintenance.

The speed check anyone can run

Here is the same check in a table. The first two rows come from the reports, and the third row is my own yardstick for a hard day behind the wheel.

What we are measuring	Total distance	Per day (7 days)	Non-stop average speed
Huang’s phone log	1,400 km	200 km	8 km/h
A hard driving day, 10 hours at 90 km/h (my assumption)	6,300 km	900 km	38 km/h
What the Avis bill claimed	28,933 km	4,133 km	172 km/h

The formula is short. Divide the billed distance by the number of days, then divide it by days times 24 to get the non-stop speed. By my math, the bill was about 21 times the phone’s total. As a rule of thumb, anything above 1,000 km per day on a normal vacation deserves a second look.

How a rental car mileage charge goes wrong

Avis blamed a data entry error but did not say what was typed wrong, and I could not find a public explanation. Mileage is normally the odometer reading at return minus the reading at pickup, so one wrong digit would be enough to create a number like this. That is my guess, not something Avis confirmed.

Also, this is not a first. MoneyWise points to a 2022 case in which Avis charged another customer an extra $6,000 for driving more than 23,000 miles in three days.

The contract matters too. Avis says most rates include either unlimited mileage or a set allowance per day, week or month, and driving past the allowance adds a per-mile charge, per its reservations FAQ. Huang’s rental clearly had an allowance, since Avis said the mileage had gone past what was prepaid. So the first question on any booking is which kind of rate you have.

Rental car mileage charge checklist for your next trip

None of this is hard, but each step takes under a minute. Together they give you the evidence Huang wished he had.

When	What to do	Why it helps
At booking	Find the mileage line: unlimited, or an allowance with a per-km or per-mile rate. Screenshot it.	Avis says the allowance, if any, is shown when you pick a rate.
At pickup	Photograph the dashboard so the odometer and fuel gauge show in one shot. Walk around the car and take a few more.	Huang took a return photo but none at pickup, and said a pickup photo would have made the dispute easier.
On the trip	Keep your phone’s location history on.	Huang’s 1,400 km figure came from his iPhone, so it was his main proof.
At return	Photograph the odometer again and ask for the closed receipt.	The return reading is half of the mileage math.
After the trip	Pull the final receipt within a week and compare it with your card statement.	Disputes have deadlines, so a bad number is cheaper to catch early.

One Avis detail is useful here. Per its customer service FAQ, the e-receipt can take up to 7 days after return to appear, and copies stay online for six months. I only checked Avis, so other companies may work differently.

Disputing a wrong rental car mileage charge

If the bill is wrong, work on two tracks at once: the rental company and your card issuer. Waiting for the company to answer while the card deadline keeps running is a real risk, and Huang’s weeks of waiting show how that goes.

• Ask the company for the itemized receipt that shows the odometer at pickup and return, plus the rate.
• Email your evidence in one message: the speed math, your photos and your phone’s location history. Also write down dates, names and the outcome you want, which is what the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada suggests before any complaint.
• Contact your card issuer right away instead of waiting for the company to reply.

If your card is American

The CFPB says to call or file online, then send written notice as soon as possible and no later than 60 days after the statement showing the error was sent. First, the issuer has 30 days to confirm it received your letter. Then it gets two more billing cycles to finish the investigation. Meanwhile, you do not have to pay the disputed charge, but you still owe the rest on time.

If your card is Canadian

Canada works differently. The FCAC does not resolve individual complaints, so you start with your bank. Your bank must give you a detailed written response within 56 calendar days, and if you are not satisfied you can take it to the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments. Visa, Mastercard and Amex have their own chargeback rules, and I did not find time limits for those, so ask your issuer on day one.

Rental car mileage charge errors and who should fix them

What stays with me is that the number was impossible on its face, yet it survived two complaints to Avis and a review at Amex. A typo can happen to anyone. But a system where nobody questions 4,100 km a day for a week is the real problem, and I would say the rental companies are better placed to fix it than their customers.

Still, the customer-side lesson is clear. Huang advised photographing the car before and after, no matter how much you trust the company. I would add one thing: when you dispute, give the issuer a one-page summary with the speed math and the photos, so the person reading it does not have to work it out. That is my suggestion, not an official rule.

Also, I do not love that the fix came after a news crew called. If you are planning holiday trips, my post on holiday airfare covers the other big travel cost.