How car hire companies design for fear

The art of the anxious checkout

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This week I’m in Slovenia for some cycling and fresh air 🏔️ As I was booking the car hire, I came across what is possible the most psychology-dense page I’ve ever seen.

I’m using DiscoverCars - who’ve been reliable on past trips. The UX flow goes:

• Search for a location and date
• Click a car from the list
• Get to details + checkout page all in one
• Payment verification
• Done ✅

That means the checkout page is doing a lot of heavy lifting:

• Helping you double-check key details (date, location, car size)
• Showing social proof and reassurance
• And (most importantly for them) encouraging you to select add-ons

I want to zoom in on the most psychology-dense part of the page: full insurance coverage.

Most people know it’s cheaper to buy annual third-party cover than pay per rental. Which means this part of the page has to work extra hard to convince you.

And it does that through one clear lever: fear.

There’s over ten psychological principles at play on this page 🤯 (You may be able to spot even more). Here’s what I see:

• Loss aversion: losing £875 feels scarier than showing gains.
• Anchoring Effect: £6 per day feels like a small price to avoid a large loss
• Pessimism bias: by showing the bashed up car, this exacerbates our tendency to overestimate the bad things that can happen (in this case, when driving).
• Anti-charm pricing: instead of softening the number, the exact figure (£875.00) makes the risk feel concrete and scarier.
• Framing: Framing is when our decisions are influenced by the way information is presented. The copy frames this decision as an emotional choice.
• Nudges: all the little icons of shields, warning signs and stars nudge us away from the hazard ⚠️ and towards the protected, verified choice 🛡️⭐️
• Cognitive overload: the exhaustive list is overwhelming, and makes the decision not to take up insurance feel risky. More listed risks make driving feel dangerous.
• Contrast effect: This is where our perception of something is distorted when we compare it to something else. The yellow bar reframes the insurance decision as a smart, cost-saving choice, which is a breath of fresh air and relief.
• Bandwagon effect: By showing reviews and user counts (‘8 out of 9 people would choose this again’) people trust the decision, and flock to safety in numbers.
• Social proof: The proof points within the reviews ‘requesting a refund is easy’ and ‘very simple and smooth’ help the user see this as a wise decision, backed by others.

What’s most interesting here is not the number of principles (whilst that’s impressive), instead it’s how psychological principles are turned on their heads.

A lot of these are anti-biases, using our customer psychology against us:

• Anti-charm pricing instead of charm pricing.
• Pessimism instead of optimism bias.
• Overload instead of clarity.

Each one chips away at rational decision-making. You start the checkout feeling in control, but end up choosing insurance just to make the anxiety stop.

In terms of UX, it’s impressive, if a bit anxiety-inducing.

Fear is clever design, but it’s not kind design.

In any case, somehow, I managed to say no.

I’d already bought a £12 annual policy, so that £48 add-on from DiscoverCars didn’t feel so comforting anymore.

Off to do some cycling now! Catch you next week 🚲🚲

Rosie 🚲

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