Location: Alaska Recap: A few months ago, I rented a car from a small, regional rental car company with a rental period of about 20 days. One weekend, I took the car on a gravel highway, which was prohibited by the contract and the company knew because they had a GPS tracker on the car. The fee for breaking this part of the contract is a $300 fee for EACH DAY OF THE RENTAL PERIOD and since it happened 15 days into the rental, the rental car company is threatening a $4500 fee. More Detail: It was a last minute rental and I did all the paperwork and signed the contract on my phone in the airport on the way to Alaska, so needless to say I didn't read every word very carefully in the contract. My flight got in late so when I picked up the car, I used the lockbox and never talked to a customer service rep when I checked out the car. There was never any verbal acknowledgement to the restriction in the contract. The trip on the gravel highway was uneventful and there was no damage to the car, which I can back up with pictures. After the trip, the rental car company called and informed me that they knew we took the car into a restricted area and would be assessing fees. I immediately admitted that it was a genuine mistake and did not mean to break the contract. I also offered to pay the $300 fee for one day, due to my negligence. They said they would assess the car for damages when I returned it and go from there. I returned the car a few days later (again after-hours) and traveled home. Multiple days passed with no communication so I called them about 5 days later and asked for an update. They said they still had not assessed the car because they were "backed up with many rental returns." Fast forward about two months with zero communication and I get an email demanding $4500 for fees per the contract and no mention of damages to the car. They also said that they'd be sending the balance to collections in 1 week if I did not pay. What are my options here? That fee seems completely unreasonable for the situation. I acknowledge that I didn't read the contract and would like to make it right, but the fact that the car is completely undamaged and they are still trying to collect this huge fee is extremely greedy and unprofessional. I'd like to negotiate with them to come to some sort of settlement fee that is reasonable, but they are not willing to negotiate. How legally binding is that contract? Is there any sort of protection against unreasonable fees like this? Will they really send this balance to collections or could it just be a bluff? Any possible ideas of where to go from here would really be appreciated. Thank you.