Car Rental in US (Florida)...

WetDaddy

My fiancée & I are going on our Honeymoon in September and we're hoping to rent a car in Florida at the end.

I have a full license and I've recently sorted myself out with a international driving license (better safe than sorry!). My only concern is that I passed my test this year and my license has an "Issued On" date of 5th of March 2008. I know that some rental companies have a policy stating the main driver must hold a full valid license for more than 1 year. However, some of the companies' terms and conditions don't make any mention of the amount of time a license must be held for, but rather that it simply must be a full license.

My fiancée actually works in car rental and she says that in her company, they rarely take notice of the start date of the license; instead, they just ensure it's full and that it's still in date. We both reckon that it might just be down to person working the rental desk on the day... But if I were to lose my Irish license today and have a replacement done up, wouldn't that say "Issued On: 25th of August 2008" or whatever?

Anyone have any insight into this? Any recommendations on a particular company to go with? I'm 27 by the way, so "young driver" rules shouldn't really apply.

L1011

Generally replacement licences have the date of first issue in the "from"/"to" validity boxes (although the date of reissue in the issued date field) - mine does.

I hired a car on a less than 1 year old licence but was paying a huge under-25 premium at the time anyway, so they likely waived any rules for that - or as you suggest, didn't look at all!

R.O.R

You may get someone on the desk who doesn't notice that the licence isn't valid for at least the 1 year minimum, and let you on your way.

Problem may arise if you are involved in an accident and have to call on the insurance. As it's stated in the terms and conditions that you have to be over X years old, and held a full valid drivers licence for more than 1 year, they wouldn't have to cover you.

WetDaddy

MYOB wrote: »

I hired a car on a less than 1 year old licence but was paying a huge under-25 premium at the time anyway, so they likely waived any rules for that!

Thanks for the reply, MYOB.

I'd say you're more than likely right with that. From what I understand, the people at the desk tend to have quite a good bit of leeway when it comes to changing insurance prices, upgrade prices, etc. I think a policy (ahem) of "we'll be taking full-insurance and a GPS, please" will probably be enough to keep them blind to the age of the license...

As a matter of interest, did you hire in the USA as well?

WetDaddy

R.O.R wrote: »

Problem may arise if you are involved in an accident and have to call on the insurance. As it's stated in the terms and conditions that you have to be over X years old, and held a full valid drivers licence for more than 1 year, they wouldn't have to cover you.

That's a good point. The problem is that some of the companies don't list any specific for an age of license on their terms and conditions. They just state a full license must be held.

On second thought, I suppose that isn't really a "problem" at all!

Henry Ford III

I've rented in USA and Florida literally dozens of times.

A full Irish license is all that's needed. Try www.argusrentals.com for prices. I've found them pretty good.

No affiliation.

Zube

MYOB wrote: »

didn't look at all!

This is likely, as most Americans seem to learn to drive around school age, they don't expect an adult to have just qualified. I've known people hire a car in the US with a provisional license, desk jockey didn't even ask.

As mentioned, it might be a problem after an accident...

WetDaddy

Henry Ford III wrote: »

I've rented in USA and Florida literally dozens of times.

A full Irish license is all that's needed. Try www.argusrentals.com for prices. I've found them pretty good.

No affiliation.

Unfortunately, I *do* have an affiliation... I used to code that site! That booking engine is dripping with my meticulously crafted ASP & PHP And I wouldn't give them a penny of my cold hard cash!

It is an easy site to use, but they're simply rental quote brokers. There is ALWAYS extra costs once you arrive at actual company's desk, so you're better off (if you can) going direct to the rental company.

But thanks for the post, good to know you'd no hassle license-wise!

WetDaddy

Zube wrote: »

This is likely, as most Americans seem to learn to drive around school age, they don't expect an adult to have just qualified. I've known people hire a car in the US with a provisional license, desk jockey didn't even ask.

As mentioned, it might be a problem after an accident...

This is all nice and reassuring. Seems unlikely that we'd have any problems. I will read the T&C for the company first though; if they don't say anything explicit about the length of time you've held a license, then there wouldn't be a problem after I drive the car into the Gulf of Mexico.

I'll keep an eye out though

Moonbeam

I rented a car for 3 weeks on a 6 month old licence this year:)
They don't seem to care once you are over 23.

I found carhire3000 are really good to book through.

craichoe

Its completely down to the company themselves,

It varies between 0 and 5 years, all of the big ones, Hertz, Avis, Budget, Argus etc have a policy of at LEAST 1 year. Best thing you can do is call and ask. The person you'll be dealing with will have a book showing the license details for each country. A replacment license still have the original date of Issue on it. Even if you exchange it for another European license it still has the date.

Basically just check with the company your renting with,

Savman

Heading to Florida ourselves soon and was wondering about this exact situation...thanks OP, now give back the mind reading device :pac: