Renting a car in Ireland and returning it in the UK

kierkegaard

OK,

So Ive no idea if this is the right forum to put this in, so apologies up front if I'm in the wrong place.

I'm moving back to the UK in December and since I no longer have the car I had when I moved here I need to rent a car/van to take all my crap back home.

My question is, does anybody know if there's a car/van rental place that'll let me rent one in Dub and return it in the UK? I've tried a couple and none of them seem best pleased about the idea.

Any help or advice is really appreciated.

colm_mcm

Have you priced getting your stuff put on a pallet?

kierkegaard

colm_mcm wrote: »

Have you priced getting your stuff put on a pallet?

I hadn't, any idea how much it might cost or recomendations for companies to use? Honestly unless it's a real saving I'd rather just rent a van and do it myself, but I'm keeping my options as open as I can.

flazio

Buy this for €600 (It's taxed and NCT)
http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/opel-zafira/5896807
Move your stuff
Sell to a scrap dealer over in the UK.

wexie

Even if you'd found a place that'd be happy doing this (the larger rental companies might) you'd probably find it to be quite expensive.
I rented a car in Birmingham and left it in Manchester, paid over £50 for the priviledge so I can only imagine how much they'd charge between countries. (that was with Avis btw but the charge seems fairly standard)

bazz26

flazio wrote: »

Buy this for €600 (It's taxed and NCT)
http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/opel-zafira/5896807
Move your stuff
Sell to a scrap dealer over in the UK.

I hope the OP doesn't have a lot of stuff to move then.

colm_mcm

kierkegaard wrote: »

I hadn't, any idea how much it might cost or recomendations for companies to use? Honestly unless it's a real saving I'd rather just rent a van and do it myself, but I'm keeping my options as open as I can.

You could try VanTasks, a boards member Cormie is the main man there.

kierkegaard

flazio wrote: »

Buy this for €600 (It's taxed and NCT)
http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/opel-zafira/5896807
Move your stuff
Sell to a scrap dealer over in the UK.

That's plan D, but it's looking more and more tempting.

wexie wrote: »

Even if you'd found a place that'd be happy doing this (the larger rental companies might) you'd probably find it to be quite expensive.
I rented a car in Birmingham and left it in Manchester, paid over £50 for the priviledge so I can only imagine how much they'd charge between countries. (that was with Avis btw but the charge seems fairly standard)

Well so far the only website I've found which'll actually let me do this is avis and their cheapest quote I could find was over 1530 fecking euros!

bazz26 wrote: »

I hope the OP doesn't have a lot of stuff to move then.

I don't have a massive amount of stuff, but too much to schlep about on my back from one side of the sea to the other.

flazio

bazz26 wrote: »

I hope the OP doesn't have a lot of stuff to move then.

S/He did say they wanted a car/van to rent. Zafira's folding seats are a breeze to operate and with all seats folded away you are left with a nice spaced van, roughly equivalent to a Caddy.

Anan1

colm_mcm wrote: »

Have you priced getting your stuff put on a pallet?

Or even post it home?

wexie

kierkegaard wrote: »

Well so far the only website I've found which'll actually let me do this is avis and their cheapest quote I could find was over 1530 fecking euros!

**** me!! :eek:

kierkegaard wrote: »

I don't have a massive amount of stuff, but too much to schlep about on my back from one side of the sea to the other.

too much to fit in a transit?

http://www.donedeal.ie/commercials-for-sale/1997-ford-transit/5915871

kierkegaard

wexie wrote: »

**** me!! :eek:



too much to fit in a transit?

http://www.donedeal.ie/commercials-for-sale/1997-ford-transit/5915871

Definitely not too much to fit in a transit, I came over in a pretty small proton hatchback and I don't have that much more stuff, I just figured it'd be cheaper and easier to rent a car than buy one.

wexie

kierkegaard wrote: »

Definitely not too much to fit in a transit, I came over in a pretty small proton hatchback and I don't have that much more stuff, I just figured it'd be cheaper and easier to rent a car than buy one.

not at those prices!

I'd bet good money that if you put an ad on Donedeal tomorrow morning offering 1500 for someone with a van to drive your stuff to the UK, you'd have to switch off the phone to get some sleep.

keithclancy

Hertz do give a discount for returning cars to their country of origin.

http://hertz-transfer.eu/

However being an Irish resident they will not rent a non Irish plated car to you due to VRT.

So unfortunately in your case OP, its going to be horrendously expensive no matter what.

Unless you drive over and back again.

Buying a car might be a better option if you want to go down that route.

Theanswers

Put everything on a pallet. Ship it to your new address. Roughly 140 Euro and will be there within three days.

guttenberg

Have you considered getting the bus to Belfast and seeing if any of the rental places will offer you one way rentals? car will only briefly be leaving the UK.

ImDave

Most of the main car rental companies (Budget and Hertz for certain anyway, Avis may be different) are operated by the Irish franchise owners, so they won't have any interest in renting a car for the purpose you have in mind. It is also in the Rental Agreement that the car can't leave the island of Ireland.

I would abandon the car rental idea and go with some of the suggestions offered by previous posters.

keithclancy

ImDave wrote: »

Most of the main car rental companies (Budget and Hertz for certain anyway, Avis may be different) are operated by the Irish franchise owners, so they won't have any interest in renting a car for the purpose you have in mind. It is also in the Rental Agreement that the car can't leave the island of Ireland.

I would abandon the car rental idea and go with some of the suggestions offered by previous posters.

You can ... there's just an extra surcharge.
Also, there's additional risk on the rental company in case it has to be recovered if something goes wrong (accident/breakdown etc)

So with that charge, plus the one way charge its equal to a lot of money.

Ain't cheap, Man with a van or Bulk Shipping would be cheaper.

ImDave

keithclancy wrote: »

You can ... there's just an extra surcharge.

I worked for Budget previously, and it was an absolute no on this. Maybe it was just Budget then but I know it is in the RA for Hertz but can't comment on them.

keithclancy

ImDave wrote: »

I worked for Budget previously, and it was an absolute no on this. Maybe it was just Budget then but I know it is in the RA for Hertz but can't comment on them.

Weird, I just got back from Ireland and the option was there to pay an additional cost for 'Going up North' or 'Leaving the Island' was with Europcar.

listermint

Ive used Paisley Freight in the past for pallet transport to / from UK.


Id have no issue recommending them at all.

Great service and it was around 135Euro at the time.

ImDave

keithclancy wrote: »

Weird, I just got back from Ireland and the option was there to pay an additional cost for 'Going up North' or 'Leaving the Island' was with Europcar.

They will all vary, I can only speak of the two companies I mentioned. The ability to drop off to a foreign country will depend on how the company is structured in terms of their franchise network etc.

keithclancy

ImDave wrote: »

They will all vary, I can only speak of the two companies I mentioned. The ability to drop off to a foreign country will depend on how the company is structured in terms of their franchise network etc.

https://www.hertz.co.uk/rentacar/productservice/index.jsp?targetPage=eurihlit.jsp&leftNavUserSelection=globNav_3_5_1&selectedRegion=Europe,%2520Middle%2520East%2520&%2520Africa

Note: RIH-LIT is permitted between Hertz locations in mainland UK. For rentals between Northern and Southern Ireland or between UK mainland and UK islands or continental Europe, please contact Hertz reservations. RIH-LIT may be restricted on some vehicles such as Hertz Prestige Collection.

Must have changed.

I do remember a few lads doing one ways with Hertz alright during that Ash Cloud thing.

ardmacha

If someone rents you a car and you drop it odd somewhere else they'll basically have to send someone to bring it back unless someone happens to be going the other way. As noted for customs reasons an Irish resident could not drive a UK car and a UK resident an Irish car so that would rule out many possibilities of someone bringing it back.

keithclancy wrote:

Weird, I just got back from Ireland and the option was there to pay an additional cost for 'Going up North' or 'Leaving the Island' was with Europcar.

Going somewhere in a car and bringing it back is not the same as dropping it off somewhere. Charging extra for going to the North is just price gouging, charing extra for going abroad reflects the fact that you might decide to leave it there.

keithclancy

ardmacha wrote: »

Going somewhere in a car and bringing it back is not the same as dropping it off somewhere. Charging extra for going to the North is just price gouging, charing extra for going abroad reflects the fact that you might decide to leave it there.

I never said it was the same, was just answering regarding leaving the Republic.

Chimaera

I wouldn't bother pursuing the one-way rental option on this. To bring the vehicle back to its depot here they have to fly someone over there so they can drive it back on the ferry. So you've got a flight and a ferry booking to pay for, plus the employee's time, plus probably another employee's overtime to cover the one that's gone for the day to bring back that vehicle.

What you could do is find someone else who wants to bring stuff back from the UK in a van and share the rental with them.

Another option is a moving company: you're not the only person who needs to move a bunch of stuff over to the UK so you might be able to split a move with a few more people - it may even be that the moving company would have a list of small moves waiting to go together.

ImDave

keithclancy wrote: »

Must have changed.

I do remember a few lads doing one ways with Hertz alright during that Ash Cloud thing.

Fair enough, wasn't aware they would facilitate it. Cheers.

kierkegaard

Thanks for all the help and advice guys, I think I'll probably go with getting a pallet or two and shipping it over that way.