Car Rental in Ireland to drive in Europe.

soapbloggs

Hi,

I want to rent a car in Ireland to drive in Europe and back home again, I will be moving some stuff for a friend and double it up with a holiday. My questions is, which rental companies allow me to do this? Secondly, I don't have a credit card, so which companies accept a visa debit card from a high street Irish bank? If needed I can borrow a credit card, though I know I'd have to be a named driver, as the owner of the credit card has to actually be present at the car rental place and be the main driver.

Thanks for any help!

biko

Most rental companies, if not all, will allow you to take car anywhere within EU.
Now, they may add a huge cost on top and also pre-authorize your card for a grand or more.
Tbh, without a credit card it can get tricky indeed.

Start ringing round and state your case to the big companies in your area.

soapbloggs

Wow, that's some loading, a grand... I don't think there's such deposits hiring on the continent itself for cross border use, maybe a friend will help me get the stuff across the sea to France in their car and I'll hire a car in France from then on. I don't fancy risking a thousand bucks if I dinged it off a French motorist!

Stheno

The only rental company I know of who take debit cars are dooleys all the rest require a credit card

soapbloggs

Lean pickings!

Stheno

soapbloggs wrote: »

Lean pickings!

Yep and unless you take out their full insurance they will take a deposit of about 1200 to cover any excess

chicorytip

Enterprise Rent a Car also accept debit cards. As far as I'm aware though it's forbidden to drive a car which has been hired here (in the island of Ireland) overseas.

colm_mcm

AFAIK a lot of companies won't let you take the car abroad.

Stheno

chicorytip wrote: »

Enterprise Rent a Car also accept debit cards. As far as I'm aware though it's forbidden to drive a car which has been hired here (in the island of Ireland) overseas.

They don't any longer I last rented a month ago and two of the I branches refused to take debit cards

CiniO

colm_mcm wrote: »

AFAIK a lot of companies won't let you take the car abroad.

That seems to be the case unfortunately.
Most rental companies will let you take a car to NI, but no further.
I quickly looked up few T&C and that seems to be the case.

On the continent, option to take a car abroad is always possible, sometimes with extra charge - I recently paid 12 euro per week rental for option allowing me to take car abroad within Europe (excluding Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and few other countries).

soapbloggs

I wonder what is making the Irish rental firms so reluctant to rent for trips to the continent. Thanks to all the posts so far for your information, even though it's quite disappointing to hear about the lack of options.

Boskowski

soapbloggs wrote: »

I wonder what is making the Irish rental firms so reluctant to rent for trips to the continent. Thanks to all the posts so far for your information, even though it's quite disappointing to hear about the lack of options.

I'd say RHD is definitely a factor.

soapbloggs

I'm just thinking of options..in Europe I found it easy to organise car shares, I did this a few times and paid towards the petrol and tolls. I never could find one that had people travelling between Ireland and France though. Would anybody know by any chance if people travelling to the continent advertise this and where? In my case I just need it to a French port really and some space for a few boxes. I could then take a car hire from there I guess, seems a good option.

Thanks again for any help.

CiniO

soapbloggs wrote: »

I wonder what is making the Irish rental firms so reluctant to rent for trips to the continent. Thanks to all the posts so far for your information, even though it's quite disappointing to hear about the lack of options.

Probably as usual here fault is from insurance companies.
They impose some crazy unreasonable premium for anything out of standard, so maybe rental companies just decide that it's not worth it to allow customers to drive abroad considering cost of insurance would go up 10 times or something.
No such problems on the Continent.

biko

Hm yeah, I see this when I checked for sources.

http://www.budget.ie/terms/republic-of-ireland/
Budget cars can be driven into Northern Ireland without restriction but may not be taken outside the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland.

www.vanrentals.ie allows it http://www.vanrentals.ie/a__guide_to_taking_a_hire_van_or_truck_to_europe_.html
but you'll get screwed on insurance and you must have credit card.

soapbloggs

Thanks, yes, unfortunately the credit card and insane deposit..who the hell would risk a grand..well maybe there are a few but it ain't me for sure!

CiniO

Is not every car rental in Ireland based on deposit of around a grand or more?

Stheno

CiniO wrote: »

Is not every car rental in Ireland based on deposit of around a grand or more?

Not if you out their highest level of insurance it reduces the deposit to about a hundred Euro and costs about five Euro a day

CiniO

Stheno wrote: »

Not if you out their highest level of insurance it reduces the deposit to about a hundred Euro and costs about five Euro a day

From what I remember it's most likely about 15 euro a day.
On the other hand you can pay a deposit with your credit card pre-auth and buy a cover for your deposit form other insurer likehttps://www.carhireexcess.com

soapbloggs

It's all academic anyway, I don't have a credit card but interesting to know there's an insurance company that covers deposits of such.

soapbloggs

It's all academic anyway, I don't have a credit card but interesting to know there's an insurance company that covers deposits of such. As a matter of interest, is it possible to rent a car with say a debit car and then get some kind of insurance that covers what I need directly from an insurance company? I mean is there a company that would accept that?

soapbloggs

It's all academic anyway, I don't have a credit card but interesting to know there's an insurance company that covers deposits of such. As a matter of interest, is it possible to rent a car with say a debit card and then get some kind of insurance that covers what I need directly from an insurance company? I mean is there a company that would accept that?

soapbloggs

It's all academic anyway, I don't have a credit card but interesting to know there's an insurance company that covers deposits of such. As a matter of interest, is it possible to rent a car with say a debit card and then get some kind of insurance that covers what I need directly from an insurance company? I mean is there a rental company that would accept that too?

ToxicPaddy

I tried renting an estate car and small van to do exactly this. No company would rent me a car to take to mainland Europe.

One would rent me a van but I had to have my own insurance however my insurance company wouldn't allow me to do that. The rental company also wanted a €1k deposit and I had to take out AA breakdown assistance, which cost €125.

There is one company that rents 4x4s to bring to Europe but you have to have their insurance and it works out about €120 a day which is crazy.

It might he easier to get someone on anyvan or one of those sites to deliver the boxes. Lots of partial van loads going all over Europe and you can easily follow them over on a cheap Ryanair flight home.

soapbloggs

I just found this site, they will help you rent cars in Ireland and Europe with a Visa Debit card, has to be from a high street bank and with no laser symbol on the card. Go to indigocarhire.co.uk