International Driving Permit

masterboy123

I have full Irish licence and will be renting car in San Francisco. On AA website they recommend getting an international permit, as it's required in case of an accident by insurance companies in USA. It will cost 15 euros to get one.

Any thoughts/experience on this issue?

athtrasna

masterboy123 wrote: »

I have full Irish licence and will be renting car in San Francisco. On AA website they recommend getting an international permit, as it's required in case of an accident by insurance companies in USA. It will cost 15 euros to get one.

Any thoughts/experience on this issue?

Not required

coylemj

Monumental rip-off (in 99% of cases because it's not required) and a good little earner for the AA. The IDP is required when travelling to countries which use a different alphabet to ours - not the US or Canada or the EU or most/all of Africa etc. etc.

If you needed an IDP in case of accident in the US, the car hire companies would insist that you produce one along with your Irish licence when renting a car - they don't.

masterboy123

Ok cool.
Will get a take away for this 15e in SFO :P

HowItsMade

rented a car in San Fran in summer with only a normal irish drivers license, enterprise are the only rental company who'll rent to under 25's i found, enjoy

masterboy123

Cool. I will go with my Irish licence

HowItsMade wrote: »

rented a car in San Fran in summer with only a normal irish drivers license, enterprise are the only rental company who'll rent to under 25's i found, enjoy

coylemj

That BS about needing the IDP in case of an accident is a classic case of plausible deniability. If challenged, the AA can say that someone hired a car in the US back whenever, had an accident in the back of beyond and then got grief from some redneck sheriff's deputy because the cop didn't like the look of the old format Irish driving licence. The IDP is a money-making racket for transcribing your details from one piece of paper to another, nothing else.

You don't need an IDP in the US, period.

masterboy123

Great info. I do have the plastic card type licence, not the old paper one.

él statutorio

masterboy123 wrote: »

Great info. I do have the plastic card type licence, not the old paper one.

The old paper one never caused me any hassle here when i had mine.

coylemj

Not suggesting for a second that you would have a problem with the old licence. What I was doing if it wasn't obvious in post #7 above was making up the story that the AA would probably use if you challenged them on why they claim that you need an IDP to rent a car in the US. Let's leave it at that and not let the thread go off the rails on anther topic altogether.

JIdontknow

I rented a few times last year in America with my old paper driving licence and never had any issue at all with Hertz. Only issue I had was highlighting that the date on licence was day month year not month day year!!

masterboy123

Ok. I hope the date/month/year won't create an issue. As they have month first.

coylemj

masterboy123 wrote: »

Ok. I hope the date/month/year won't create an issue. As they have month first.

People who work on car rental desks are aware of the difference in date formats.

Otherwise they would refuse to deal with people born after the 12th of the month i.e. more than half the people who handed over their driving licences for inspection.

JIdontknow

masterboy123 wrote: »

Ok. I hope the date/month/year won't create an issue. As they have month first.

You'll be grand, my comment was more to do with the person I dealt with there!