** Vehicle Hire queries **

Yamanoto

Might be worth signing up to AF/KLM's "Flying Blue' frequent flyer program & booking a car through that website.

Even at the bottom tier, you'll get a preferential rate with the big players AND an additional driver is added gratis. I do 15+ rentals every year & any time I've added an additional driver in the EU or US, that driver has always had to be present at the time of collection.

https://www.flyingblue.com/earn-and-spend-miles/cars/partner/25/avis.html

https://www.flyingblue.com/earn-and-spend-miles/cars/partner/27/hertz-car-rental.html

https://www.flyingblue.com/earn-miles/cars/partner/29/enterprise-rent-a-car.html

Quazzie

If he's the driver of the car, the credit card used to pay will have to be in his name. This card will also need to be able to cover the excess prepayment.

If you want to use your credit card you will need to list yourself as the first driver and him as an additional driver.

mel.b

I need to book a car for Norway next yr. Where I'm going it's quite small and not a lot of rental options. I can hire directly through Avis and it is also coming up on the car trawler website for about €40 cheaper. However, booking direct through Avis you have to pay now (or an extra €140 if you pay on collection), while with car trawler it gives you the option of paying a deposit. Has anyone used this option and has it worked out ok? I'm just cautious as as I mentioned there isn't a lot of car hire options and I'd hate it if the booking wasn't honored or something. Normally when I book car hire I go direct.

SusanC10

When hiring a Car if we have CDW and Car Excess Insurance (Annual Policy) do we also need WUG Insurance (Wheels/Underside/Glass) ? The Car Hire Company is looking for €120 extra for this. Country is Greece and we will be doing a fair bit of driving.

Thanks.

Yamanoto

SusanC10 wrote: »

When hiring a Car if we have CDW and Car Excess Insurance (Annual Policy) do we also need WUG Insurance (Wheels/Underside/Glass) ? The Car Hire Company is looking for €120 extra for this. Country is Greece and we will be doing a fair bit of driving.

Thanks.

Some third-party excess policies do include that.

If your own does not, it may prove worthwhile to take out another just for the duration of your trip, as it'd likely cost significantly less than €120

SusanC10

Yamanoto wrote: »

Some third-party excess policies do include that.

If your own does not, it may prove worthwhile to take out another just for the duration of your trip, as it'd likely cost significantly less than €120

Thanks for that Yamanoto.
I will have a look at the Excess Policy first. Wouldn't have thought of that but seems obvious now that you say it !

draycottgirlz

Looking to book a rental car for a weekend spin next month from Stanstead.

Does anyone have any recommendation or discounts codes?

Also trying to pick car rental company is a pain, looking for a company that I won't get ripped off by when I return the car!

Thanks,
John

coylemj

draycottgirlz wrote: »

.... looking for a company that I won't get ripped off by when I return the car!

There are two ways you can get ripped off when returning the car....

1. Damage to the car - check it thoroughly when picking up the car, take photos of any marks and have them noted on the rental agreement.

2. Fuel - full/full is the best option so check the terms and conditions on the website. That means the tank is full when you collect and you leave it back full so there are no fuel charges from the rental company. Anything else leaves you open to a rip-off - either they make you pay for a full tank whether you use it or not or they top it up when you return and exaggerate how many litres were needed or they charge you way over the going rate per litre.

PhilipsR

I'm renting a car Stateside in a couple of weeks for 2 nights and currently looking into the different companies. I was looking on Dollar's website and they seem to include all of the add on fees to the total price quoted (Under $150 for a people carrier). Is there any other costs they could stick me with or would I be right to assume that it should be total cost?

Thanks!

Munsterbhoy

Hi all, I'm looking at booking a car thru Avis for next June from El Prat but I can't get a price for super cover on line , I have a €500 limit on cc so need full cover. Also anyone know if their cat b cars (vw polo) comes with built in satnav. Had a basic Peugeot 208 this yr and it had. Thanks.

wandererz

I've used the following two booking sites in the past.
- doyouspain.com and
- autoeurope.ie (across Europe & the rest of the world)

The booking via doyouspain.com was with Centauro which I found was a part of hertz group.

Both sites above use the larger rental companies such as Hertz, Avis etc.

Whatever you do, stay away from companies like Firefly, Goldcar or any local companies.
You just have to Google reviews of some of those names to discover horror stories.

wandererz

Do you really need a Sat Nav?
Two other options are available :
1) Google Maps - download & save the maps to your phone or tablet so you won't need connectivity to use them
2) Something like Sygic Navigation app on your phone or tablet. I've used this for years without a great deal of problems. A once off payment gets you lifetime acess to updates.

Other items i use are:
1) Tetrax xway - magnetic holder for your phone that clips onto the air vents of the car. Simply get into a hire car, clip this in, afix your phone and off you go.

2) Cigarette lighter charger & cable - Sat Nav drains battery really quickly so you need a charger & cable.

dudara

With the cut in costs on data roaming, you can just use your phone as normal now, depending on your plan. I'm constantly travelling and have experienced no additional costs for data use.

EverythingGood

We used Centauro for car hire in EL Prat last halloween, cannot fault them, no hidden costs and good service. excellent and transparent website.

aquarius10

We are travelling to faro for 5 days and I priced car hire, we've not hired a car for a few years so didn't know where to start, but Ryanair seemed to be the cheapest. We booked a car with extra insurance for €70 Ford Focus or similar for 5 days.

I've booked a car through Ryanair with centauro and bought the extra damage refund insurance offered so we'd be covered and then got an email stating the dates, etc which was fine but then at the bottom was the following :

'Without these mandatory documents you cannot collect your car

Credit card in the name of the lead driver, with a large enough limit to cover the excess - EUR 1050.00
Full driver's licence in the name of the lead driver
Present this email at the desk when picking up your car

The car hire supplier may ask you to purchase excess insurance at the desk. You should not need this insurance as you are covered if you add our Damage Refund Insurance."


I thought that by paying the damage refund insurance I was avoiding the need for a cc deposit ??

Question is do we still need to leave cc as deposit ? Is this normal ?

Thanks for any advice

omagh776

aquarius10 wrote: »

We are travelling to faro for 5 days and I priced car hire, we've not hired a car for a few years so didn't know where to start, but Ryanair seemed to be the cheapest. We booked a car with extra insurance for €70 Ford Focus or similar for 5 days.

I've booked a car through Ryanair with centauro and bought the extra damage refund insurance offered so we'd be covered and then got an email stating the dates, etc which was fine but then at the bottom was the following :

'Without these mandatory documents you cannot collect your car

Credit card in the name of the lead driver, with a large enough limit to cover the excess - EUR 1050.00
Full driver's licence in the name of the lead driver
Present this email at the desk when picking up your car

The car hire supplier may ask you to purchase excess insurance at the desk. You should not need this insurance as you are covered if you add our Damage Refund Insurance."


I thought that by paying the damage refund insurance I was avoiding the need for a cc deposit ??

Question is do we still need to leave cc as deposit ? Is this normal ?

Thanks for any advice

CarTrawler provide this service for Ryanair.

The excess insurance is separate from the rental company so if there is any damage you have to pay up and then claim it back from Car Trawler.

Deposit is normal, the only way to avoid the insurance excess deposit is to take the (much more expensive) insurance with the car hire company directly.

batman1

Hi,

Could anyone tell me good websites for getting car hire at Glasgow airport for 4 days ? It appears to be a minefield of options and wide ranging prices. First time hiring a car so just want to make sure I don't get ripped off or other hidden surprises.

Also, is it recommended to get car hire excess insurance?

bigar

You will get marginally better prices on comparisons sites like Cartrawler but as a regular renter (on 15 and counting this year), I would recommend enrolling in one of the loyalty programs, like Hertz Gold Rewards or Avis Preferred (every company has one). By renting directly from them as a customer you will receive in most cases:

- a better car
- no hassle with being asked if you want extra insurance
- the deposit will be minor (mine is always 200 Euro or equivalent no matter the size of the car; when you are not a client, the deposit will be the excess which can be high)
- the convenience of skipping the queue when picking up and dropping off the car.

The price may be a bit higher, although when I compare it is only a few euro and the convenience makes up for it.

I have an Excess insurance with carhireexcess.ie. I never needed them so far but a friend who did said he was repaid within 2 weeks of the making the claim.

tonydude

Looking to rent in Seattle, San Francisco, Alaska & Hawaii , I have a full drivers license , has anyone rented there recently. Thanks

coylemj

You only need the international permit when renting in a country that does not use the Latin alphabet. Regardless of how vague the description is on the AA website, you do not need it anywhere in Europe or North America.

BTW, it's not a driving licence and is useless by itself, you always need your local driving licence.

Lo_La

Nope your regular licence is enough

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

redcup342

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Generally speaking you don't even need them in Countries that don't use the Latin Alphabet.

I've rented all over the world and the only time I thought I might need one was in Sri Lanka, but EU Licenses are recognised pretty much all over the world.

tanko

Can anyone reccomend a good compamy to rent a hire car off at Catania airport in Sicily?

Antar Bolaeisk

Munsterbhoy wrote: »

Hi all, I'm looking at booking a car thru Avis for next June from El Prat but I can't get a price for super cover on line , I have a €500 limit on cc so need full cover. Also anyone know if their cat b cars (vw polo) comes with built in satnav. Had a basic Peugeot 208 this yr and it had. Thanks.

You can always pay money in to your credit card to cover the excess. That's what I have to do as I have a similarly low limit.

s15r330

Flying to Munich the 31st Oct until Nov 5th. Renting a car and probably going to do the Black Forest area, into Switzerland, Northern Italy, Austria and tgen back to Munich.

Does anyone knoe a decent car hire place?
I'd want full insurance cover, I don't want to be liable for anything (unless i'm negligent etc).

Cheshire Cat

Buchbinder is decent or check https://www.billiger-mietwagen.de/ to compare prices. If you want full insurance cover it's best to get your own insurance i.e. https://www.carhireexcess.com/ much cheaper than paying the daily rates the car hire companies charge.

s15r330

Cheshire Cat wrote: »

Buchbinder is decent or check https://www.billiger-mietwagen.de/ to compare prices. If you want full insurance cover it's best to get your own insurance i.e. https://www.carhireexcess.com/ much cheaper than paying the daily rates the car hire companies charge.

Thanks for that, i'll have a look!

redcup342

Cheshire Cat wrote: »

Buchbinder is decent or check https://www.billiger-mietwagen.de/ to compare prices. If you want full insurance cover it's best to get your own insurance i.e. https://www.carhireexcess.com/ much cheaper than paying the daily rates the car hire companies charge.

You can also use KAYAK to check all the providers.

I don't really care which broker it is as the conditions are the same.

Just check the T&Cs REALLY carefully

Some of them have only a certain amount of Kilometers per day usually 250km

Some of them have a cross border fee which you won't find out about until you get to the rental desk (e.g. you want to travel to Switzerland/Austria)

Use Kayak.ie and not Kayak.com as .com will direct you to US sites and many times will not give you an excess (e.g. you are liable for the full value of the car and not between 800 and 1200 euros)

Buch Binder are grand, used them once, although I think I've used all of them at this stage.

Sixt have the best quality cars IMO but be careful with insurance, basic option is full liability
Hertz and Europcar (Including Interrent which is the budget brand) second
Buch Binder usually are a bit older but have more stable prices.

Chimichangas

Flying to Alicante, any recommendations for car hire?

I seee most companies are taking 1100euro deposit as an excess in case of any accidental damage etc? How do I get past this?

Havent booked a car in years but I dont recognise such a big excess, and worried they could decide to take such an amount for little or nothing..
I understand there are some ways around it(getting the excess covered..??) but how does it work?
What do I need to do, to get this excess cover, and then do or not do at the car hire company desk??