Licence renewal/rental

firefly08

Hi...can anyone give me a rough idea of how long it takes to get a renewed license these days?


I have a tricky problem. I live in the US and I'll be traveling back to Ireland in mid December. I'd like to rent a car until a few days into January, but my US license expires on Dec 31st. I can't apply for a new one here until 30 days before the expiration, and since they mail the new one there's no guarantee I'll have it before I have to travel.



But I have an Irish license that's expired since last year.So I'm hoping I can use the current US license to rent a car for up to the 31st, then get my Irish license renewed, and show that to the rental company and extend the rental beyond the expiry of my US license. Is it realistic to expect to have a renewed Irish license in hand within 2 weeks of applying, given the time of year and all? I've never had to renew it since all the changes with the NDLS so I don't have a clue what to expect. Thanks!

biko

There should be no problem using your US licence to hire a car here, even if it expires on the 31st of December.
Mail a couple companies, explain the situation, and see what they say.

alexlyons

i have had two licenses done in the past 6 months (renewed and added a category, same process for each).
Both times I had the license by the end of the following week, generally they text you 3 days after you are in with them and you get it 3 days later.

Id guess it might be cleaner and "scare" the rental company less if you have two rentals. They certainly shouldnt rent you a car past your license expiry date, and a guess at their system would say they can only enter one main driver license details per rental. skip the hassle and have two rentals. bit of a pain having to go back but if anything happened it wouldn't be worth it.

whatever you do, book an appointment for a day and book it asap, i think they only allow bookings a month in advance so you might need to stick in a reminder. Be early for the appointment, i was 3 minutes late and sat their for 2 hours waiting. That's there system which is fair enough, but be aware of it.
If you cant get an appointment on the right day, turn up as early as possible, but expect an hour wait at least, and they stop walkins at about 2-3pm in the afternoon

Marcusm

firefly08 wrote: »

Hi...can anyone give me a rough idea of how long it takes to get a renewed license these days?


I have a tricky problem. I live in the US and I'll be traveling back to Ireland in mid December. I'd like to rent a car until a few days into January, but my US license expires on Dec 31st. I can't apply for a new one here until 30 days before the expiration, and since they mail the new one there's no guarantee I'll have it before I have to travel.



But I have an Irish license that's expired since last year.So I'm hoping I can use the current US license to rent a car for up to the 31st, then get my Irish license renewed, and show that to the rental company and extend the rental beyond the expiry of my US license. Is it realistic to expect to have a renewed Irish license in hand within 2 weeks of applying, given the time of year and all? I've never had to renew it since all the changes with the NDLS so I don't have a clue what to expect. Thanks!

Do you normally live in the US? If so you likely have no legitimate entitlement to renew the Irish licence.

http://www.rsa.ie/en/Utility/News/2014/Irish-citizens-abroad-who-wish-to-apply-for-Driving-Licenses/

Marcusm

Marcusm wrote: »

Do you normally live in the US? If so you likely have no legitimate entitlement to renew the Irish licence.

http://www.rsa.ie/en/Utility/News/2014/Irish-citizens-abroad-who-wish-to-apply-for-Driving-Licenses/

You would be mad to give up your eu licence, I know a few people living in the US with US licences and all keep their EU ones as its a pain when they come home especially if they are driving family cars with open drive etc. Even recently two people I know living outside the EU renewed their licenses when home for a visit, one even keeps a car insured here to maintain no claim bonus.

In other words its very common for people to keep their eu licences.

Marcusm

Mitchell Long Pod wrote: »

You would be mad to give up your eu licence, I know a few people living in the US with US licences and all keep their EU ones as its a pain when they come home especially if they are driving family cars with open drive etc. Even recently two people I know living outside the EU renewed their licenses when home for a visit, one even keeps a car insured here to maintain no claim bonus.

In other words its very common for people to keep their eu licences.

Indeed and most of them are unaware that they are committing an offence the penalty for which is up to 6 months in chokey.

If they apply within 10 years of the licence expiring it can be reissued such that there is often no reason.

The one who is keeping a car insured is likely committing 2 potential offences and if it ever came to light he would likely have great difficulty obtaining any insurance or indeed certain jobs precluded from people with convictions for fraud or dishonesty offences.

They are exposed to potential penalties far greater than any advantage they might seek.

As the Government becomes increasingly interconnected a greater number of these will be exposed. There is little real sense in continuing them.

ohnonotgmail

If the OP is not living here how do they show proof of address for the renewal?

Marcusm

Marcusm wrote: »

Indeed and most of them are unaware that they are committing an offence the penalty for which is up to 6 months in chokey.

If they apply within 10 years of the licence expiring it can be reissued such that there is often no reason.

The one who is keeping a car insured is likely committing 2 potential offences and if it ever came to light he would likely have great difficulty obtaining any insurance or indeed certain jobs precluded from people with convictions for fraud or dishonesty offences.

They are exposed to potential penalties far greater than any advantage they might seek.

As the Government becomes increasingly interconnected a greater number of these will be exposed. There is little real sense in continuing them.

For those who visit home regularly its not just getting the licence back on return its the advantage of having an eu licence for driving when they visit home also.

As for the rest, I wonder has anyone ever got hassle over it? I very much doubt it. Keeping a car insured is very common for those say who go to Oz for over two years or who have cars on HP/PCP and are spending time abroad etc.

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

If the OP is not living here how do they show proof of address for the renewal?

Parents address or whatever, most people will have bills/statements still going home if living abroad. I don't even live abroad and all my mail still goes to my home address.