Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

Hire Cars

3 replies

Oldowl · 31/07/2017 19:27

We are hiring a car for the first time this summer. We have taken out Damage Refund Insurance as an addition. I caught the tail end of an article on Radio 5 Live today about hire car horror stories.

What are the dos and don'ts?
I need a 'first time idiot's guide' to hire cars as the horror stories have really got me worrying.

(We are hiring a car in S. Africa, if that makes any difference).

OP posts:
EyeHalveASpellingChequer · 31/07/2017 19:31

You'll need to get a check code which you provide when you collect the car.

If you have an older paper licence you'll need to get an International Driving Permit (www.theaa.com/driving-advice/driving-abroad/idp).

Oldowl · 31/07/2017 19:50

Thanks, re check code. We did not know that.

DH has a credit card style driving licence. I presume that is OK. But he needs to get a check code too.

OP posts:
BarbaraofSeville · 01/08/2017 07:28

Have you already booked the car? Bearing in mind all my experience is in Spain, and these are the common scams with Spanish car hire companies.

If not, make sure you get one with a full to full fuel policy unless you know you will use a whole tank of fuel, otherwise you will pay about 100 euro for fuel you don't use.

Decline all extra insurances sold by the rental company as you have already bought the extra insurance. Be prepared to put a 500 to 1000 euro deposit on a credit card.

Don't rent with Goldcar, they are shit.

Don't forget your driving licences and DVLA code, but if you do, you can phone the DVLA there and then and get it sorted over the phone - voice of experience. DP forgot his driving licence and the choice was either I drive or he phone DVLA from Spain. I'm a good confident driver here but I simply cannot cope with driving on the other side of the car - I mirror image everything and get it wrong. It's a lot less stressful for D P to drive all the time on holiday than it is to be a passenger while I fuck it up.

Read the moneysavingexpert guide to car hire, for pretty much everything you need to know.

When you collect the car, check the damage report carefully and photograph any dents and scrapes. This will be invaluable should they try to charge you for damage that you didn't cause.

Having said all the above, DP and I have rented cars in Spain dozens of times and have never been scammed, but have kept our wits about us. This is despite DP crashing our first hire car ever in Spain into the back of a bus 10 minutes outside the airport due to 'wrong side of the car' spatial errors. The car hire company didn't give a shit, didn't charge us and all was fine.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread