Talk to me about hiring a car abroad / driving abroad

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

Thanks.

Never hired a car abroad before, and never driven on the opposite side of the car/road. I've applied for a credit card as I understand you need to leave a swipe of one as a deposit, but for those who do hire cars abroad, any advice or tips?

I do slightly over focus on stuff so this is at the forefront of my mind. I keep telling myself I am a competent driver (I actually love driving!) so I need to get over myself

Everyone saying don't use goldcar- we use them almost religiously and have never had an issue!

We do a video recording when we pick up the car, talking as we go round it pointing out any marks etc.

Always take out the excess.

We've just done our first "key and go" experience where you get your key out of a vending machine and it worked really well.

Make sure the credit card you've applied for has enough of a credit limit for the excess. In my case the excess was £800 and they pre authorise it so it comes off your available balance.

Always get excess insurance (from here, not from the car hire company). We had someone hit our hire car while it was parked somewhere and the damage, although minimal, meant it needed to go to a garage to fix. They charged for the repairs plus the time lost where it couldn't be hired to someone else. Because they've pre authorised the excess it's not easy to dispute it, especially as you're most likely doing it from back home at that point. Excess insurance were great and repaid us the excess when we sent all the paperwork to them.

Driving in Europe is generally easier than you'd expect, honestly getting used to driving on the other side is pretty easy and I say that as a not super confident driver.

I'd recommend a satnav if you don't use it already although I'm not sure there's anyone except my brother among my peers who doesn't use one now! Do update European maps on it before you go, as things can change quite a lot between updates.