Car hire mainland Spain and Canaries

[HolidayHattie]

It's many years since I've hired a car abroad, and then I just sauntered in to the car hire place with my UK driving licence. (Yes, I know it's probably cheaper to book in advance.)

Thinking of doing it on future trips. Post-Brexit, will I need additional documentation other than my UK licence? Is there anything else I need to know (extra insurance waivers, that kind of thing - any advice?)

Please assume I know nothing at all!

We hired a car in Spain this summer, prebooked online. Needed passport, bank card for deposit and driving licence so nothing out of the ordinary. Purchased excess insurance separately, again online- much cheaper than using theirs.

We have just hired in fuerteventura, found it much cheaper to use a small local owned business than big chain, all insurance included so no hard sell, no extras for dings/scratches, found the same in Tenerife earlier in the year

Everything you need to know here:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/

We've used Autoriesen in the Canaries without issue. Also Centauro and Hipercar in the Balearics - don't know if they operate on the mainland.

Do not use Record or Goldcar, complete crooks.

In short - think about how much fuel you need, or else you might end up paying for loads you don't use.

Buy your insurance in the UK.

Make sure you have a credit card for the deposit, it could be over 1000 euro and many providers require a credit card in the main driver's name.

Video/photograph the condition of the car on pick up and drop off.

Ignoring the above could double or triple the cost of the hire, before any spurious charges for alleged damage.

Very helpful; thanks.

Used Centauro recently for the first time.
Would use again.

We've used Auto Riesen in Lanzarote many times and they've always been brilliant - no fuss about checking the car, free child seats, great price, etc. We had a nightmare with OK Mobility in Spain last year and it made us even more grateful for Auto Riesen.

We usually buy the extra insurance to cover the excess. If you buy it from the company you hire the car from, it is like any other insurance policy, and as everything is covered, you don't have to leave a deposit on your credit card. I usually book through Carjet, and buy their much cheaper excess cover. On this case, you have to leave a deposit, usually over £1,000, on your credit card, and if you have an accident, you lose the deposit, and claim it back from the carjet policy. So make sure you have a big enough limit on your credit card.

First, your UK licence is fine, as long as it's a pink photo card and not a 1980s vintage bit of green paper with no photo.

The thing to watch with car hire is the excess on the insurance. Cheap deals tend to say "full insurance" but this is not "full-full-full, bring the car back on fire, we don't care". It's like your own fully comprehensive insurance at home in that it comes with an excess, and that is typically €800 to €1200.

You can cover the excess in various ways:

1. Buy the hire car company's own "full-full-full, bring the car back on fire, we don't care" insurance. This costs €10-20 per day if you buy it in advance and more if you buy it at the counter.
2. Accept the excess and leave a deposit on a credit card. Note that this must be an actual Credit card, with Credit written on it. A debit card generally won't do.

If you choose 2) there are then several options to cover you in case you scratch the car, or they "discover" a scratch when you bring the car back (which can happen, particularly with certain less scrupulous operators, and especially if you picked the car up after dark).
2a) Buy deposit cover from the broker through whom you are renting the car (rentalcars.com, doyouspain.com, etc), if applicable
2b) Get a credit card that includes car rental deposit insurance
2c) See if your travel insurance covers car rental deposits
2d) Buy a specific car rental deposit cover policy
2e) Don't do any of the above, and just take the hit if damage occurs/is discovered.

Note that for all of the 2) options, they do not get you out of he need to leave a deposit. The car hire company is not interested in the fact that if they have a claim against the deposit, your policy will pay you back. They will still want the deposit up front, and getting the money back afterwards is between you and your deposit protection provider. Also, before you return the car, make sure you understand exactly what documents you would need to make a claim, because you are at the car rental agency, the shuttle bus is waiting, and your plane in leaving in less than two hours.

Personally for a short rental I always take "full full full" insurance, because I'm on holiday, but if you are renting for three weeks then it can mount up. Last time I was in the Canaries I rented with Cabrera Medina, who were excellent (i.e., they treated me like an adult rather than a hooligan). I think they only do "full full full" insurance, which actually makes sense, except that it means their headline price ("Car hire from €2.99 per day!!!!!!!") looks a bit more expensive than the places that have a lot more small print.

The end of my previous post was not well written. I put:

except that it means their headline price ("Car hire from €2.99 per day!!!!!!!") looks a bit more expensive than the places that have a lot more small print.

It would have been better as:

except that it means their headline price looks a bit more expensive than the places that have a lot more small print ("Car hire from €2.99 per day!!!!!!!").

Take Insurance 4 hire (now Swinton I think) to cover any excess.
At one point we were told to take a code from DVLA to share with the hire company but we only did it once and never since

Go on the dvla site to get a "check code." It Is a unique code the car hire company can use to confirm your driving license has no points. Especially useful if you still have an old paper (pre photo card) driving license.

Car Hire Excess insurance is much cheaper to organise from the UK. Annual cover for multiple European trips costs only around £50 - compared with £10-£20 or more per day at the car hire desk. As pp suggested above, look at a company such as insurance4carhire or those mentioned on the moneysavingexpert website.

This only applies to rentals in the UK with a UK licence. It's not needed outside the UK, and it also doesn't apply to people renting a car in the UK with a foreign licence.

Car Hire Abroad – Your Complete Guide | Compare the Market
This suggests it might and post Brexit we were asked, although it hasn't happened recently.

Strictly speaking the check code is required in the EU (it only takes a few minutes to access it on the DVLA website, which you can do on your phone at the rental desk if necessary) but car hire companies don't often ask for it. I was asked more than once when the UK first left the EU, but it now seems to be one of those things that nobody really bothers with.

I posted too soon - the check code is not a legal requirement, but something that the individual rental companies may ask for. Different companies have different rules.

This is a fascinating rabbit-hole for people like me who enjoy this sort of thing!

I looked at a few big car rental companies' websites and they all say that if you are renting in the UK with a UK licence you need a DVLA check code. None of them says, in so many words, "If you are renting outside the UK with a UK licence you don't need this code", but I think it's reasonable to take that as read.

The exception is Hertz, which has this strange paragraph at https://www.hertz.co.uk/rentacar/reservation/policy/policy-detail/enGB/LHRT50/LICENSE:

"When renting in the UK, Angola, Bahrain, Balearics, Botswana, Canaries, Croatia, Namibia, Oman, Portugal, South Africa, Sweden and Tunisia, all drivers with a UK licence will need to provide evidence of any driving endorsements. This also applies if you have a paper licence that was issued before 1998."

It then goes on to describe how to prove that you do/don't have endorsements, via the DVLA check code.

That's a very strange list of "countries" (and of course the Balearics and Canaries aren't countries, they're part of Spain, and the rest of Spain isn't mentioned). Maybe this is based on agreements between Hertz and its local franchisees in those areas.

If you're renting with a local company in Spain, I would be amazed if they have even heard of the DVLA check code. They rent cars to people from 50+ countries and presumably want to have a single check-in procedure for all of them, give or take perhaps an International Driving Permit (although these days almost every country issues credit card-sized licences that meet the requirements of the international conventions and an IDP is no longer needed). I would be surprised if they have gone to the bother of training their staff in how to read a certificate from the driving licence authorities of Liechtenstein to the effect that the holder has X number of penalty points, even if Liechtenstein were to issue such certificates. It's noticeable that none of the big chains seem to ask for that kind of proof in the UK from holders of non-UK licences.

So I think that bit about what companies "may" ask for is mostly arse-covering by the people writing the articles. If people are being asked for DVLA checks in Spain I imagine Simon Calder would have written about it. (But maybe he has!)