** Vehicle Hire queries **

Quazzie

Bernol wrote: »

Hi heading to France this June and trying to book a car from airport but so hard to get through Insurance and excess details. I don't want to queue for an hour when getting there either as flight lands at 5.15 pm and most of the car rentals close at 6. Anyone any recomme rations? Tia.

Whatever hire company you are using, contact them via facebook messenger and they'll answer all your queries. Occasionally they will be able to give you a discount also.

coylemj

coylemj wrote: »

............

I know the big rental companies are more expensive ............ Hire from one of the big boys and you're pretty much guaranteed that you will be sitting in a nice clean car within a few minutes of getting to their desk.

Indeed.

I booked a car for August this week, I'll be doing maybe 800/900 kms in the two days. Most of the offerings were €75 ish for the two days off companies I've not heard of before and they all had mileage limits. All focus, Clio type stuff too.

Ticked unlimited mileage and a Passat estate or similar off Avis appears for €92 iirc, not bad to be fair compared to the other options.

Geuze

El Prat is the main airport.

El prat is the name of the area around the airport.

coylemj

Best tip for hiring a car when you get a full tank and need to give it back with a full tank....

After picking up the car on the day you arrive and when you're exiting the airport, tell your passengers to look out for filling stations on the other side of the road. You will be passing along that stretch of the road on the way back and that's where you need to refill the tank. Otherwise you risk missing the last opportunity to top up and even the big companies will penalise you for bringing the car back with a less than full tank. And remember that the filling station closest to the airport will probably be the most expensive so make a note of one that's reasonably close but not a rip-off.

badker

is this the malagacar recommend above? https://www.malagacar.com thanks

and is the handover at terminal or do you need get bus to their office?

redcup342

coylemj wrote: »

Hired a car from Hertz there a few years ago, no hard sell on the insurance (I declined, they said 'ok') and the counter clerk walked me to the car which was no distance away. Got a Skoda five door diesel, roughly the size of a Golf, it cost €15 to top it up on the way back a week later after a lot of driving.

I know the big rental companies are more expensive but when you factor in what you're spending on the fights, hotel, meals and booze, I think spending a bit more on the car hire for the luxury of not starting your holiday with a load of hassle is well worth it. Hire from one of the big boys and you're pretty much guaranteed that you will be sitting in a nice clean car within a few minutes of getting to their desk.

Yep, rented a car 3 weeks ago and went with a cheap company "Interrent" from Dusseldorf Airport, had to take additional 18 euro insurance at the desk as their website lets you rent with no Insurance at all and the Excess would have been 24000 euros without it :eek: on top of that got a sh*tty clio with a weird squeaking noise the whole way to Amsterdam :pac:

Last weekend rented with Sixt, no surprises, got a 2 Liter TDI Passat with DSG Gearbox and fully kitted out with adaptive cruise control etc.

Between Interrents shenanigans the difference between a decent car with Sixt and a crap car with interrent was a 10 euro difference for the weekend.

Never going cheap again, not worth it.

JimboJones99

I'm hiring a car for the first time in a few weeks from Alicante airport for a family holiday (young kids) and I'm a little bit nervous as any research I have done seems to lead to numerous horror stories!!

I booked it through Ryanair and the car rental provider is Centauro at the cheapest rate possible. In retrospect this might not have been wisest decison but whats done is done I suppose.

I have pre-purchase fuel with partial refund. I presume this means they will provide me with a full tank of fuel and if I return it with a full tank of fuel they will refund me the full deposit less an admin fee??

I also have to leave a deposit of €1,050 in the event of damage but I keep reading about how they might demand I take out excess insurance of some sort. Can anyone explain this to me further please?

Any advice or clarifications would be much appreciated?

Thanks

badker

JimboJones99 wrote: »

I also have to leave a deposit of €1,050 in the event of damage but I keep reading about how they might demand I take out excess insurance of some sort. Can anyone explain this to me further please?

Any advice or clarifications would be much appreciated?

Thanks

get your own insurance https://www.carhireexcess.ie/

rushfan

badker wrote:

get your own insurance

Second this, I do this every year

elperello

Car hire excess insurance will save you money.
Don't forget that you will find that the hire company will block your card to the amount of the excess if you don't take their insurance.
If there is any damage to the car the hire company will take the cost from your card and you will need to claim from the car hire excess insurance.

JimboJones99

badker wrote: »

get your own insurance https://www.carhireexcess.ie/

elperello wrote: »

Car hire excess insurance will save you money.
Don't forget that you will find that the hire company will block your card to the amount of the excess if you don't take their insurance.
If there is any damage to the car the hire company will take the cost from your card and you will need to claim from the car hire excess insurance.

Hi, thanks for the replies.

Just to clarify a couple of things, as I know I am a bit green with all this, if I take out excess insurance, then the car hire company will not put a block on my card?

I assume the deposit is fully refundable once I return the car as I received it? If I dont have my own excess insurance am I obligated to take out excess insurance at the desk or can I take a chance and hope no damage occurs to the car?

So I assume basically taking out my own excess insurance stops the hire company taking a deposit and I am covered if anything happens the car?

Thanks for your patience with my probably obvious questions!!

elperello

If you purchase the excess insurance at the desk you are fully covered and no block is put on your card.
If you don't you are carrying the risk for the amount of the excess and they will block your card to make sure they get paid if the car is damaged.

If you purchase excess insurance online that will cover your risk but the hire company will still block your card.

Think of it this way -

You have two contracts
1- With the hire company who want to make sure they get paid for any damage.
2- With the online car hire excess company who will cover you for the amount of the excess.

kf2010

Hi I am looking to hire a car in Barcelona airport next week. Can anyone recommend the best company to use? We will be arriving in after 10pm with 2 small children so the least hassle needed as possible!! We also only have visa debit cards so need a company that accepts these? From what I gather most the big companies do now. Thanks

Toots

badker wrote: »

is this the malagacar recommend above? https://www.malagacar.com thanks

and is the handover at terminal or do you need get bus to their office?

Yes, that's them. They shuttle you over to their office from the airport (it's pretty much across the road) and when you drop the car back they'll shuttle you to the airport.

paulgalway

Hi all,

In Santa Ponsa for 10 days in June.
Planning to rent a car for a couple of days to get a break from the pool/beach.

Hope to see some of the more remote areas.

Any recommendations for car hire companies and places to go?

TIA.

elperello

Take a spin up around Valdemossa, Deia, Soller, Port de Soller.
Very nice part of the island.
I usually use one or other of the big companies. Last time it was Europcar and I found them ok.

flashforward

Hi all, hoping someone can help me here.

I am going on my honeymoon to Italy and want to rent a nice car for once.

I found a good deal on a Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce through Hertz, but the daily Excess Waiver is €74.

Has anyone hired a premium car like this before? What external excess insurance company did they use?
Or is it just too risky to hire a car like this unless you are very rich?

Thanks!

ted1

Get an annual policy

https://www.carhireexcess.ie

You’ll need to leave a larger deposit in your Credit Card.

dudara

I sometimes take the extra insurance to fully cover the car. I know it costs extra but it reduces the hold on your credit card and it’s less hassle than potentially having to deal with an excess insurance claim.

When you do this, Hertz will practically throw anything at you and you could just about literally hand back the car in bits. On a recent trip to Spain, I had chosen a BMW 1 series or similar. I got upgraded to a brand new Mercedes E Class. The full insurance only added €70 to the initial price quote.

In a country like Italy where minor bangs and scrapes are so common, I’d be more than happy to pay for the extra insurance rather than trying to figure out which scrapes got added during my use of the car

munchkin_utd

maybe an obvious point, make sure you have a credit card not a mastercard or visa debit, as you cannot rent anything but the smallest of cars with a debit card
https://www.hertz.de/rentacar/reservation/reviewmodifycancel/templates/rentalTerms.jsp?KEYWORD=MOP&EOAG=FCOT50

flashforward

Thanks for the replies, the Hertz daily excess cover doubles the total cost from €300 to €600.

I see the annual cover on carhireexcess.ie covers €7500, would this cover me fully for a premium car to give me peace of mind?

Also I only have a Debit Visa + Mastercard, no Credit Card. Does this rule me out altogether? I wouldn't mind if they put a hold on a large sum in my Debit card.

theyoungchap

carhireexcess.ie all the way

bigar

flashforward wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, the Hertz daily excess cover doubles the total cost from €300 to €600.

I see the annual cover on carhireexcess.ie covers €7500, would this cover me fully for a premium car to give me peace of mind?

Also I only have a Debit Visa + Mastercard, no Credit Card. Does this rule me out altogether? I wouldn't mind if they put a hold on a large sum in my Debit card.

You can see here that the Non Waivable Excess for your car is 2500 so Carhireexcess.ie would cover it.

If you have only a debit card, you will not be able to rent the car you mention, as shown here: "If you made your booking with a debit card, you will need to present the debit card and one or more credit card (depending on the vehicle group) when picking-up the vehicle. Debit cards at pick up are only accepted for the following vehicle groups: (A) Fiat 500 or similar, (B) Fiat Panda or similar, (C) Lancia Y or similar and (X7) Mystery Compact or Better".

My experience (~25 rentals a year) tells me that you will get very little, or mostly nothing, with any car rental company if you do not have a credit card.

bennyc

Hi any help with this would be great .
I have a rental booked with Goldcar (terrible I know but used them a few times and so far so good) for the summer in Girona, was planning to travel across southern France maybe into Italy for a day or two before finally dropping the car back into Malaga , so I have got unlimited miles , paid the one way fee and the usual crappy standard insurance. I will get my car hire excess before I go .
From reading the small print I cannot see if there is

a. A fair usage policy on mileage
b. Does the standard insurance cover me to travel outside Spain

Needless to say I don't want to ask at the desk and be made pay full insurance etc.

bennyc

b. Does the standard insurance cover me to travel outside Spain
I just found this, I need written permission to leave continental Spain

"If you wish to travel to France and / or Andorra, it is necessary to hire additional travel coverage. The cost of travel coverage is € 9.00 per rental day, with a minimum charge of € 25.00 and a maximum of € 90.00. It is not possible to travel outside of Spain - neither Ceuta nor Melilla - except for the exceptions included in this same point."

elbyrneo

Hi,

Travelling to Spain with three kids on Ryanair soon. Took the family plus deal for luggage and all good with that.

Renting a car and picking up from airport as soon as we arrive. My two boys are 5 and 6 so want them to have booster seats.

Car hire company wants 8eur a day each for them. For 11 days, that's 176euro. Crazy.

I know when we travelled with them as infants we took car seats and buggies no hassle and no chargr from.Ryanair, but can we do similar with high back boosters for the kids on child tickets?

What to do other people do? We have the blow up travel ones too but I would prefer proper high back ones.

Advice greatly appreciated!

beauf

Drive to the nearest shopping center and buy cheap ones. The once you hire are often manky.

irishgirl19

Bubblebum seat?

Also I think you can bring car seats FOC on a child ticket

ted1

Yes you can bring them free of charge with Ryanair.

Last time we traveled we just picked up some cheap ones in smyths that we could leave behind. We didn’t bother with the back ones as the kids don’t like them.

elbyrneo

ted1 wrote: »

Yes you can bring them free of charge with Ryanair.

Last time we traveled we just picked up some cheap ones in smyths that we could leave behind. We didn’t bother with the back ones as the kids don’t like them.

Thanks - hard to get the answer on Ryanair website so thats great to know its free on child ticket and not just infant. Maybe i will just bring the base units too, or one with the back for the shorter of the boys. cheers.