First time renting a car abroad....

Soldato
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Hi all, taking the family away to Spain this August and I'll be renting a car for the week.

Anything I should be aware of? Extras they're likely to spring on at the airport? What insurance cover would you go for?

Looking at probably getting a Peugeot 5008 from Avis, but shows an excess of over £3k!
 
Don’t buy excess waiver/cover at the rental desk, it will most likely be silly expensive. Quick Google will get you far far cheaper options. Only downside, if you don’t buy the rental companies own excess cover they tend to put a temporary charge for the excess on your cc.
 
Don’t buy excess waiver/cover at the rental desk, it will most likely be silly expensive. Quick Google will get you far far cheaper options. Only downside, if you don’t buy the rental companies own excess cover they tend to put a temporary charge for the excess on your cc.
This. It’s quite often almost the price of the hire. I never bother with it despite how much the desk staff try and frighten you into it. I just back myself that I’m not going to have an accident and if I do I’ll convince myself the amount I have saved on waiving this in the past is still in excess of the excess which tbh it probably is.
The type of driving you are doing doesn’t lend itself towards high probability of an accident. In my experiences the drivers in and around the tourist areas are a lot more forgiving and generally not as much in a hurry as at home plus your basic coloured, basic spec hire car with an Avis logo in the back window will scream out “I’m not on home turf, give me some room” :)
 
Don’t buy excess waiver/cover at the rental desk, it will most likely be silly expensive. Quick Google will get you far far cheaper options. Only downside, if you don’t buy the rental companies own excess cover they tend to put a temporary charge for the excess on your cc.
Double this :D I've always bought excess protection insurance for a fraction of the cost the hire co offers.
 
Do a video walk round of the car on your phone at pick up and drop off.
No shenanigans then if they try to claim you scraped a wheel or something.

I hear stories all the time from people who have rented from the big players and smaller hire companies, where they try to fob you off on pre existing minor scratches and stuff like that... If you video the car there's no argument that that bit of trim was cracked or that wheel was scuffed already, etc.
 
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Thanks for all the advice. Think I'll take some excess protection, but not crazy high prices. The hire car is £600, and the excess protection is around £80 from Booking.com
 
Do a video walk round of the car on your phone at pick up and drop off.
No shenanigans then if they try to claim you scraped a wheel or something.

I hear stories all the time from people who have rented from the big players and smaller hire companies, where they try to fob you off on pre existing minor scratches and stuff like that... If you video the car there's no argument that that bit of trim was cracked or that wheel was scuffed already, etc.

I do this, and I do it with a commentary, first I will start the video filming my apple watch showing the date, and then going around the car pointing out any little blemishes, wheels kerbed etc.
 
As above always take a video I remember one time I took out fully comp cover and I didn't bother. Then on returning the car I remember the employee skipping round the car pointing out all the damage before I could even tell them I had the fully comp they then looked deflated and said there was still a €70 admin fee for using said cover (in the small print) cheeky..... If I had a video I would have fought it
 
Really helpful replies everyone, thank you. Will go for a moderate level of extra cover, and video the car on pickup - will be 10pm ish when we get it though.
 
Yeah hire cars and airports. You’ll be fine, probably.

I have hired some cars in foreign parts with none of this malarkey. One place had run out of cars so she gave me her car and just told me to leave it at the ferry dock with the key on the sunvisor.

I’ve also hired another once where the man just threw me the keys and didn’t even ask to see any ID. I was on a small Greek island, I laughed and asked if he was worried I might nick it. Apparently not.
 
Yeah hire cars and airports. You’ll be fine, probably.

I have hired some cars in foreign parts with none of this malarkey. One place had run out of cars so she gave me her car and just told me to leave it at the ferry dock with the key on the sunvisor.

I’ve also hired another once where the man just threw me the keys and didn’t even ask to see any ID. I was on a small Greek island, I laughed and asked if he was worried I might nick it. Apparently not.
That sounds perfect, but doubt it'll be quite like that with AVIS :D
 
  • Hire from one of the big names - they are much less likely to mess you around. Avis is fine
  • Sometimes the hire company is miles away from the airport and you have to get an infrequent shuttle bus to get there. Usually means the price is a cheaper but just be aware of what you're buying
  • Make sure the fuel policy is "full to full"
  • £80 is very expensive for excess insurance. I recently paid £35 for an annual policy with Eversure, although I have never claimed with them so can't comment there
 
This. It’s quite often almost the price of the hire. I never bother with it despite how much the desk staff try and frighten you into it. I just back myself that I’m not going to have an accident and if I do I’ll convince myself the amount I have saved on waiving this in the past is still in excess of the excess which tbh it probably is.
The type of driving you are doing doesn’t lend itself towards high probability of an accident. In my experiences the drivers in and around the tourist areas are a lot more forgiving and generally not as much in a hurry as at home plus your basic coloured, basic spec hire car with an Avis logo in the back window will scream out “I’m not on home turf, give me some room” :)
just get it from one of the third parties, always used Questor which was quite useful when I got a £1500 bill in Chile when I crashed my hire car, submitted the claim and paid within 7 days. £46 for 12 months.
 
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If the flight / airport is busy, I'll leave Mrs Chris to pickup hold bags and go straight through to the hire desk to get in the queue. Usually works out that I'm sorted by the time she's got the bags, at which point the rest of the flight arrives for their car and the queue is massive.

As mentioned above, see where the hire desk is. I know you're going to Spain but as an example, Pisa airport has a shuttle bus to the hire desks but it's only five minutes walk. So I've walked round rather than wait for the shuttle bus to get full and eventually set off.

Pay attention as you head out the airport for petrol stations if you are full-to-full. The nearest garage on the airport can be expensive, though probably still better than getting your pants pulled down by the hire company if they fill it. Brim the car so the needle is on full and take a picture / video at drop off.

Also, don't leave your phone in the car at drop off and have to run back from the drop off counter to make your flight once the car has come back from cleaning :rolleyes: :D
 
Get excess insurance quotes from compariaon sites. I've never paid more than £3/day.

Also be mightful that the advertised car on their website will be thr best in the range and you're likely to get the worst e.g i got a Dacia Sandero in the class of a Seat Leon.
 
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Hired one in Dublin a few years back, did the walk around with their paperwork in hand and then went back in to the pick up desk to insist they marked up all the undocumented scratches I’d found on the car on their paperwork. Handed it back in at the end of trip after another walk around and no issues or extra charges, probably because they’d marked the file as “awkward bugger with a camera”.

Ironic really because on day 1 I pulled up at the hotel and scraped the underside of the bumper on the car park rim/wall thing that was higher than I’d thought it was :p
 
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I do this, and I do it with a commentary, first I will start the video filming my apple watch showing the date, and then going around the car pointing out any little blemishes, wheels kerbed etc.
Try this on a Greek island with a supermini more than a few months old, and you'll still be documenting all the defects three days later :D
 
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