Airport Car hire

[Farneyman]

Looking for some tips on car hire. Never hired before so looking for the basic do's and don'ts.

Also do you know if they provide child booster seats?

Thanks

 

[jdpjamesp]

You will probably be able to hire a car seat from them at a charge. Ask before booking though.
In terms of dos, If you have a two-part license then the paper bit is no longer valid, and just the plastic card is. This means you no longer have a record of your endorsements so you need to contact the government to get this. The hire company will do it for you but will take time. You can get a short term validity check code of your own: https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence

 

[Farneyman]

You can get a short term validity check code of your own: https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence

Cheers for that. :thup:

 

[Val]

Looking for some tips on car hire. Never hired before so looking for the basic do's and don'ts.

Also do you know if they provide child booster seats?

Thanks

Which airport?

 

[Lord Tyrion]

When you book online they will offer insurance. Take that. Read the small print and the excess wiull be about £1,000. You then need to take extra insurance to cover that excess. You may do it online with the hire car company or you can do it separately with a stand alone company. Either way do that before you go as if you do it when you get to the airport you end up paying more. Always keep your insurance documents with you in the car just in case.

Don't be surprised when they ask to swipe your card still. This is in case of an accident. You then claim back if necessary. They all do it, it is not a scam. Don't panic.

Check the car before you leave the hire car place for scratches and bumps. Look carefully, don't give them a chance to blame it on you. If there are any on there get the person from the hire car place to mark them on the form. Funnily enough, we hired a car in Italy last year and the car was covered, normally they are all immaculate. The guy marked the car as multiple scratches and waved me away. It was Italy, all cars have scratches. In Spain and France it is a different ball game.

Booster seats will be extra. When you book there will be options for you to tick. Many people take their own, it depends on the size of seat you need for your child. If you can fit it in your luggage then do it and save a few quid.

Cover the above and you will be okay. I have hired cars on a number of places and these are the key points in my experience.

 

[Tashyboy]

Will reapond later in full but satnav a must

 

[Farneyman]

Which airport?

Dublin

 

[Farneyman]

Will reapond later in full but satnav a must

Wont need satnav as hopefully I can remember the way home!

 

[Farneyman]

One mob are looking at 46 euro/a booster seat and I need 2...need to get those for cheaper or squeeze them into my luggage lol

 

[jdpjamesp]

Dublin

One of the nicest airports I've visited in recent years. Particularly T2.

 

[jdpjamesp]

One mob are looking at 46 euro/a booster seat and I need 2...need to get those for cheaper or squeeze them into my luggage lol

Are you flying Aer Lingus? They do some very good discounts on car hire IIRC - check your flight booking.

 

[Farneyman]

Booked with Ryanair...The Rolls Royce of air travel :rofl:

 

[jdpjamesp]

Booked with Ryanair...The Rolls Royce of air travel :rofl:

To be fair there's not a massive difference between the two carriers anymore. In fact my Irish colleagues tend to opt to fly Ryanair over Lingus. For me the extra inch of leg room makes Lingus a necessity. I'm 6'5"

 

[Farneyman]

When you book online they will offer insurance. Take that. Read the small print and the excess wiull be about £1,000. You then need to take extra insurance to cover that excess. You may do it online with the hire car company or you can do it separately with a stand alone company. .

http://www.carhireexcess.co.uk/

Somewhere like this to insure the excess??

 

[Val]

One mob are looking at 46 euro/a booster seat and I need 2...need to get those for cheaper or squeeze them into my luggage lol

Take boosters with you, you can take them for free with Ryanair

 

[Farneyman]

Take boosters with you, you can take them for free with Ryanair

Cheers Val :thup:

 

[jdpjamesp]

http://www.carhireexcess.co.uk/

Somewhere like this to insure the excess??

I've used these in the past: https://www.worldwideinsure.com/car-hire-excess-insurance.php

 

[RustyTom]

http://www.carhireexcess.co.uk/

Somewhere like this to insure the excess??

Yes somewhere like that. I have just booked a hire car dor Spain for next week and we need 2 booster seats, they wanted €5 per day per seat so we are now just going to take our own.

We didn't take out their insurance we took our own insurance out for car and excess. Works out alot cheaper but as we haven't used their insurance we have to put a £1000 deposit down on arrival but we have got insurance for the week for £15 and they wanted £99

Look around on Google with a few searches for car hire discount codes and see what you can find, I saved 10% off ours by finding codes.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

http://www.carhireexcess.co.uk/

Somewhere like this to insure the excess??

Yes, as well as the other company mentioned by jdp..... They are usually much cheaper than going through the hire companies although there is a simplicity to using the hire company insurance. Crazy that you have to insure against the original insurance but that is the joy of hire cars. All quite unnecessarily stressful.

 

[Rooter]

I hire cars regularly from airports, initially hire the smallest car you need. Then when you get to the desk, they will typically offer you an upgrade for little money. This is the only extra i ever take. I take my own EU tomtom with me. They will rent you car seats etc, but at a cost.

Other note is, check when leaving where the nearest petrol station is and dont miss it on the way back to dropping it off, their refueling rates are high.

I use who ever is cheapest, recently thats been enterprise or budget. I'm an Avis preferred customer, but they are too expensive! Even though i claim it all back, i begrudge paying over the odds for stuff!

Last bit, when they show you to the car, they will point out any existing damage, If you spot something not noted down, make sure they note it down or you may have to pay for it on your return! (inc curbed alloys!!)

Last last one, drive it like you stole it. All hire cars must not change gear until the rev limiter has kicked in. Its the law.