CAR HIRE

[patricia]

As we have been talking about driving licenses and driving in the UK etc, does anyone have any recommendations for a car hire company. I shall be hiring a car from Gatwick airport. I have found a quite cheap one with a car hire company easirent! They hold a deposit of 1200 pounds until you return it. Is this the norm. Just getting cold feet as car hire firms can be a bit dodgy!

[olive]

We used www carrentals a lot last year.

If you are doing a lot of rentals it is worth considering an insurance policy of your own that covers the excess.CDW insurance. One car I hired had £600 excess.

The headline rental figures are quite low until you arrive to collect and then the clerk puts the fear of god into you and tries to upsell to their CDW insurance. there are a lot of idiot drivers in Britain as well as here.

[patricia]

Yes I have the insurance for the excess but I must admit that 1250 pounds is the most that I have ever been asked to pay against damage etc!

[elusive]

£1250 sounds ridiculous. have a look on economy car hire website we used them alot when we wanted to rent in spain. they do uk rents aswell. you can book over the phone aswell and chose your hire company. we found them very good. you know exactly what you are paying for. no hidden charges

[patricia]

Sorry is that the name of the site "economy car hire". I shall have a look. Well it is really. They dont actually take it out I dont think but 1250!!

I shall have a look at that site!

[patricia]

Thanks for that. I looked them up "economy car hire" and have found a car

[elusive]

No probs. your welcome

[davesin]

The problem with an excess insurance policy of your own is, that it is not recognized by most car hire companies in Southern Spain. They'll refer to your policy as a 'third party insurance' between you (the customer) and an external insurance company in your home country which has got nothing to do with the rental company in Spain.

What normally happens in these cases is, that you will have to leave a deposit anyway or either have to take out the additional insurance offered by the car hire company itself (normally at a higher price than your own 'third party insurance').

As security deposits can be fairly high (more than 1.000 euros for a small car is no exception) depending on their monthly credit limit some travelers may end up having difficulties paying for other services in Andalucia with their credit card, which is why some of them opt to buy the additional insurance offered by the local car hire anyway and end up with two insurances!

Unfortunately this is fairly common, just google around for 'double insured car hire in Spain'. My advice: do your homework and check out the small print and the reviews about the local car hire company before you book, either here on http://www.andalucia.com or any other reputable travel forum.

[patricia]

That was the UK David. I hired a car in the end and they do not actually take it out of your account they put a "hold" on it just in case. But thank you for the info anyway, I am sure some people will find it useful

[ebbnflow]

The last time we went back to the UK we had a similar experience. I can't remember the name of the hire company but they also wanted £1200 "holding sum" against my card, I thought that very unreasonable and backed out of the hire. It was just a case of alarm bells ringing in my head, seemed too potentially dodgy to me.
I ended up hiring from a local firm in my destination city instead, no holding sum required.