Car Hire Tips UK

If you’re hiring a car and are travelling with young children, some car rental companies (and a legal requirement in some countries) will insist that you provide the kids with a suitable car seat. Of course, this is an extra that the rental company will charge you for so make sure you find out about this cost in advance.

When booking a child’s car seat make sure that you’re getting the right seat for the job, e.g. forward facing, backward facing, etc, etc. You need to specify this at the time of ordering to make sure that they will have one when you arrive.

When you actually arrive to collect your hire car make sure that the seat you’re provided with is in good condition and fits securely in the vehicle. If you’re unsure or it doesn’t look right, ask them to have a look and see if either you’re doing something wrong or whether the seat doesn’t fit correctly in the car you’re hiring (in some cases they might even change the car as they have more of them than car seats).

If you’re child is a little older and only requires a booster seat this might not be available from the rental company so you’ll have to make separate provision by either bringing your own, or buying one locally when you arrive.

Car Hire has a bad reputation from car rental companies policies of charging your credit card once the rental is finished with additional costs for damage and fuel. This practice in itself is legitimate but it leaves the opportunity open for less reputable car rental suppliers to scam their customers.

With this in mind here’s a quick list of some things you should be alert for when hiring a car:

• Damage, what damage?
This scam involves charging you for damage that was already on the vehicle. It’s relatively simple to avoid by checking the car out before you drive away, but taking photos when you collect and return the car should protect you.

• Getting all Fuelled up!
Most companies rent their cars out with a full tank of fuel and charge you for the difference between what’s left and refilling the tank. Often the price per litre of this charge is higher than the pump price and it’s very difficult to prove how much or little was in the car when you returned it. Avoid this by filling the car at the nearest garage just before you take it back. Hold onto the receipt just in case and if they try and charge you, you’ve got some pretty good evidence on your side.

• Hang on a minute, all these extras cost more than the rental!
Check the cost of your rental as car hire as an industry is notorious for it’s extras charging. You can get charged at the counter for extras like additional drivers, child seats, insurance upgrades, young driver surcharges, and more. To avoid this make sure you read the rental terms when booking, and make sure your quotes are like for like. A company that appears cheaper may not always be the lowest cost option.

All car hire companies have age restrictions on who can drive their fleet of rental cars. This age varies both from company to company and also depending on which country you want to hire a car in.

Age restrictions can allow young drivers to rent cars from 18 years old in some cases, but often go up as high as 25 before you don’t need to worry about it anymore. With some luxury car hire firms the minimum rental age can be much higher, even as high as 45 on some sports cars like Ferraris.

As with additional drivers, young drivers may often have to pay a premium for hiring a car. In most cases this additional cost can be justified by the extra insurance cost to the rental company for hiring cars to drivers between the ages of say, 21 to 25.

For corporate car rentals these rules sometimes don’t apply as the company will have a separate agreement with the rental firm to cover the additional insurance liability of hiring to young drivers.

Of course age restrictions don’t only apply to young drivers. If you’re advancing in years it pays to check whether you’re still allowed to rent a car. Some companies will stop renting to you after you’re 75th birthday for example.

Something else to consider when renting a car is who’s going to be driving it. Almost all rental companies offer car hire to a named driver. This means that if you have more than one person who’s going to be driving the hire car you need to tell the rental company about them too.

Of course, additional drivers give the rental companies another opportunity to make some more money and they all charge some kind of premium for additional drivers on the rental agreement so take this into account when comparing quotes.

Any additional drivers covered in the rental agreement will also have to present their details when hiring the car so if you’re taking along an additional driver, they’re going to need their driving licence too.

Don’t be tempted to let someone else drive a car that you’ve hired in your name only as the consequences of this can get pretty serious, pretty fast. For one thing all insurances will be void so in the event of an accident you’re pretty much liable for everything. Also, as they’re not mentioned in the rental agreement anyone stopped by police in the rental car has no legal entitlement to drive it and could even be arrested for theft.

As the saying goes, “Accidents happen” and you’re just as likely to have an accident when in a hire car than you would be driving your own car. So, it’s important to know what to do should the worst happen and you have an accident in your hire car.

All rental companies have different policies and procedures to cover for accidents and you should make yourself familiar with the particular procedures of your chosen rental company (these can usually be found on the rental agreement and covered somewhere in the terms on their web sites).

When you find yourself in an accident it’s important to record as much information as you can at the time. Always try and make a note of the following:

• You will need the name, address, phone number, insurance details and drivers license number of any one else involved in the crash.

• Note down a description of the vehicles in the accident, including their make, model and registration numbers.

• Write down the time, date and location of the accident.

• If there were any witnesses to the accident, you should get their names and contact details.

• Depending on the laws in the country you’re driving in, the police may need to be informed of the accident. Ignorance is no excuse so this is something you need to find out about before you begin driving the hire car. If the police are involved, ask for a copy of their report.

• Inform the rental company of the accident as soon as possible. They will advise you what you need to do next and probably ask for all those details mentioned above.

• In the event of an accident the rental company may decide not to replace the car for you (assuming it’s not drivable). Again you should check for this in their terms when hiring.

If the car is still drivable and you continue your rental after an accident make sure you leave plenty of extra time when you return to vehicle at the end of the rental. They’re going to have lots of forms for you to fill out.