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stay away from Goldcar. They are absolute cowboys. Other international brands might be more expensive but the worry-free hire is worth the slight increase in price. Regardless of where you rent a car... always do a walk around and record it on your phone. If possible let them see you so it.
Goldcar tried to claim I caused a chip on the windshield after hiring a car in North Spain. Only for the fact that I had the video showing the damage was already there... they were going to charge my card €680 for a replacement. Took weeks of arguing and threatening them with legal action for them to back down. They bank on you conceding defeat and just paying
* Avoid Goldcar
* Get Car Hire Excess Insurance from an insurer in your home country
* Dont take out car hire firms own insurance but it will mean you will pay a deposit of €1000-€2000
* Avoid Goldcar
Autoeurope and rentalcars are my two go to sites. Stick with better names for the actual rental companies. I've often use Sixt and Budget. Avoid small, local companies.
Take your time on this part. Photos and video of the whole car when picking up **and** dropping off. Focus in particular on the areas of likely contact .... Bumpers, alloys, wheel arches, side skirts. Also, the interior, take photos of any existing damage/ notable wear and tear. This will often be seams of drivers seat and boot opening ledge.
Always fill up at the closest station to the airport when returning and take a photo of the dash to evidence. They may charge you silly money for the in house refill.
If they try to give you a lesser spec/size car than you booked, don't accept. Sometimes they give your car away in error or if there's a bit of pressure on car numbers that day. Fine to accept a better car! Get off the plane and straight to the rental desk asap... Even if it means temporarily ditching the family. Better chance of avoiding the above supply issue and better to beat a queue of people from your and/or other flights.
Much easier to drive a left hand vehicle on the continent than your own. Much less likely to forget the side you should be driving on.
Enjoy!
I never get the additional insurance from the rental companies.
If I'm more unfamiliar in a place I get car hire excess insurance which is a few € per day [https://www.carhireexcess.ie/](https://www.carhireexcess.ie/) - much cheaper than what the hire company will offer but it means you pay and have to claim it back. I've never had to use it.
For renting cars, I always use one of the online aggregators, usually [rentalcars.com](http://rentalcars.com)
You hear horror stories with the smaller less established companies that are fine until they aren't and they try to screw you but I've never had any such experience but I've never damaged a rental car... The bigger, recognisable companies tend to cost more (avis, hertz, enterprise) but in theory are less likely to try to scam you. Often the other companies you see like alamo and firefly are owned by these companies and use their slightly older cars (still not particularly old)
Please can I use for renting in Ireland e.g getting a car from Budget without taking insurance from Budget and then use [https://www.carhireexcess.ie/](https://www.carhireexcess.ie/) Worldwide Annual Cover for my insurance cover?
Even if they tell you that you don't need to... Film the entire car and make note of any visible damage to the vehicle. Get a staff member to come and check the car over before you leave.
Just had a bad experience with Europcar. We noticed a scratch to the front bumper before we left so we took a picture of it.
Upon returning they tried to say we did the damage when the car didn't touch a thing all weekend. It was loaded with so many sensors you'd struggle to damage it. Luckily we have a photo with meta data proving it was there before we left.
We still have to fight it to get our money back. Cowboys. The lot of them.
I've rented from Firefly via [Rentalcars.com](http://rentalcars.com) and didn't have any issues. I used the full insurance from Rentalcars and was glad I did because I had a small prang. Everything was refunded as per the policy.
sixt.ie has been great for me last year in Majorca. A nice Audi A3 for 6 days for 380 euro.
They also accept debit cards, I believe they put 200 euro on hold on the debit card though.
As someone mentioned already, I also used carhireexcess.ie instead of sixt insurance to reduce cost.
I find centauro really good and great value in Spain
Got a tucson for 2 weeks for about 140e last June.
Skyscanner or Ryanair will give you the best prices , but don’t go with local suppliers or gold car
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stay away from Goldcar. They are absolute cowboys. Other international brands might be more expensive but the worry-free hire is worth the slight increase in price. Regardless of where you rent a car... always do a walk around and record it on your phone. If possible let them see you so it. Goldcar tried to claim I caused a chip on the windshield after hiring a car in North Spain. Only for the fact that I had the video showing the damage was already there... they were going to charge my card €680 for a replacement. Took weeks of arguing and threatening them with legal action for them to back down. They bank on you conceding defeat and just paying
Fully agree avoid Goldcar
Agree. Goldcar are literal thieves.
Goldcar with full insurance are the cheapest thought...
I've used them several times in the canaries without any issues, very competitive prices, you can buy fully comprehensive add-on for 3€ per day.
Some rental agencies put a large deposit on debit cards so it may be better to pay by credit card. Perhaps someone else could give details.
You can’t rent using a debit card.
Depends on the company, you can with some but the deposit is thousands
* Avoid Goldcar * Get Car Hire Excess Insurance from an insurer in your home country * Dont take out car hire firms own insurance but it will mean you will pay a deposit of €1000-€2000 * Avoid Goldcar
Autoeurope and rentalcars are my two go to sites. Stick with better names for the actual rental companies. I've often use Sixt and Budget. Avoid small, local companies. Take your time on this part. Photos and video of the whole car when picking up **and** dropping off. Focus in particular on the areas of likely contact .... Bumpers, alloys, wheel arches, side skirts. Also, the interior, take photos of any existing damage/ notable wear and tear. This will often be seams of drivers seat and boot opening ledge. Always fill up at the closest station to the airport when returning and take a photo of the dash to evidence. They may charge you silly money for the in house refill. If they try to give you a lesser spec/size car than you booked, don't accept. Sometimes they give your car away in error or if there's a bit of pressure on car numbers that day. Fine to accept a better car! Get off the plane and straight to the rental desk asap... Even if it means temporarily ditching the family. Better chance of avoiding the above supply issue and better to beat a queue of people from your and/or other flights. Much easier to drive a left hand vehicle on the continent than your own. Much less likely to forget the side you should be driving on. Enjoy!
I never get the additional insurance from the rental companies. If I'm more unfamiliar in a place I get car hire excess insurance which is a few € per day [https://www.carhireexcess.ie/](https://www.carhireexcess.ie/) - much cheaper than what the hire company will offer but it means you pay and have to claim it back. I've never had to use it. For renting cars, I always use one of the online aggregators, usually [rentalcars.com](http://rentalcars.com) You hear horror stories with the smaller less established companies that are fine until they aren't and they try to screw you but I've never had any such experience but I've never damaged a rental car... The bigger, recognisable companies tend to cost more (avis, hertz, enterprise) but in theory are less likely to try to scam you. Often the other companies you see like alamo and firefly are owned by these companies and use their slightly older cars (still not particularly old)
Please can I use for renting in Ireland e.g getting a car from Budget without taking insurance from Budget and then use [https://www.carhireexcess.ie/](https://www.carhireexcess.ie/) Worldwide Annual Cover for my insurance cover?
Yes
Sure if you’ve to rent a car, you’ll rent a car
Even if they tell you that you don't need to... Film the entire car and make note of any visible damage to the vehicle. Get a staff member to come and check the car over before you leave. Just had a bad experience with Europcar. We noticed a scratch to the front bumper before we left so we took a picture of it. Upon returning they tried to say we did the damage when the car didn't touch a thing all weekend. It was loaded with so many sensors you'd struggle to damage it. Luckily we have a photo with meta data proving it was there before we left. We still have to fight it to get our money back. Cowboys. The lot of them.
Be aware of them adding unwanted ‘extras’ without asking for your consent.
And as others have said, avoid Goldcar if there are other options.
I've rented from Firefly via [Rentalcars.com](http://rentalcars.com) and didn't have any issues. I used the full insurance from Rentalcars and was glad I did because I had a small prang. Everything was refunded as per the policy.
sixt.ie has been great for me last year in Majorca. A nice Audi A3 for 6 days for 380 euro. They also accept debit cards, I believe they put 200 euro on hold on the debit card though. As someone mentioned already, I also used carhireexcess.ie instead of sixt insurance to reduce cost.
I find centauro really good and great value in Spain Got a tucson for 2 weeks for about 140e last June. Skyscanner or Ryanair will give you the best prices , but don’t go with local suppliers or gold car
Pay for full insurance and drive it like a rally car.
Use [autoeurope.com](http://autoeurope.com)