Hiring a car in France when I don't drive!!!! Help Needed!!!

loobylou2

Hope someone can help with this as I'm a bit confused. We are going to France for a fortnight on 25th May and planning on hiring a car. The problem is that I don't drive but my OH who is 72 does so obviously he will be the one doing the driving while we are there. He dosen't have a credit card though so I'm the one who will be doing the booking and I'm getting really confused with it all. After I have booked online will I have to pay more when we collect the car to cover insurance etc and is there a way around paying huge fees? Also, will it be ok if I book online using my card but OH drives? I spoke to Hertz yesterday about this but to be honest got a bit confused when the guy on the phone told me that as well as paying for the car online I'd have to fork out about 500 pounds at the airport as well!!! Any advice/help re this would be very much appreciated as we're doing the trip on a very tight budget and its already turning out to be costing more than I'd anticipated. Thank you.

BillTrac

Loobylou2,

Hertz wont care who the card belongs to as long as the cardholder is present when the hire paperwork is completed, so no problem there.

I have just looked on the Hertz website and based on hiring an Astra/similar from CDG Airport for two weeks, this is what I got

Rate Details for quote
Selected Vehicle
Unlimited Free Kilometers
Weekly 2 Weeks at 140.48 EUR
Rate Code: EOWQGB
Additional Items Included In Total Approximate Charge:
Tax 95.42 EUR location service charge: 29.00 EUR vehicle licensing fee and road tax 16.80 EUR collision damage waiver (check "rental qualifications and requirements" for details of non waivable excess) 106.72 EUR theft protection (check "rental qualifications and requirements" for details of non waivable excess) 53.36 EUR
Discounts:

Total Approximate Charge 582.26 EUR

This Rate is Guaranteed. Taxes, fees and extras, if not included in the rate, are subject to change.

So the cost in Euros is 582.26 BUT that is pay on return of vehicle, but if you prepay it is only 452 Euros, so I think the £500 may be if you dont pay up front.

Go to the Hertz website and look at a quote for the required vehicle

loobylou2

Thanks for this. I've been going onto the Hertz site via Ryanair as we're flying with them to Grenoble and it works out cheaper and I was planning on booking and paying online. Cost of a renault scenic with 2 child seats was working out at about 420 but I was worried about being asked to stump up a lot of extra cash when we collect the car. Don't understand all the insurance stuff tbh.

Lemonade_Pockets

As a general rule for most car hire companies.

You pay the fee for the rental in advance, depending on the company and country sometimes there are some "small" local charges

When you arrive to pick the car up the hire company will take a swipe of your credit card and block off a certain amount - this can be anything between 250-2000. This is incase you damage the car, if you don't damage the car they don't charge you any money. The reason they block the amount off is too make sure there is sufficent credit on your card should you need to pay up. This is generally reffered to as insurance excess.

loobylou2

When you arrive to pick the car up the hire company will take a swipe of your credit card and block off a certain amount - this can be anything between 250-2000. This is incase you damage the car, if you don't damage the car they don't charge you any money. The reason they block the amount off is too make sure there is sufficent credit on your card should you need to pay up. This is generally reffered to as insurance excess.

Thanks a lot for this, I've heard that you can purchase insurance policies to cover the excess so might have a look at doing that. What do you think about them?? I just don't want to find myself facing a lot of extra costs apart from petrol etc once we've got the car and I try to save the credit on my cards use in emergency situations only. Wish to god that OH had a credit card, then I wouldn't be stuck trying to sort all this out!!!!



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