Hiring a car in California

Casey1709

I hope to visit California in August and I was thinking about hiring a car to get around and maybe visit nevada as well. Will my pink paper licence be OK or do I need a new photo licence?

When I was there last (1983?) I did a one way drive where someone moved house but not all their cars, so I got to use their car between LA and Dallas. I think it was called Driveaway, do these companies still exist?

sturll

If you ask a hundred different people who is the best for car hire in the USA you will get loads of answers.

I can guarantee you though the most common will be:

https://www.usrentacar.co.uk

and

http://www.carhire3000.com/

In regard to your license you can hire with what you have - I have yet to hear of any hire car company dictating policies of the DVLA. Although i would certainly get confirmation of this prior to booking.

old_motters

It would be safer to have a photo licence, even if paper is accepted you'll spend a lot longer at the counter while they figure out whether to accept it or not.

You will need a car in California, for peace of mind, I'd recommend sticking to the named brands (hertz, avis, alamo, national) as they offer packages to international visitors with the insurance you need (LDW, CDW etc). It's easier to get help if things go wrong, and their car lots are usually much nearer the airports.

sturll

old_motters wrote: »

It would be safer to have a photo licence, even if paper is accepted you'll spend a lot longer at the counter while they figure out whether to accept it or not.

You will need a car in California, for peace of mind, I'd recommend sticking to the named brands (hertz, avis, alamo, national) as they offer packages to international visitors with the insurance you need (LDW, CDW etc). It's easier to get help if things go wrong, and their car lots are usually much nearer the airports.

Why would it be safer?

If you don't need one you don't need one end of.

Also, by advising the OP to look to the companies you mentioned directly then you will hugely increase her costs. If she booked through a broker as i suggested she will still hire with the big companies but will pay much less.
Additionally every single US car hire company either through a broker or directly offers as a bare minimum all the insurance she would need.

neilbond007

sturll wrote: »

If you ask a hundred different people who is the best for car hire in the USA you will get loads of answers.

I can guarantee you though the most common will be:

www.usrentacar.co.uk

and

http://www.carhire3000.com/

In regard to your license you can hire with what you have - I have yet to hear of any hire car company dictating policies of the DVLA. Although i would certainly get confirmation of this prior to booking.

Don't forget https://www.netflights.com (always found these the cheapest )

MORPH3US

Ditto Netflights from me although carhire3000 are also supposed to be very good.

I used netflights who are basically a middle man for Dollar. Very smooth hire indeed.

sturll

neilbond007 wrote: »

Don't forget www.netflights.com (always found these the cheapest )

There's always one

old_motters

sturll wrote: »

Why would it be safer?

If you don't need one you don't need one end of.

Also, by advising the OP to look to the companies you mentioned directly then you will hugely increase her costs. If she booked through a broker as i suggested she will still hire with the big companies but will pay much less.
Additionally every single US car hire company either through a broker or directly offers as a bare minimum all the insurance she would need.

Safer? Maybe, maybe not, a photo licence may save time at the check in desk though.

I quite agree about using a broker and I regret not mentioning it now, I've never booked direct and find ebookers to be the cheapest. I've yet to use netflights and will definitely take a look next time I'm heading stateside.

neilbond007

sturll wrote: »

There's always one

And it's always me

MORPH3US

sturll wrote: »

There's always one

One what?!?!?

I'm confuzled

Jfuller

We've used uscarhire.co.uk this year as we found it to be cheapest for picking up in California and dropping in Nevada.