Cross border car rental Spain/France

poet123

We intend to meet up with friends in S of France after driving up from Spain. We are flying back from Barcelona so the car will be returned to Spain. In several of the car hire companies small print it seems to say the rental car cannot cross the border.

Never thought about this before and when we were in Portugal we went to Spain without a thought......is this a usual exclusion,do all companies have it.....is there any way round it except not to tell,and hope for the best!!!

TIA

dzug1

It's quite a usual condition with some of the smaller Spanish hire companies.

If you go for one of the majors like Hertz there shouldn't be a problem.

terryw

poet123 wrote: »

We intend to meet up with friends in S of France after driving up from Spain. We are flying back from Barcelona so the car will be returned to Spain. In several of the car hire companies small print it seems to say the rental car cannot cross the border.

Never thought about this before and when we were in Portugal we went to Spain without a thought......is this a usual exclusion,do all companies have it.....is there any way round it except not to tell,and hope for the best!!!

TIA

Just a bump here. I would like to know the answer as well. Any ideas other than Poet's kind input?

terryw

poet123

I have found a couple of companies where they don't have it in the small print,and a couple which say if you intend to cross borders you need to tell them upfront, and there may be an additional charge. Of course, the bigger companies are not as competitively priced.......but not telling is not really an option, as I suspect the insurance would be void if you had an accident across a border,so not worth risking

dzug1

Not only would the insurance be void if you illicitly crossed a border but you might be regarded as having stolen the thing.

poet123

Now I have had a response from a small provider(who had a good price)but who had in its T&C;s a ban on border crossing. They now tell me that for an extra 10 euro per day the insurance would cover this,but as we are only going to be in France for 4 days out of a rental period of 20 days, I have asked them to clarify if the surcharge is applicable only for the days over the border, or the whole rental period.

I Will post the response in case anyone else is interested.

Email response said only the period in France,so 40 euro,which is not too bad. FYI, this was from Victoriacars.com who have collections and drop off points at most major Spanish airports and were recommended by the owner of the villa we are renting.