How to Rent a Car in Europe? Things You Should Know about Renting a Car

Renting a car in Europe. It’ s not a complicated topic, but there are legends about how to rent a car. In my opinion, there is no single, proven method that works all over the world. In this post I will tell you how we rent a car in Europe and in Turkey (usually my partner does it).

I will also tell you about how car insurance works and what to keep in mind if we have a car crash or someone damages the car. Hopefully, this will protect you from the mistakes we made.

How to Rent a Car in Europe?

We start by checking prices on popular comparison sites: rentalcars, kayak, arguscarhire, ryanair and wizzair. The last two use rentalcars and arguscarhire algorithms, but prices can be different. We rent through wizzair saving several euros/week.

We check websites of rental companies. As a result, we recently managed to rent a car 40% cheaper than the price shown in rentalcars, because directly on the rental company’s website there was a discount for a particular model. Also, if anyone thinks that this type of sites always have the lowest prices, they are sadly mistaken. Such a research requires spending more time on the search, but the savings when renting a mid-range car can reach up to 50 euro/week, and when renting the cheapest car you will save up to 20 euro.

Important! Price is important, but it is always worth checking reviews. Why? Checking reviews is necessary if you want to get a refund of blocked money.

Rent a Car in Europe Without a Credit Card

If you want to rent a car without a block on your account, you can look for small rental companies – we did so several times in Greece, but usually these were cars after many rentals and did not drive very comfortably. Yes, you can rent a car directly from a large rental company and buy insurance there, but this is often much (even several times) more expensive.

How to Choose a Car?

This, in addition to insurance and price, is one of the most important points. Not because of the color or model, but because of driving comfort. For example, in Malta the streets are extremely tight and it is worth renting a smaller car, because not only will we have a better ride, but we will find a parking space more easily. This is worth paying attention to, as a car that is too big can sometimes ruin our plans.

What else? It’s nice, if it’s possible, to connect your phone to the car’s radio. Then we can listen to our favorite music or connect navigation.

Car Rental: with or without Insurance?

At comparison sites such as rentalcars, when placing an order, we have the option of buying full insurance for, for example, 10 euros/day, depending on the region. The purchase of such insurance does not release us from the deposit taken from our card when we pick up the car. In case of damage, the money is taken from the card and we then apply for reimbursement to the insurer (usually).

If we don’t want to block the money on our credit card, we should rather buy insurance directly from the rental company, through the website or at the time of rental (not recommended due to the high cost – up to 180 euros per week).

There is also a third option, insurance with an external company not affiliated with a price comparison or rental company. We can insure for the duration of the rental, e.g. for a week it is a cost of £23, or buy annual insurance for £52.5, if we intend to rent a car more than once a year. You can read about the cons of external insurance below.

Is It Worth Buying Rental Car Insurance?

Whenever we rent a car on vacation, we buy insurance. Most often external, that is, from a company other than the rental company, because it just works out cheaper that way.

The cost of annual insurance from Worldwide Insurance covering Europe is 52.5 pounds, and weekly insurance is 23 pounds (115 PLN). In comparison, the cost of the same insurance for a week’s rental through, for example, rentalcars is about 50 euros. Rental companies also offer full insurance, but it often costs more than 70 euros per week. Goldcar offered us in Tenerife full insurance without a block on the card for 180 euros. Often people buy such insurance when picking up the car at the airport, as the issuers of the car convince customers that they are responsible for up to 100% of the value of the car if such insurance is not purchased, which is not true.

Rental Car Insurance – What to Pay Attention to?

First, read reviews, ask friends and know the procedures, for example, in case of damage you need to take a photo of the damage. Before picking up the car, you should look at it from all sides, mark the defects or abrasions on the card that the rental company will present to you (in most cases) and if not, ask for it.

If you opt for external insurance, in case of damage to the car you will have to pay the costs first, later the money will be returned to you by the insurance company. Of course, if you meet the conditions, you will fill a damage form at the rental company and take a photo of the car registration and damage.

Important! Often, if you take external insurance, a certain amount is blocked on your card – from several hundred to even several thousand euros. If you plan to travel in different zones, for example, go to snowy mountains when it is warm and sunny on the coast, it is worth checking the issue of winter tires.

What to Watch out for When Insuring a Rental Car?

First of all, before buying a policy, check in the terms and conditions what is required in case of damage, what documents will be needed. Pay attention to such things as:

– payment for the damage by card or bank transfer, not cash, because then the insurance company may refuse to refund, even if you have confirmation of payment (as we did in Greece),

– taking accurate photographs of the damage as well as the license plate, without photos the insurer will probably refuse to refund the money,

– check the car in the presence of an employee before renting as well as when returning and sign the condition of the car, if you do not have a report of damage you will not get a refund for the damage,

– in the case when an employee didn’t mark some damage on the protocol, ask him to put such damage on the protocol, in case of ignoring this you can be charged after returning the car for the damage not caused by you,

– take pictures of any damage before renting the car;if you rent a car at night, a flashlight may be useful.

Rental Car insurance. Why They Didn’t Refund the Money?

While on holidays we often rent a car. We always buy insurance, often with a separate company, because it works out cheaper that way. Recently, we tried a new form of insurance, named annual insurance, which is useful for more than one trip. And this time something went wrong.

Damage of a car on vacation

Nothing big happened. In Greece, we had to change a wheel on a rental car. The car was insured, but first we had to pay for the tire, then the insurance company refunds the money. The cost was 25 euros, we were in a hurry to get to the airport so we paid in cash and therefore did not get a refund. More on this in the next paragraph.

Procedures for Cash Refund for Car Insurance

While still at the rental company we were given a form in which we stated what happened, that the payment was made in cash, etc. Upon our return, we immediately wrote to the insurer (Worldwide Insure) that we were requesting a cash refund. The insurer asked for scans of everything and noted that it was a cash payment, then we were asked for all the scans again. Something didn’t sit right with us, but after a few days we got an answer:

CASH PAYMENT – not suitable for return.

Nothing more could be done. We did not even think that something could be wrong because all the required information was on the form. It is true that 25 euros is not a fortune. But if it had been a larger amount or in the case of life/health insurance some small defect would have affected the refund, could have ended really badly.

Unfortunately, in the case of large corporations, we are often helpless. Therefore, if I had to advise someone on how to get their money back, there is one recipe for it: a lot of patience until you get the result and do everything according to procedure.

Remember, if you forget/do not read about a small thing then your insurance could be worth NOTHING. From my experience with insurance is that the cash to be refunded has to be RECLAIMED to the result.

Car rental – Why Am I Writing about This?

I am writing you about it so that you know, because it is not talked about enough. It is not enough to sign a contract hoping that someone will be fair to us. Every insurance company has its tricks ? It is worth remembering this.

Rented car and a car crash

Renting a car on holidays is incredibly easy. However, there are things that are more difficult. And that is insurance, or more precisely, reimbursement in case of damage to the car. It doesn’t matter if it’s a car crash or a defect that you didn’t notice sooner. The procedures can sometimes be exhausting.

Damage to a rental car. What to do?

If you have insurance, don’t panic. Think about what to do so that the insurance company gives you money back. In Greece we made a mistake we had never read about anywhere before: we paid for the damage in cash. And that’s why Worldwide insurer declined to refund. Despite the fact that we completed all the formalities.

How to Get Money Back from the Rental Car Insurer?

Recently in Tenerife we scraped the bumper on the chassis side for about 7 cm (5 is allowed). This was not visible without bending down or using a mirror as the employee picking up the car did. We took a photo of the car registration and the damage. We wanted the damage form, but Goldcar did not want to issue it on the spot, they promised to send it by email up to a few hours. We paid for the damage by card, that is, it was charged by Goldcar rental company a few days after we returned home. 220 euros.

We still did not get the form, and calling Goldcar was a miracle, after several phone calls (online they have 30 days to respond) we managed to get the document.

We then applied for a refund to the insurance company. After filing the claim, Worldwide Insure wanted Goldcar to provide a bill for repairing the car. Goldcar didn’t have such a bill, because most likely no one repaired the scrape. I don’t know how, but after a month we got a cash refund, unfortunately exchange rate differences were deducted (credit card in another currency) for about 10%. However, it is always better to lose only on the currency conversion than those 220 euros for the damage.

How to Rent a Car?

If you have any advice, your experience with renting a car and its insurance, let me know in the comments. I’m eager to learn, and I’m sure I’m not the only person who reads the comments.

I am curious how you guys rent a car on vacation. Let me know!