Car hire...

[Craig_G]

I'm considering hiring a car to drive myself and some friends from London and back. It seems do-able for about £50-60 each but wondering what the deposits are like and where the best place to get a good deal? I haven't hired a car in years....

Thanks!

[mouth]

i got a car through europcar when i went to scotland last month. it was easy as. deposit was just a swipe from a valid credit card. also they give you the option to up your insurance. for a small premium it meant that if i had a prang, my fault or anyone elses there was no excess to pay. without that the minimum excess was £600.

[mouikey]

I dunno what its like now, but a few years ago I hired a car through Easycar (yes an Easyjet subsidery), it was £5 per day! The rates have probably gone up, but it was a nice spacious car (up to 7 seats from memory), cheap and easy to drive. There are a number of pick up locations around London.

Alternatively, I also hired a car last April in southern Ireland - it was through Auto Europe (pick up at airport), but got the best deal through OPODO. I know they also do city centre pick ups. As with Mouth, the deposit was a simple swipe of a credit card.

Good luck with finding a good deal.

[gReG s]

I use www.easycar.com all the time and they are almost always cheaper than going to Europcar, Avis, Alamo directly - even though you get the car from any of those. It's llike the planes etc where the further in advance you book the cheaper it is. If you do use easycar you should look at setting up a Quidco account to - you get 10% cash back on your booking if you booking through there! For a weekend (normally Friday to first thing Monday) it's about £80 from one just outside Central London, so I'd reckon it'd be about £200 max from Wed to Mon.

The deposit is indeed just a swipe of a credit card for £500 and then a fuel deposit - if you don't bring the car back full of fuel they'll take the money off it!

[sdean18]

I've hired a Zafira from the Wednesday to the Tuesday, 6 days in total. I booked with National Car Rental and it was £150, They are doing a free upgrade offer at the monent if you pay in advance which i took advantage of. I think my deposit is £700, This varies on the type of car you hire.

[Craig_G]

Yeah, that's what's worrying me. I never use credit cards, so my limit is only a couple of hundred - not enough for the deposit. That's gonna cause me some trouble I think!

[FuddyMucker]

I needed a hire car in Scotland a couple of weeks ago and the deposit was £600...

My biggest concern would be the possible loss of deposit owing to cleaning charges - have you though about the impact of Glasto on a hire car?

Admittedly, we all know that it's going to be dry and sunny throughout... when I took my (company) car in 2007, I was still finding mud in it in November when it went back to the lease company!

Also - the windscreen sticker is virtually impossible to remove so your hire company may have a loss of humour over this (although there is an urban rumour that peanut butter on the back of the sticker loosens the glue - bizarre!)

Hope this helps