Florida Car Hire

[mikehindsonevans]

I have been declined at the counter twice in the USA, mainstream brand at a mainstream airport, when offering a (UK) Visa debit card for starting a hire, which is perfectly accepted at the same rental brand in Britain, and also on their website when booking US hires and prepaying (some of it, there's always extras at the end) in the UK.

There is no problem booking using a debit card or paying for bits and pieces. The issue is their ability to put a substantial hold on the card to ensure you bring the car back, not your ability to pay the fee.

Their country, their rules. We gave the Colonies independence almost 250 years ago.

[mikehindsonevans]

Thanks for all the advice so far, as much as I'd like to hire a muscle car, there's six of us going, so it'll be some sort of large SUV or minivan that we're going for!

If you have already booked, then ignore this next section.
We are visiting the western USA at the end of the year; I watch the moving rates of hire cars from nine months out, to get the best deal.

Currently, car hire rates through the Hertz partnership of Marriott Hotels group are almost HALF the price of AVIS partner bookings via the BA website.
Keep looking - and I echo and endorse the advice about "shop around" .

You should only need your UK photocard driving licence and a credit card (some car hire places ask for two cards just to verify the name). The US car hire system is build on dis-trust.

On the muscle car and six pax front; it may be out of production but we were impressed with the "Town & Country" minivan in 2013 - it flew up through Yosemite and into Oregon to Crater Lake, plus lots of cubbyholes and storage (took half an hour to empty when we got back to SFO). I presume that something within the Chrysler stable has replaced it.

And remember: "in that country, they drive on the wrong side of the road"!

[Vierwielen]

I've used Autoeurope as a consolidator who have pretty clear rates and T&Cs and they give an overview of the different companies. As stated above use the UK site and not the US one. Obviously, you'll need a credit card for most companies, but I had good service from Autoeurope when I had to change my reservation when my bank cancelled my credit card because of unrelated fraud and I had to change to a car hire company that I could use my debit card with.

The International Permit is a translation, so is not much needed when your licence is in English anyway, but it might be required by law in a strict interpretation. The car hire company won't worry.

The IDP is not only a translation of the text, but it also translation of the vehicle categories from those on your licence to the internationally accepted categories. The EU standardised on the international categories, hence the separagte categories of mobile lawn mowers etc that used to appear on the British licence have disappeared.

[Dougman]

Quick update.

The car comes with CDW but not LDW (which I’m going to go for since we’ll have a four year old with us). The LDW at the hire desk costs $25/day so I’ve been getting quotes from various car hire excess insurers that is significantly cheaper. I found one that covers the excess up to £6,000 and “for up to £100,000 in the event of damage, theft or loss to the rental vehicle” Would this be adequate coverage or is there anything else I need to look into?

TIA