TIN or SS# for car rental!

This would be for a Portuguese citizen. As a US citizen, I never been required to furnish any type of number, except my passport at the rental desks, in almost 30 years of renting cars on all the islands, except for Corvo. Corvo does not have car rental agencies.

Can you send me a link/photo of what is showing on your rental form? I believe you already have my email address from previous contact.

Hi Carl, I checked this over again closely and yes, I think you are correct - it’s likely for Portuguese citizens. I used the direct website with Euros an all; the form just isn’t for all countries even though I selected US. Thanks

There are none so bad that I would steer you away from. There are lots of variables as to why agencies get more than their fair share of negative reviews. This can be due to shorter than expected expected hours, older cars (but most often cheaper rates), off-airport location necessitating a shuttle ride which can take a looooong time, not having a shuttle or limited shuttles requiring you to get a taxi, not open on Sundays, and on and on.

As long as you do “due” diligence, such as reading the fine print, knowing the hours of operation, precisely where pick up and drop off will be, size of car you reserve vs. what you actually will require, taking videos and photos of your car prior to leaving the lot, reading honest customer reviews and filtering out reviews where the agency really is not at fault, knowing what your credit card insurance will cover or purchasing a zero deductible policy from the car rental company for peace of mind, you will be fine.

My only gripe after all these years is once having a tiny ding on a car door when I picked it up, documented it in writing AND on video prior to leaving the parking lot at the airport, and when returning it have the check-in guy in the lot not believe me. Really??? Once inside the airport, the issue was put to rest within one minute. My guess is the guy outside was new because this was at a large, reputable company.

Document, document, document.

Yes, I heard that I need to document, plus make sure no sand is left inside or I could get a cleaning bill.

Thanks

Most sites I have encountered had a drop down menu, or if you click on the "TIN" there are other options, including Passport Number. Set it to that and then enter the passport number in the space below.

Not sure what site you are on, so can't really be any more specific.

It had entries for both. Problem solved. I went to their website and it simply wasn’t catering only to the US. I entered “none”.

A national ID number. You’ll see the same type request on some Spanish sites. As you already figured out, you can enter none if no drop down or use the drop-down and select passport.

No overseas country should ask for your SSN.

Yes, I debated about taking this down thinking it was a stupid question until I found something similar elsewhere. Note to anyone from the US filling out foreign online forms: Don’t give your SS#, nor get a TIN number. Simply write none if it can’t be skipped.