Rental Cars in UK & Ireland

I don't think rental places generally let you take their cars on the ferry to Ireland (not once, but twice). You would be better off dropping your UK rental and re-renting in Ireland.

It's not out of England, it's off of Great Britian. You can drive all over England, Scotland, and Wales with no issue. If you go into the RoI or Northern Ireland, the ferry companies won't give a whit. Break it while you're over there and it becomes yours. Fix it and get it home or just pay for it and junk it, the choice is yours.
Now you're down to money. If Ireland's in the middle, you might have screwed yourself into three short-term rentals at a steeper daily rate. It sounds nuts, but I've left one sitting at Holyhead, hopped the ferry and rented another one one the other side, turned it in, then come back to the original. I've never found the Fishguard ferry to suit my needs, nor the one from Scotland to Belfast. Cheapo flights might work, probably Ryan. Play with it. For information, Hertz is closest to the terminal at Holyhead if you're turning it in. Everwho the other two are require a good hike. If possible, fly into the big island and out of the little one. If possible, use kayak to see if you can't find a better deal on a car since you might be able to do better. If possible, beg Nancy to tell you who to rent from in Ireland - - she's been happy with the people she uses - - I've never been anything but teeth-grinding mad with what I've tried.

Actually, I was told specifically by the agent that we could not take the car into either Wales or Scotland, but must stay within England. This did not sound correct, but I don't want to wait to get to the car rental place & have a problem. I may try calling one of the other rental companies directly & try to find one that will work for our plans to go throughout the UK & Ireland. Another option Rick mentioned in his Great Britain guidebook is to just lease a car for 3 weeks. In that case, we should be able to take the car anywhere we want. Has anyone ever done that? If so, what are the advantages & disadvantages?

The first paragraph is hogwash from a person that thinks Wales and Scotland are part of England. Either that or it's some kind of minor agency. It makes no sense. I routinely rent in one and drop in the other - - rented in Edinburgh, drove in Wales, dropped in England last month. And in November. And in ..... Probably used a different outfit each time, beats me. 'Should' is pretty dangerous. I'd get that one nailed down in blood. I've never understood the Ireland business. Northern Ireland is part of the UK, so you're still in the same country. There's no barrier between it and the Republic. You can take a rental from either end of the island to the other end. You can rent a car in the UK and take it onto the continent and vice versa. There's Internet rumors about not being able to take UK rentals onto the UK islands (Orks, Hebs, Arran) - - the folks at the counters look at you like you're nuts when you ask them about it. Be careful, don't let wishful thinking ut your tail in the wringer. Above all, don't be influenced by somebody telling you that they've done it - - there's been any number of postings here about people taking cars across the Irish Sea and back - - the fact that they didn't have a problem was all that made them successful.

I suggest that you contact Autoeurope and get, in writing, what their policies would be concerning your itinerary. You might even find a better price. Be clear about whether you mean to travel to Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic, or both. I do know that Ireland (Rep. of) is one of the countries treated differently by cc companies when it comes to rental car coverage. Basically, they exclude it. I have also seen, on some rental contracts, the specific mention of not taking the car on ferries. Of course, all the policies may vary from one company to another. That's why I say get it in writing from which ever company you choose; and then stick to their rules. If you don't, and something happens, I'm absolutely sure they'll say your insurance is invalid.

My tail sits in a rental car somewhere in the world for six months out of the year. Two places tie for the last places I would go for information: anybody in the United States and Autoeurope. I've explored leasing, but it never suited my needs. I've never heard of a good British program similar to the ones on the continent. I've never leased. I've seen British and Irish cars on the ferries, but don't know who owned them. Two incidents apply to my initial response: Autoeurope I hate them, but still use them if they clearly have the best deal. In fairness, their site won't let you book from Great Britain to Ireland - - I just checked. (The Hertz site will at a cost of £1148 for two weeks, but keeping it on Great Britain drops the cost to £248, which is okay, but about seventy-five bucks higher than what I'd expect to pay if I worked at it for five minutes. I'm not sure I'd take it regardless of the price since it might turn sour at the counter when the computers are out of the loop.) I put the May Scotland trip together from Tasmania since I was only going to have a few hours at home to cut the grass and recombobulate myself. Understand that Autoeurope is a consolidator/middleman. They take your money, but the actual contract is with whomever they foist you off upon. I was given to Alamo at Edinburgh. In the UK, one consortium owns Alamo, National, and Europcar and they share the same counter. As it worked out the actual contract was on one company, liveried by a second, and, I think, turned in at Manchester to the third.

When I made the reservation I got a pending notification with a confirmation expectation in an hour. It had to do with the potential cost of a second-city drop (unusual, but not unheard of). A copy of something they'd sent to somebody (addressee coded) popped up on my email, but nothing else - - this had to do with the extra cost, so it kind of made sense. I never received the actual confirmation voucher After a few days with the mess still hanging, I called them - - no satisfaction. A couple days later the same thing. A couple more and I asked for a supervisor. It turned out that that they'd never notified me, but the response was sitting in the 'my trips' section of their site. I asked about the extra cost: nope, it wasn't going to cost anything and so-said the voucher. I asked about the UK island business because what I'd read here (although in November I'd taken a Europcar to the Outer Hebs and Orks after asking the same question (having read about it here but knowing it was allowed) and was planning to spend a couple days on Arran - - nope, no ferries, no islands.

Moving right along, when I picked up the car there was going to be an extra charge for the Manchester drop, but there would have been for Glasgow or anywhere else as well. No real harm, I picked them because they were the low bidder and the bottom line was within a few bucks of the next guy. But, since I'd already paid Autoeurope, I couldn't do what I normally do with a bum deal which is to take the bid over to the next counter and, out of spite, ask them to beat it - - which everybody does. At the desk, and ever-mindful of the superiorly accurate Helpline and squirrelly AE, I asked about taking the car onto Arran: nope, not a problem; then about the Hebs and Orks: still not a problem. So much for Autoeurope, they don't have their act together, which is why I don't use them much and which is why they're off my list for a couple of more years. They can't give you anything binding in writing, since you're not executing a contract with them - - the binding contract happens at the rental counter, anything prior is just a reservation and a deposit.

Talking to Americans I knew in my heart Great Britain - Irleand couldn't be done since I'd been down the road (leaving a car in Holyhead once) a couple of times. A posting here a couple years back said it could and the poster said they'd actually talked to a U. S. rep who said it wasn't an issue. A couple more people posted that they'd done it too (remember that the ferry dudes don't care). I cross a lot of international borders with rentals and it's always a passport deal rather than a registration check - - I don't know what it would be in your case, obviously. Anyway, I picked up the phone and called a rental desk at London City, asked the question and got a 'hell no', the same answer from the supervisor. That far back, I've no idea which agencies were involved. Good luck. Please let us know how it works out. Sorry about the book, but you might be about to fall through the ice.

Many thanks for all the great advice! After much discussion, we are thinking of dropping off our rental car in either Glascow or Edinburgh & getting a cheap flight there to Dublin. We would pick up a new rental car in Dublin & drive throughout the Republic of Ireland (skipping N. Ireland entirely)for a week. Returning the car to Dublin, we would get another cheap flight to Heathrow the day before our flight back to the States. Any thoughts or suggestions before we make further arrangements?

Judy, if you have not booked your international flights yet (or if there's any way you can change them - even if you get dinged with a change fee), consider setting things up so you fly in to London, and fly home from Dublin. Why? Two good reasons: 1. Open-jaws. You save critical time and money (and often headaches) by avoiding having to circle back to your arrival point to depart. This is generally true, but specially so in your case, where your trip takes you to the UK. 2. Departure taxes. England imposes very steep taxes and airport fees for passengers upon departure - a lot more than most people realize. For a couple or large family these costs quickly add up to a sizable sum. You only pay the big fees if you fly out of the UK - you do NOT pay them when flying in to the UK. If you can fly in to London but fly home from Dublin, you can save hundreds of dollars in these fees (if you have a ticket home leaving from Dublin to the US but your connection goes through London, you should still realize most of the cost savings). Add that to the savings you realize by going open jaws and it can make a huge difference. Be sure to consider your options. Cheers.

Judy, a few weeks we flew into Heathrow, did London for a few days, found a lo-cost inter EU airline on Skyscanner.com and next flew to Dublin. (make sure that you read the luggage restrictions and understand which airport your lo-cost airline uses!) We picked up a rental car in Dublin, drove and explored from East to West and flew back home out of Shannon, on the second leg of our open-jaw ticket. No back tracking to Dublin. No into and out of London. We have found that flying open-jaw (Flying into one city and out of another) is usually cheaper and much more convenient. Make sure that you check rental car prices using the Autoeurope website. You can use their website and fiddle with pick-up and drop off locations, cars, rental agencies, etc. They are a broker, based in Maine that handles all of the majors. After you use them, check prices using Kayak, Costco, etc. Make sure that you CAREFULLY read the contract SO YOU UNDERSTND ALL OF THE CHARGES. Ensure that you; 1.rent the smallest car you can find 2.get an automatic 3.bring your GPS and a Michelin map
4.are fully insured. (everybody we know damaged their rental in Ireland!) We usually use our VISA to cover the Excess(collision and theft deductible) not covered by the rental agency, but no credit card will cover Ireland, so we bought a cheap supplemental policy from a UK broker, that covered many more things than the $16/day policy the rental agency wanted to charge me.

Thanks for the advice. We know about open jaws, however, we booked our flights using FF miles a year ago & must fly home from Heathrow at this point or pay a huge premium to change. After pricing out car rentals & flights in/out Ireland, we decided to rent our car from Europe By Car who will rent us a car that we can take into both N.Ireland & the Rep. of Ireland for an extra fee. Can you recommend a reputable UK broker who will sell us insurance for Ireland?

Need car hire or van hire, you can check different car rentals. Once I have tried LU car rental. They provide different rang of cars and vans and all cars & vans are fully insured and come with breakdown cover when travelling outside the UK.

After being told by 2 different Capital One Venture Visa benefits dept. reps that our credit card would not cover us in Ireland, I read all the fine print in their terms & conditions & found that we would not be covered if the rental originated in Ireland. We are planning to pick up & drop off our car at Heathrow. I asked to speak to the dept. supervisor who eventually confirmed this after I read her the text from their terms & conditions & insisted that she double-check (which took a couple days). It's a great deal -- not only are there no foreign transaction fees, there is no deductible, all physical damage to the car is covered (even the windshield & tires) & we're also covered in case of the car being stolen. We can now breathe a lot easier during our trip, knowing that we are fully covered. It pays to read the fine print & insist on your rights!

Good luck with that, Judy. After a bad experience, I will never again trust credit card insurance in Ireland. I, too, checked repeatedly before my trip, had it writing, etc. But when I had a small accident, the card found a reason to deny my claim, leaving me on the hook for the damages. Even the rental car company went to bat for me, to no avail. Claims are so complex, and so many things can go wrong - and they will take any opportunity to deny. Of course, they knew that I would not pursue it, since it would cost much more to take it to court than I would get back if I won.

You think you've solved the insurance question - - maybe, maybe not. Now, have you found a rental agency that will let you take a car across the Irish Sea?

I confirmed with Europe By Car that we can take the car into N.Ireland & the Rep. of Ireland. They made sure we have a certain class of car that is allowed & we are paying an extra fee for 8-13 days specifically for Ireland (they have other prices for other lengths of time). I guess we will just take our chances with the credit card insurance. Thanks again to everyone for their suggestions.