FenTiger

If you are a frequent visitor to Hungary and/or retain a UK driving licence these CAR HIRE changes below take effect from 8th June 2015.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/d...icence-changes

Haven't read through it all properly yet but tabloid newspapers comment it's a pain, not set up properly and not everyone working in car hire knows about it.

TerryandBrigi

Good to know....God spot !!
Hopefully not going to be too much hassle, as gotta hire 15 seater minibus in August, bringing entire family over. Could be awkward if Hire co.s get in a muddle. Sure it will be fine by then though.

John Gilbert

When everyone gets used to it, it will be good to only have to carry the photo card licence, as other countries have done for years. In the meantime nothing stops one holding on to the paper part, while hire car companies inform their staff. Good news.

I hired a car a couple of weeks back & found that Eurocar (the Easyjet partner) check the address on the licence against the electoral register. If they don't match, they need the non UK address where no such test exists.

FenTiger

I wonder how frequent we will be expected to print off or request by post details what's on my driving licence? i.e. suppose I hire a car on three different occasions throughout a year do I need to print off new updated driving licence details or could I use the first one? Obviously it sounds like a rip off, i.e. £5 to request by post, no fee mentioned about online but .... I doubt it will be free!

scrubbedexpat0105

The article in the Mirror (at least) makes it sound as though hire-car firms won't be used to the idea of points not being shown on the licence. In fact this is normal in some other countries, notably Germany, which must account for a substantial contingent of hire-car users in Hungary.

At least you can get DVLC to state your points over the phone. You can't even do that with the German system – it's post or online only ("online" in this case means that you must have the very latest German ID card and have activated the electronic identification system). Using my German licence, I hired a car in the UK last week, but wasn't asked for documentation of my points; if I had been, it would have been the end of the road for me, so to speak.

Holding a licence from a country other than the one in which you live seems to be a more likely cause of problems.

Peter_in_Hungary

What do car hire firms do with any points info they may see anyway?

I have hired a car in the UK using my Hungarian licence (standard EU style licence) several times with no questions asked.

FenTiger

Has anyone tried using the new DVLA system? I'm gone as far as asking for a code but haven't clicked on that yet. Will try it out a month before I head out to Hungary and if it fails ..... will have to post a cheque for £5 to get a paper version!