TRPardoe

I will be in the UK in the last 2 weeks of June, flying into Gatwick.

Anybody had Car Hire experience over there lately as to who has the best deals ?

Dan725

The one I've used on last couple of occasions has been National - not had any trouble and the rates seem to have worked out lowest for a web booking. Also very easy to cancel/change dates.

http://www.nationalcar.co.uk/ukweb/default.jsp

candy wy.

I used 1CAR1 In March. I Found then to be good. they are cheap, you make no payment till you pick up the car.you can book online.

http://www.1car1.com/

strim

If you book well in advance Easyrentacar is very cheap. The rates go up considerably if you are booking last minute. The biggest drawback is the limited pick up locations and one model of car. When I used them it was one of those little Mercedes (C-class?)

ladyofthelake

I like using AutoEurope for car hire. Firstly I can pay in dollars, which is more convinient for me, and secondly I can purchase an all inclusive option. This covers CDW and theft insurance, so no surprises when you turn up to collect the car and have a hefty chunk added to the bill for insurance.

TRPardoe

Thanks for this one. They seem, at first look, to be the cheapest by far.

Elvira

I have had some really good deals through the British Airways website recently, once ended up with Hertz, the other time with Avis. Got a free upgrade each time too.

DK whether this only works if you have a BA booking ref though, but it's worth a try.

One other thing: if you still have a UK credit card + address, use that. For some reason they up the $$$ if they know you're US-based...

leekris

Don't use HERTZ, we filled the tank with petrol at the airport and a few weeks later on my credit card statement had a huge charge from them for a full tank of petrol way overpriced I add, we couldn't do anything about it because we didn't get a receipt, didn't think we had to because they checked the car and asked was the tank full, they must have had my card no on record and just used it to pay for the petrol, what a money making scheme, they knew we couldn't do anything being so far away so we had to pay but we lost them a lot of business. We use Enterprise since and they have been great, even opening up one of their offices for us on a sunday when they were supposed to be closed.

TRPardoe

Didn't know that was legal.

In the past I have used my UK driving licence and Mother's address but with a US credit card. This time I was going to use my FL driving licence.

Any opinions on this ?

ladyofthelake

I've always used my Fl licence with no probs at all. Even used the temporary paper one when it was being renewed last time. They just took a copy of it and said thanks very much.

Dan725

My experience too.

tony126

1car1 now has a facility at Gatwick which they did not have when CandyWY went. I will be using them next Wednesday as I am gone for 4 weeks.

candy wy.

they have no hidden extras the price they quote on the internet is what you pay when you pick up. I picked up at manchester airport not gatwick so have no idea about the service for gatwick. the sevice at manchester was good. cost me 113 GBP for 1 week car hire and this included an out of hours return fee as my flight back was at 6.00am so i had to return the car at 4.00am.

i used my us license.

candy wy.

is the facility at the airport or close by.I hired from manchester, which has no office actually at the airport but it is close to the airport, they do pick you up from the airport. reason given as the cost is to high to operate from the airport.

Bob

Used Hertz, not at gatwick, but the one near the st giles hotel...absolute shite, we had to wait a couple hours because they didn't actually have a car for us even though it was confirmed when rang the night before, and the car died the next day and was a mare getting the RAC to sort it out through hertz.

As for which license to use, don't think it matters...read that someone got better deals using there US license...and another thing...if you get a speeding ticket etc, they generally won't bother follow it up on a foreign license, but if you used your UK one, could get a bit of trouble for not paying the fine etc...