UK Car Hire for over 75s.

[Kalahari]

Hello all, I wonder if anybody has any concrete information on where to go and where to avoid. My sister is visiting in the spring and would like to hire a car for a bit. Any help much appreciated. Please don't tell the rental company that she did drive NASCAR stuff for a bit of fun!

Many thanks,

David.

 

[VSS]

Can't help specifically with recommendations for the over 75s, but does your sister have a photo driving licence? My wife and I both have the old paper driving licences (by virtue of the fact that we haven't moved house or changed names or anything since the photo versions were introduced, so have never needed to send them away for updating), and this has not been accepted by some car hire companies.

 

[Husky]

A friend of mine works for a family owned car and can rental company, I have just asked him and he says they will hire to over 75's, with a foreign licence, they also accept UK paper licences.

They are part of United Rentals Group.

Car and Van Hire UK

Hire a car, van or truck with United Rental System. Save money on vehicle hire and find your local Licensee in one of our 700 locations near you.

unitedrentalsystem.co.uk

 

[Kalahari]

Thankyou, any more information always welcome.

David.

 

[opticron1]

Always used Enterprise in the past for cars and vans, decent prices if you get a deal or give plenty of notice. Lots of bases around the country. Have been "upgraded" if a car was out of stock, but didn't tend to blow the budget.

 

[kenbro]

Just pre Covid Wifey and I wanted to clear a mobile home out.
Went to hire a van and had to hire in Wifey’s name because they couldn’t / wouldn’t ? entertain me because I’d passed 70.
Ken.

 

[enfieldspares]

Be aware of any damage excess. Have a **** park next to you in a supermarket car park and on opening their door they put a crease in your door and that's £100 plus down the lavatory. Or by your own fault grind the rim of the alloy wheels on a high curb that's again "Goodbye £100". Most companies now no longer have a zero excess option. So it pays to see which have the least excess.

 

[enfieldspares]

Just pre Covid Wifey and I wanted to clear a mobile home out.
Went to hire a van and had to hire in Wifey’s name because they couldn’t / wouldn’t ? entertain me because I’d passed 70.
Ken.

Beware of possibility of accusations of "fronting" is all I'd say.

 

[kenbro]

Beware of possibility of accusations of "fronting" is all I'd say.

Hi, I know what fronting is but don’t understand why it might have been involved in this instance.
Thanks, Ken.

 

[enfieldspares]

Hi, I know what fronting is but don’t understand why it might have been involved in this instance.
Thanks, Ken.

Thank you for taking it in good faith it was meant.

For those that don't here's an explanation. Fronting is where a person of lower insurance risk takes out a contract involving insurance (either directly or indirectly) whereas the actual person who will do all or the majority of the task the risks of which the insurance covers against is a higher risk individual. It's often done on car insurance where "Mum" takes out a policy on a car (with the seventeen year old son listed as a named driver) when actually 85% or even 95% of the driving was always intended to be done by the son.

With KENBRO's van it'd be if the hirer was his good lady bit in fact he, Kenbro, was doing all of the driving under "any other driver" permission. So I am guessing in his case the hire company didn't even permit him to drive it at all?

 

[kenbro]

Hi es;
That’s correct, wifey hired it and wifey had to drive it.
She was not best pleased, not being used to big van driving but we survived intact.
Thanks, Ken.

 

[Jagare]

I was over in the UK about a month ago and hired a car. I'm in my 75th year and it was no different than any other time I've hired a car in the past.

 

[8x57]

Can't help specifically with recommendations for the over 75s, but does your sister have a photo driving licence? My wife and I both have the old paper driving licences (by virtue of the fact that we haven't moved house or changed names or anything since the photo versions were introduced, so have never needed to send them away for updating), and this has not been accepted by some car hire companies.

I've no idea how they deal with foreign driving licenses but since the paper part of the two part U.K. license (the part that showed driving convictions) was dropped vehicle hire companies have had to apply online to DVLC to ensure that you are qualified to drive a vehicle. It causes problems sometimes as when the link fails.

Also the DVLC system is not infallible as I was able to hire vehicles several times with Swansea being contacted on each occasion despite unknown to me I had no valid license for over 8 years. Their error/confusion over expiry dates of car and LGV entitlement. The matter has since been resolved and I now have a valid license.

P.S. My wife still has the old green paper license and has no intention of changing it for a photo license.

 

[kenbro]

Just pre Covid Wifey and I wanted to clear a mobile home out.
Went to hire a van and had to hire in Wifey’s name because they couldn’t / wouldn’t ? entertain me because I’d passed 70.
Ken.

Could have worded this better.
Instead of saying ‘Had to hire in Wifey’s name’, should have said ‘Wifey hired it’.
Ken.

 

[Jagare]

Do you still have paper licences in the UK?
only every had a plastic one since I've been here a lot easier than all these paper things. Same as our gun licences. They are all credit card size. These days all our info is just the press of a few buttons away on the computer

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Do you still have paper licences in the UK?
only every had a plastic one since I've been here a lot easier than all these paper things. Same as our gun licences. They are all credit card size. These days all our info is just the press of a few buttons away on the computer

FAC/SGC big paper still seems daft to me. OK the SGC can be filled in by yourself but as an FAC is to be filled in by FEO why not a credit card size? The tech is all out there

 

[Jagare]

The Swedish Road tax stamp was done away with some years back as all info is available to the police on their computer. We also use the driving licence as a form of ID .lf I want to pick up a parcel from the post counter in the supermarket I just show my drivers licence.
Whether people like it or not computers are here to stay so it may as well be a joined up system.

 

[8x57]

FAC/SGC big paper still seems daft to me. OK the SGC can be filled in by yourself but as an FAC is to be filled in by FEO why not a credit card size? The tech is all out there

I'm not sure what you mean, you've got me puzzled there.

 

[8x57]

Do you still have paper licences in the UK?
only every had a plastic one since I've been here a lot easier than all these paper things. Same as our gun licences. They are all credit card size. These days all our info is just the press of a few buttons away on the computer

Yes many still have paper driving licenses which don't need to be changed unless for some reason your circumstances change such as you change address.
Credit card sized photo licenses were introduced a long time ago and originally the license was in two parts. The credit card plus a separate paper sheet where driving endorsements would be entered. Then a few years back they did away with the paper element as these records are now kept on computer by DVLC. The photo licenses have to be renewed every ten years so that the photograph is kept up to date, many people don't realise this and if you don't renew it's seen as not having a valid license (with a fine of £1,500 I think?).

I'm not sure but I think that they've cleverly linked your passport photo to your driving license. It's probably a way of slyly introducing photo identity cards to the U.K. without admitting it because many still object to I.D. cards which is a "foreign thing". Since you left the country the government introduced a requirement to produce photo I.D. when voting, no doubt as a result of electoral fraud within certain areas and communities in the country. Unfortunately this has caused problems as significant numbers of the community hold neither a passport or a driving license in particular older persons.

 

[Jagare]

Yes many still have paper driving licenses which don't need to be changed unless for some reason your circumstances change such as you change address.
Credit card sized photo licenses were introduced a long time ago and originally the license was in two parts. The credit card plus a separate paper sheet where driving endorsements would be entered. Then a few years back they did away with the paper element as these records are now kept on computer by DVLC. The photo licenses have to be renewed every ten years so that the photograph is kept up to date, many people don't realise this and if you don't renew it's seen as not having a valid license (with a fine of £1,500 I think?).

I'm not sure but I think that they've cleverly linked your passport photo to your driving license. It's probably a way of slyly introducing photo identity cards to the U.K. without admitting it because many still object to I.D. cards which is a "foreign thing". Since you left the country the government introduced a requirement to produce photo I.D. when voting, no doubt as a result of electoral fraud within certain areas and communities in the country. Unfortunately this has caused problems as significant numbers of the community hold neither a passport or a driving license in particular older persons.

Our driving licence is used as a form of ID. If you don't have a driving licence you can get a ID card from the police station. Having a ID card is not compulsory but life here would be very inconvenient if you didn't have ID.
Same as the NI number, I've very rarely used my NI number in the UK but use my Swedish one I use quite regularly.