Can I Hire A Car With A Paper Licence?

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                Car Hire With A Paper Licence?

                In the Uk, the paper counterpart of the photocard driving licence was abolished, meaning that they’re no longer valid – the photocard licence is typically all that is needed to hire a car.

                However, a question that we’re asked a lot is whether it’s possible to hire a car with a paper licence – and if your licence was issued before 1st April 1999, the answer is yes.

                The photocard licence was only introduced in April 1999, meaning that if you passed your test before that date, you would have been issued just the paper licence and would never have received a photocard. If this is the case, you will only need your paper licence to be able to hire a car, as licences issued before the photocard was introduced are still perfectly valid.

                If your licence was issued after 1999 and you did receive a photocard, you will need that to be able to hire a car – in most cases you wouldn’t be able to hire without it. However, if you’ve lost/misplaced your photocard and are looking to rent in the Uk, do get in touch with us, as we can help with this in some locations.

                Do I need to pass a credit check if using my debit card to hire?

                If renting a car in the UK and you are a UK resident most of the large multinational suppliers will carry out an electronic address check to ensure you have strong enough links to the address provided. However most of the suppliers with the exception of 1 or 2, still carry out the same checks so not unique to when you need to hire via a debit card. Key indicator are if you are named on the Electoral Register and named on the council tax bill.

                When renting a car overseas as an inbound client our suppliers do not carry out any checks.

                Do I need to leave a deposit if hiring with a debit card?

                Most suppliers do require a security deposit when renting a car, in the UK we have a range of options. The best value suppliers would request a £200.00 – £300.00 deposit. However we do have selected locations where our supplier does not require any deposit, so a full zero deposit.

                In Europe we have options where you can just leave a fuel deposit of 110 EUR, and there is no mandatory requirement to take the Super Cover as this can be the case with some of the smaller budget suppliers.

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