Hiring a car in the UK

My wife recently passed her driving test, and we decided to hire a car from Enterprise in Lewisham for a trip to Seven Sisters with our toddler. Neither of us had ever hired a car before. We were nervous about driving a car that we didn't own, and particularly about what we'd be charged in case we damaged the vehicle. In this article, I describe the process end-to-end and what we learned.

Table of contents#

• 1. You need a licence and credit card to hire a car
• 2. Choose where to hire from
  • 2.1. Traditional hire company
  • 2.2. An intermediary
  • 2.3. P2P platform
• 3. Excess insurance is significantly cheaper with standalone cover
• 4. Book early if you can, as prices fluctuate
• 5. Schedule your hire based on the opening hours of the branch
• 6. Our experience with Enterprise
  • 6.1. Enterprise groups cars by tiers
  • 6.2. Add-ons, such as excess cover, cost extra
  • 6.3. Picking up the car
  • 6.4. The drive
  • 6.5. Returning the car
  • 6.6. The final receipt and payment experience was disappointing
• 7. Conclusion

1. You need a licence and credit card to hire a car#

1. Satisfy the minimum age requirement, which varies between hire companies.
2. Full UK driving licence
3. A credit card in the driver's name with space for the hire, and a deposit of £200.
   • Credit cards are preferred because they reduce risk for the hire company (Expedia · Can you use a debit card to rent a car?).
   • If the total hire costs over £100, a credit card also gives you extra protection (MoneySavingExpert · How to book cheap car hire).
   • If you plan to use a debit card, make sure the hire company will accept it ahead of time.

We weren't asked for a DVLA check code (valid for 21 days), but some rental companies may ask for this too.

2. Choose where to hire from#

In this section, we will compare some of the main options in detail. If it's your first hire, I suggest not overthinking it or trying to find the cheapest one. Just make sure you have excess protection. I went with Enterprise mostly because one of my friends recommended it and because they don't have a requirement to have held the licence for at least one year.

2.1. Traditional hire company#

The table below compares some of these hire companies. The Which? column is the customer score from its survey of 3,637 renters drawn from a representative panel. Trustpilot is open to anyone, but it tends to attract the angry minority. From this table, it looks like Arnold Clark is the only decent one, but unfortunately their branch was slightly further away from our place.

* When I called Arnold Clark to enquire, they said time held on a foreign licence counts towards the one-year requirement, so you don't need to have held a UK licence for a full year.

2.2. An intermediary#

A popular intermediary is Booking.com, whose car hire is run by Rentalcars.com. You still collect the car from the car hire company, and you still sign their rental agreement at the counter. Booking.com scored 76% in Which?'s broker survey, behind Zest Car Rental at 90%, its only recommended provider. It could be cheaper to hire via a broker, as they buy in bulk and can pass some of the discount along. However, they may become an extra party to deal with in any dispute.

2.3. P2P platform#

You can rent someone else's car through a peer-to-peer [P2P] platform like Turo.

Turo's plans cap what you owe for damage, and the price is shown at checkout. However, claims processing costs of up to £250 per claim sit on top of the cap, refundable only if a third party's insurer accepts full fault. There is no inspection when you hand the keys back. Instead, you must take photos and upload them within the app.

3. Excess insurance is significantly cheaper with standalone cover#

The excess insurance at most hire companies is very expensive, ranging from about £15 to £40 or more per day. Standalone cover from a separate provider can be a lot cheaper (MoneySavingExpert · How to book cheap car hire). I got many quotes for less than £50 for excess cover for a whole year, including those that covered wheels and glass. Some options cover additional drivers or P2P hires.

However, if you don't buy the car hire company's own insurance, they may require a larger deposit. If there is an incident, they will charge you their excess, and then you'll need to claim back the cost from your own excess insurance provider.

For our first trip, we decided to use the car hire company's own excess cover for convenience.

4. Book early if you can, as prices fluctuate#

I was eyeing an automatic car at around £110 for a Saturday-Sunday 24-hour booking. We delayed making the reservation as my wife was not feeling well. By the time we booked, on the Friday before the trip, the price had jumped by about £40. Book early with free cancellation, and set a reminder to cancel in time if your plans change.

5. Schedule your hire based on the opening hours of the branch#

A rental day at Enterprise is exactly 24 hours, with a 29-minute grace period. At weekends, you also need to factor in that branch opening times may be reduced. Our local branch at Lewisham is generally open from 08:00 to 18:00, but only from 08:00 to 14:00 on Saturdays and from 11:00 to 15:00 on Sundays. Because a full day is 24 hours, we could not pick up before 11:00 on Saturday, since the earliest we could return the car on Sunday was 11:00.

At airports, you'll likely find better opening hours on weekends, in addition to lower prices.

6. Our experience with Enterprise#

6.1. Enterprise groups cars by tiers#

At Enterprise, rather than choosing a specific model, you're offered a tier. For a Saturday-Sunday hire two weeks away at my local Lewisham branch in August 2026, manuals started at around £80 for a Toyota Aygo and automatics at around £130 for a Vauxhall Corsa. The gap between the two closes as you move up the tiers. By the middle of the range, a manual and an automatic both cost around £145. Electric cars, where offered, cost roughly £20 to £35 more than their petrol equivalents in the same tier.

6.2. Add-ons, such as excess cover, cost extra#

Our own bill is shown in the table below. These are prices for one day. They made a pre-authorisation charge on the credit card, which included an additional £200 as a deposit.

DW, EP and RAP all carry the same exclusions. The ones that stood out to me are:

• Theft or loss without a police crime reference.
• Losing the keys or leaving the car unlocked.
• Using the wrong fuel.
• Ignoring a warning light.
• Taking the car outside the UK without written permission.

6.3. Picking up the car#

We arrived a few minutes early and were seen quickly. We were given an Electric SUV - the Vauxhall Grandland, instead of the petrol Intermediate SUV we had booked. They said this was a free upgrade, and we didn't mind driving an EV. They asked for the driver's driving licence and put a pre-authorisation charge on the credit card. We received the hire agreement via email immediately.

Following this, they took us out to see the car. I took a couple of minutes to take a video and photos all around the car, its roof and inside. I couldn't see any damage except some scratches on the alloy wheels, but they said they wouldn't charge for any scratches there even if we made them. Turo has a good checklist of exterior and interior photos to take, and taking each shot from the same angle at pick-up and return makes them easier to compare.

Finally, they got my wife, as the driver, to sign several forms acknowledging the cover we had and its limitations.

It took us another 30 minutes to drive off. We fitted our toddler's car seat, worked out the child locks, tested the lights and wipers, and set up the navigation. The wiper fluid turned out to be empty, and they topped it up for us. Car Excess has a pre-journey checklist for hire cars covering fluids, tyres, lights, wipers and the controls, and the RAC's FORCES checklist may also be useful.

6.4. The drive#

From Lewisham we drove to Seven Sisters going on mostly dual carriageways and motorways. Those were easy compared to the countryside with its narrow roads and potholes.

Although there was built-in navigation, we mostly relied on the Waze app (available on iPhone and Android), which helped a lot with lane changes.

Fortunately, the whole journey went well, and we didn't have any mishaps. The car was great, and we had no complaints. We returned late in the evening and parked overnight at a paid car park near our home. As it was our first hire, we couldn't relax into the trip and were exhausted by the end, but we'd expected that and planned around it.

6.5. Returning the car#

The return was straightforward, especially since we didn't have to recharge the car ourselves. They inspected the car, which took less than a minute, and then confirmed, to our relief, that there was no damage. Regardless, I took videos and photos as proof. They said we'd be charged £30, since we had used half the battery, and that the receipt would follow by email.

6.6. The final receipt and payment experience was disappointing#

A week after we returned the car the final charge appeared on our credit card. I was charged £44 more than I was expecting. I didn't receive the receipt via email. Instead, I found it at Search for a Past Rental Receipt. The numbers were different between the final receipt and the hire agreement issued on the day of the hire, and I couldn't understand the discrepancy.

I reported this to customer service and was told I'd be contacted by the branch. After a few days of waiting, I called up the branch, but the person I spoke to kept reiterating that the receipt was correct, which was very frustrating. Fortunately, they did refer me to the branch manager, who later called me back to say that the EV recharge was double-counted and refunded me.

7. Conclusion#

To hire a car in the UK, you need a full driving licence and, in practice, a credit card in the driver's name with room for the hire plus a deposit. Check the company's rules on minimum age and how long you've held your licence. You can book with a traditional hire company, through an intermediary, or from an owner on a peer-to-peer platform. Book early and make sure you have excess protection.

Please share your questions or your own car hire experiences and tips with me in the comments below.