Before you book
Driving abroad: licences, permits and paperwork
Car rental is the vertical where a booking most often falls apart at the counter, and it is nearly always paperwork rather than price. The requirements come from three separate places — the country you are driving in, the rental company, and the card you intend to pay with — and satisfying two of the three is not enough. Settle all of it before you book.
8 min readLast reviewed
Three sets of rules, all of which apply
The country sets what licence is legally valid on its roads. The rental company sets who it is willing to rent to, which is usually stricter. The payment card sets what security it can provide, which is where an otherwise valid booking most often fails. All three have to be satisfied, and none of them will accept the others as a substitute.
None of these are rules we can waive or vary, and no agency can. What we can do is ask the specific rental company the specific question before you commit, which is why our quote asks for the driver's age and where the car is being collected.
International Driving Permits
An International Driving Permit is a translation of your existing licence, not a licence in its own right, and it is only valid alongside the licence it translates. Whether one is required depends on the country you are driving in and on which country issued your licence, and the answer changes as bilateral arrangements change.
The permit is issued in your country of residence before you travel and cannot be obtained at the destination. Check the requirement with the destination country's own authority or your national motoring organisation, and allow time — some are issued over the counter and some by post.
What the rental desk checks
Expect the desk to want the physical licence, a form of photo identification, the payment card in the main driver's name, and the booking reference. Several markets also check the licence against a national endorsement record, which requires a code or a check number that you generate before you travel and that expires after a short window.
How long you have held the licence matters as much as holding it. Many companies require a minimum period, commonly measured in years, and apply it regardless of the driver's age. Additional drivers are checked to the same standard and usually carry their own fee.
- Rental companies price by driver age and surcharge most drivers under 25. Some decline them outright on certain vehicle classes.
- Debit cards are accepted by some companies and refused by others, and those that accept them often require a larger deposit or proof of a return ticket.
- Cross-border travel is frequently restricted by vehicle class as well as by country, and taking a car across an undeclared border can void the cover entirely.
The costs that are not the daily rate
Tolls, urban access charges and road-use vignettes are the driver's responsibility and are separate from the rental. Several countries require a vignette to be displayed before you join a motorway at all, and enforcement is automated. Establish what applies on your route before you set off rather than at the barrier.
The excess — the amount you remain liable for if the car is damaged — is set by the rental company and varies enormously by vehicle class. We state it in the quote, along with what the included insurance actually covers, because that figure is what decides whether a cheap rate is cheap.
