Car Hire longer than 4 weeks?

Many Thanks Bill, I will give them a call 

I usually hire in 3-4 week spells which is mostly much cheaper than doing one long rental.

Bob

Thanks Bob, i will get quotes for both then and compare. Car Hire is so expensive with full insurance we may need to start comparing annual car hire costs to buying a car in Spain and all the knock on costs  associated with that  and further complication being we are ‘non resident’ tax payers🥴.

Car hire in Spain is incredibly cheap compared with almost anywhere else in the world, due to the high demand and competition. Although I have noted that rates have gone up in the past year as companies appear to be trying to make whatever money they can from what little opportunity they have due to all the travel restrictions.

I have an annual insurance policy for the excesses on car hire with www.icarhireinsurance.com which costs about £60 per year. If you hire a car with just the basic included insurance and unfortunately an incident occurs, then you pay the hire car provider, but can claim the cost back via this insurer. This way you avoid the full insurance fees from the car hire company. The only downside is that most car hire companies require a deposit of approx. €1000 if you don't take out their expensive cover, but clearly you get that back as long as nothing happens.

There are several other companies that others on this forum have recommended that offer similar insurances.

Unless you live in Spain full time or want / need a particular type of car, then economically, car hire is significantly more cost efficient than buying a car.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Rich, very helpful, we dont really want to go down the ‘buy a car in Spain route’ especially due to the 90 days rule 😩. Thanks for advice!

Try The Hire Shop on the Boulevard by Mar Menor Golf

Thanks Chrissy!

We bought an old spanish car in 2019 partly as we are 70kms away from airport we had to return every 28days to rehire when staying for 3mnth stays and partly fed up of worrying each time whether the hire Co. we're going to argue over damages not caused by us. We paid 1000€ for vehicle, 150€ to gestor for changeover and insurance (Liberty Seguros) was around 250€.We come in a van with belongings but hubby refuses to use it as a runaround in tiny Spanish towns, so needed car. We store in own garage so in total factor in 45€ itv(mot) and 54€yr tax and we reckon car has now paid for itself with 12months of would have been hiring past 2 years. Have to admit now Brexit may have scuppered us for bringing own belongings by van due to customs(we are non residents, haven't ironed that one out yet) but if we had to go back to flying would have to factor in possible 250€ for yearly airport parking. It has been worth the expense to know we are not going to have a wrangle over insurance on hiring and damages on return having had 3 wrangles in past(not our damages but still charged us for). I agree with Rich, we too had "icarhire" insurance who paid out without bother but it was still a chore to do. I wouldn't recommend you leave a vehicle on street whilst away as this year our ITV due early May and we don't think we will be back till June(after 2nd vaccine) so either park up privately or good friend mind key in case of emergency or use airport parking. Sure as hell all hire Co,s.will be upping rates to claw revenue back due to virus and no doubt increasing their scamming too. Hope this might help you decide. 

Regards 

Pauline 

Hi Pauline, thanks for the info on car purchase and associated costs, really helpful. We are ‘hoping’ (like you second jab dependent) to come over late May/June and we will get some insurance costs etc then for future years of travel. We priced up Brittany Ferries and traveling through Spain with our own car but that works out very expensive. Just wish Cartagena had car ferry
facilities, maybe they will in the future. hope you get your second jab soon! Thanks again

Regards Angela