Just a heads up in case others are not aware of this. I have just had difficulty in collecting my hire car as my credit card only has my initial and surname and I was informed they couldn't accept this for fear of fraud by a family member. I was able to use a debit card which had my middle initial, but only if I paid for their full insurance as they couldn't block money on the credit card, so £150 more than I expected to pay. First job when I get home is a credit card with my full name. They did not like my paper driving licence either and said EU regulations now mean I need a plastic one!?😬
This is interesting, I just checked all my cards and it turns out that the credit card I used to collect a hire car exactly two weeks ago in Spain (well, Tenerife) is the only card I have which has only my initial (actually first and middle name initials) and surname. I've never had an issue with it. This was with SIXT.
Company policy may vary but it would seem that it is not an actual Spanish legal thing.
I have hired cars many times with no previous issue too, however I rang Do You Spain, the agent I booked through, who confirmed this is an issue they are now coming across with several vehicle suppliers.
Which company?
Goldcar, but Do You Spain say several companies are now insisting on this as a way of preventing fraud?
Ok Goldcar again. But pretty disingenuous for all the companies involved to be using fraud prevention as the reason. How many family members defraud each other?
Goldcar are super scumbags. They toe the line between very aggressive sales tactics and criminal extortion. They are just inventing reasons to make you pay for extras you don't want.
That's nonsense - It's hardly robust fraud detection to assume 2 family members can't have the same name? E.g. Father and Son... Has to be some sort of scam to sell you more extras as mentioned above. No other operating company's reject cards on that basis. Airlines / Hotels etc...
I agree it is a poor reason to bully you into buying their in house insurance.
Gold cars business model is to attract you in on a low rack rate then profit on the extras. You get good service if you do as you are told and buy the insurance from them.
I have noticed that if you take out their insurance, the car you get is less than perfect, I suspect the unscuffed cars are sent out with the uninsured as it is easier to notice any damage on a perfect car.
Then there is the queuing. Why have 4 people queue for 2 hours to save £20?. 8 climbing hours lost, the equivalent of a day out, to save the price of a round of drinks?
Best strategy is to go elsewhere.
Needing a plastic driving license had been standard and we'll publicised for some time.
Interesting. Never been a problem before. Just for my curiosity are you able to guide me to some information on this. Thanks.
> Interesting. Never been a problem before. Just for my curiosity are you able to guide me to some information on this. Thanks.
It's possible I'm wrong! Maybe I'm thinking of the need for a DVLA code with a plastic one.
I hired in Spain in January with goldcar and noticed in their terms and conditions it was stated that the credit card had to have your full name on it.
By the way, regardless of whether Goldcar have been devious here, I thank you for raising this. Like you, I will now get my one “offending” credit card changed
It's another Gold Car bullshit method to get you to buy their full insurance, steer (sorry about the pun) well clear of gold car.
> By the way, regardless of whether Goldcar have been devious here, I thank you for raising this. Like you, I will now get my one “offending” credit card changed
They still won't accept it, they'll tell you the card's been refused, this happened to my mate, he phone the card company, while the bloke from Gold Car is telling him it's been refused, the Card company is telling him it's not.
It's a scam, to make you take the full insurance out, If they "can't" take the money to cover damage, you can't have the car, you're them left with the choice of no car or their insurance.
Almost impossible to hire a car on the day, for under £300, so you're f*cked.
Thanks, very interesting. For clarity, I have no intention of ever using Gold Car, they have been mentioned as one to avoid many many time over the past decade or so on these forums. I just thought maybe it might be useful elsewhere but then I remembered actually it’s never been an issue.
The only card issue I ever had was one time when I thought I did not have a regular credit card on me at collection and found that they can’t accept a pre-pay one (like Revolut) at Hertz, even if I load it with whatever amount they want to hold. Luckily I did find a regular card in a pocket.
Yup same here, i used RecordGo at Alicante with card that has only my initials. i think you've been shafted!!
> Goldcar are super scumbags. They toe the line between very aggressive sales tactics and criminal extortion. They are just inventing reasons to make you pay for extras you don't want.
Totally agree, I used them once in Spain and they were trying everything to get me to buy extra insurance for this and that, (despite having excess insurance). After telling me the slightest scratch would mean paying an 1100 euro excess, I just said well if I prang it I'll roll it over a cliff and get my monies worth. That shut them up a bit.
Which advises never to hire from Goldcar
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/08/car-hire-lies-caught-on-camera/?utm_ca...
Were Gold Car significantly cheaper (at time of booking) than all the others?
Whenever I look at the broker sites like travelocity there are some car rentals that come out at around half the price of all the familiar names. I tend to Google them and find all the stories about poor service (not necessarily ripping off, but sometimes not having any cars there at collection time and you have to wait two hours etc). I know Googling a hire car company will tend to give you negative stories, that is the nature of Internet feedback, but it still always steers me toward the bigger names.
Funnily enough I don’t recall Gold Car coming out massively cheaper than the more reputable names when I recently booked for Tenerife.
I know the damage is done and I’m certainly not meaning to rub it in or call you stupid, but out of curiosity may I ask, did you pick Gold Car because they were around half the price of others?
> Were Gold Car significantly cheaper (at time of booking) than all the others?
They've come up a few times as cheapest in Alicante, once bitten and all that though.
I don't think I gave it a great deal of thought. I have hired cars in Spain dozens of times using many different companies with no real bother. Goldcar just happened to be the company coming up tops on this occasion so I went with them,. Firefly has been top last few trips. People seem to be demonising Goldcar... Possibly justifiably... But Do You Spain, the agent, said this is happening across a wide range of companies now.
I can recommend Laracar for your next visit. They are not headline grabbing cheap but their rack rate includes everything; full insurance, additional drivers, taxes etc so no nasty surprises. The cost is broadly comparable.
The hire is meet and greet, you are met on arrival, do the paperwork on the bonnet of the car and off you go.
I’ve just hired a car with Goldcar in Alicante 4 hours ago. My credit card with just my first name initial was never mentioned. I went straight to the desk as there were three people not serving. After saying no to their insurance the reply was “ok”. I picked up a brand new Peugeot Rifter with hardly a mark on it.
After reading all the horror stories on this forum I was prepared for a real battle at the desk. I only booked with Goldcar because they offered a Berlingo or Partner at a cheap price ( I need to get bikes in the back) and also because they had no age loading for 70+.
So, I’m very surprised to have to say it was as painless as any other company I’ve used at Alicante including Firefly, Herz and Centauro. Actually, scratch Centauro as they found a 1 inch long scratch and charged me £275.
Thanks for the answer.
It does strike me that it’s still a bit of a lottery with some branches being franchises and varying amounts of regulation. Most of my hire cars are collected from a local airport Hertz branch in central England, I am not sure if it is franchised or not, and my treatment depends on who is on duty (9/10 staff are fine but there is one guy who always tries to bullshit and upsell using scaremongering tactics; I think he’s started to recognise me now and doesn’t pile it on quite so much).
Forced upselling. And, yes, bring used by more companies. Or, more likely, individuals that get commission on extras.
The fraud prevention angle doesn't stand the slightest scrutiny as the company would be unlikely to lose out in any case. Card presented with matching signature and passport? Visa would have to cover.
I’m with you on this. Hired from goldcar, probably more than once, was expecting hell, but it was quick and easy and the car was good.
there was another punter going crazy about the insurance but to be honest if you just read the small print you’re half way there. They couldn’t understand why they needed a credit card .... the lady asked me do I want insurance and handed over my card, I was all of 5 minutes.
I will say that you’ve really got to watch out because if you’re hiring a car for less than 1€ a day (this isn’t an exaggeration), then you’ve got to be prepared for some sort of fair/legal scam. Check for dents, any scratches or marks at all, check the spare tyre, check the aerial and the parcel shelf are still there, film the car and get pictures (go back in with the paper if you have to and get them to add the marks), keep the petrol receipt, take pictures after and if you can get them to sign it off when you’re back. And buy 3rd party insurance for £30 a year then it doesn’t matter when they con you anyway!!!
not surprised with the paper licence, crikey that is old documentation.
+1. Used them earlier this year and easily the most straightforward and friendly car-hire company I’ve used
Does anyone know if these operations are single, centrally-run businesses or local franchises? I ask because I have had vastly different experiences of the same brands in different locations. I used Goldcar once in (I think Majorca) and it was no problem whatsoever but I have heard so many horror stories of Goldcar at Alicante I would not touch them with a bargepole. Similarly I used to Centauro at one time but, again, service varied substantially between locations. It all seemed to be a bit of a lottery
Franchises.
> Franchises.
That confirms my suspicions and explains a lot but is not terribly helpful to the customer. Some companies are incredibly strict with franchisees. I used to have a neighbour who was a regional franchise manager for a fast food company and she seemed to see her job as stripping franchises for any indiscretions (a cynic might suspect it was part of the company's business model so they could re-sell that franchise to another would-be entrepreneur and take another hefty upfront payment from the new mug - but I digress)
Others are more lax. A friend who worked in car hire in the UK said the companies did not seem to care overly what individual franchisees did - within reason - as long as the logo over the door was the right way up and the cheques kept rolling in to head office. If Spanish rental companies work in the same way all you can do is check the reviews on a location by location basis.
Incidentally she also explained why rental company fuel prices are so high. She insisted she was not trying to rip off the punters but it was a pain having to go and fill up the tanks and she wanted to avoid having to do it. So she fixed her refuelling charges at punitive levels (20p a litre over pump price rings a bell) to try to persuade people to do it themselves before they returned a car.. Most private renters did so, business people who never actually saw the bill could not be arsed.
I'm an old bloke.
I visited Palma de Mallorca last year and rented a car at mallorca car hire company https://www.mallorcacarhirecompany.com/ . The card I used had my first and middle name initials and surname. I faced no issues. To be honest, I was very pleased with this service and prices (and no extra charges or fees). Of course, maybe company policy can vary, but I wouldn't use Goldcar again if I were you.
Another, new to me, thing with Goldcar was that I was given a card with three different sized circles on it. Each represented the size of damage that was acceptable before you were going to be charged. Large circle was for bodywork, middle one for glass and smallest one for burns to upholstery.
> not surprised with the paper licence, crikey that is old documentation.
Yes, it is. I've had a credit-card sized licence for years. And have had to renew is every 10 years (which is something else to do, and DVLA don't send reminders, and you can be fined for having an -out-od-date licence).
My sister has not bothered to upgrade from her old paper licence. As far as I'm aware, she's not had any issues. With car hire, they just ask to take some other photo id along e.g. a passport. I'm sure one day she'll come up against a problem, but at the moment, that's a few renewals (& renewal fees) that's she's saved.
As we found out a few years ago, Its only legally required to exchange for a new photo driving license if you move house.
So am I, ditched the paper one years ago, keep up with the times, otherwise you get caught out by these youngsters who do not know what a paper licence is:
> So am I, ditched the paper one years ago, keep up with the times, otherwise you get caught out by these youngsters who do not know what a paper licence is:
Or the laws relating to their use. Perhaps the youngsters should be aware of the rules?
I take the view that it is not worth the hassle which you experienced irrespective of the rules.Each to his own..
Probably the most pragmatic view and I will be buying a new one when I return.... Still irritating!
> Or the laws relating to their use. Perhaps the youngsters should be aware of the rules?
I'd blame the government... this isn't exactly clear
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/driving-licence-changes
I was surprised anyone was still on the paper licence... but yeah, if you haven't moved house ect.
UK car rentals have access to your online licence but I doubt foreigns firms do, I can understand why they want to see the card... but if you've never been prompted to change yours, fair enough.
> I'd blame the government... this isn't exactly clear
It was well publicised when it came out and I think its perfectly clear - when hiring a car take the plastic card (and get one if you don't have one) and get a code and take it with you. It's what I've always done since then, though I don't think I've ever been asked for the code.
"Paper driving licences issued before 31 March 2000 are still valid. Do not destroy your licence.
When you update your name or address, or renew your licence, you’ll only get a photocard licence."
I read this as being clear that I don't need a plastic licence under my current circumstances , however for practical purposes I will probably now buy one.
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