Hiring a car in Europe? Beware this little-known catch

Hiring a car in Europe? There’s a little-known catch that can block your plans, as Traveller reader Pam Connan discovered when she turned up at the car-hire desk on the Greek island of Santorini.

“I booked a car through the Ryanair website for pick-up at the airport, but I was very surprised to be asked for the date I got my licence. If they could not see it in print, it was a no-go.

“I know when I got my licence, but that wasn’t enough. We were four adults plus two young grandchildren, it was late, and the kids were hungry and tired.”

On the road in Santorini.Credit: Alamy

Fortunately, it had a happy ending, even though Connan was unable to provide the required proof, but it took close to an hour to persuade the staff behind the desk.

Checking the fine print of the major car-hire operators in Europe, it is a requirement that the driver must have held a full licence for between 12 to 24 months before the hire. For EU licence holders, that’s not a problem since their licences are printed with the date when the licence was first acquired. So do most US licences, but not Australia’s.

Adding to the confusion, the requirement is rarely applied. “Over the last 25 years we have hired many cars in Europe without any problem,” Connan writes.

Me neither, but now I’m concerned at the potential for problems with an upcoming hire. A physical expired licence or an International Driving Permit would probably work, but I don’t have either, and who keeps those?

I have a photo of my licence, and the date in 2020 when this was taken can be easily verified, and an email search has unearthed yet more evidence in the form of copies of rental agreements from several years ago. If you’ve hired from the same operator in the past, there would be a record.

Service NSW will provide a driving record showing when the licence was first issued, either certified at a cost of $37, or uncertified for $26. For Victorian licence holders, VicRoads will provide a full driver history at a cost of $21.20.