What should I check before selecting a car?
For your car for airport collection, the document and payment questions are resolved before the flight. The exact vehicle’s details are the source.
The essentials are the main driver’s age and experience, the physical licence, the payment card, and a contact number that stays reachable. Each of those meets a condition on the chosen car.
The same requirements hold wherever the rental starts. A car for the city part of your visit is priced from the day it is wanted, with the collection or delivery arrangement confirmed for that day.
The check attaches to the final car rather than to the search. A change of model, date or booking arrangement during the comparison resets the requirements, because they vary between vehicles that look alike.
Which driving licence should I bring?
The country conditions require a valid national driving licence with details duplicated in Latin script, and its expiry date must be no earlier than the end of the rental period. Copies and electronic licences are not accepted.
The licence has to be valid for the full rental dates, including the planned return; a licence valid on the outbound flight is not necessarily valid on the final day. An extension agreed later brings that check back with it.
Where a licence is valid only in the country that issued it, the conditions strongly recommend an International Driving Permit among the documents, produced on request. An uncertain case goes to the agent before booking.
How are age and driving experience assessed?
Minimum age and driving experience are stated on each car’s page and can differ even for similar models. The listing that matters is the selected one.
The rental agent has the right to refuse the service where a driver does not meet the age or experience requirements for a particular car. Neither the appearance of the vehicle nor a previous rental elsewhere is evidence of eligibility for this one.
An additional driver is an option with its own conditions in the selected booking. Seeing that option on another car establishes nothing about this one. Keep the confirmed details with the booking.
Which card will I actually present?
Some rentals require a physical embossed credit card issued in the name of the main driver. In some cases a debit card is accepted, as specified during booking and in the voucher, and that card must also be physical, personalised and embossed, and issued in the same driver’s name.
A successful online payment does not confirm the separate collection requirement, which is checked against the card physically present at the handover. The deposit arrangement for the vehicle is distinct from the advance towards the rental and from the card needed when the keys change hands.
Where a cash payment is accepted, the country conditions require South African rand. Which methods apply to a particular booking is settled before cash is prepared or a card relied upon.
Why does the contact number matter?
The number supplied at booking includes the correct country code and stays available throughout the rental and on the day before pick-up, on the phone or through Viber, WhatsApp or Telegram.
The country conditions state that service-quality claims are not accepted where contacting the renter by mobile phone or the listed messengers was impossible.
What comes together before departure?
The booking confirmation, the physical documents and the selected car’s conditions travel as one set. An electronic voucher arrives after the advance payment and can be presented on a phone. The arrival and collection preparation adds the confirmed meeting arrangement and the questions to ask about the vehicle: its condition, its fuel level and where the controls are before the first drive.
Where the dates, the car or the driver details have moved, the documents and the payment plan have to still match them.
A few more details
These answers cover the practical questions that come up while choosing a car. Your selected vehicle’s conditions remain the place to confirm the final arrangement.
Can I use a photo of my driving licence?
No. Copies and electronic driving licences are not accepted under the country conditions. The valid physical national licence with its details duplicated in Latin script is the document required at collection.
What if my licence expires while I have the car?
The expiry date must be no earlier than the end of the rental period, which makes the planned return date the one to measure against. A change to the rental period brings that check back into scope, since the revised booking has to satisfy the same condition.
Do similar models have identical age requirements?
No. Minimum age and driving experience are listed on each car’s page and vary even between similar models. The requirement that matters belongs to the final choice, and the agent has the right to refuse the service where the driver does not meet it.
Is any physical debit card enough?
No universal debit-card acceptance is established. Where debit is accepted it is specified during booking and in the voucher, and the country conditions describe a physical, personalised, embossed card in the main driver’s name. The card in the wallet has to match that description.
Can a pet travel with us?
Only small pets may travel in a rented car under the country conditions, and they remain in their travel carriers at all times. The carrier takes space that the luggage comparison has to account for, and the permission does not extend to an animal travelling loose.