Alicante - car hire without a credit card and a deposit. Car rental with full insurance.

Alicante - car rental

This post will not analyze the offer heap. There will be a description of one specific offer, because I would actually choose this one myself.
It's simply the best.
Oczywiście I chose it after analyzing many competitive offers and personally checked it by renting a car for myself. For this reason, I can confidently recommend it.
Like me, you'll probably be happy with it.
At the beginning I will present a few figures and facts, and at the end of the entry I will attach an explanation of the basic concepts related to renting a car intended for people who do not yet have experience in this.

### important fragment of the text added in 2021, during the pandemic ###

Beware of pandemic car rental prices !!!

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned car rental prices upside down. The increase in car rental prices is huge. Official announcements say that the price increase is due to the need to maintain high sanitary standards. In my opinion, the strict sanitary requirements do not justify such an increase in the cost of car rental. What kind of growth are we dealing with? The 5-day rental I did during my trip just before the pandemic cost me less than EUR 70 (with full insurance). Today, for exactly the same rent, I see prices in the range of 400 - 450 EUR. Horror! Why is it like that? I am convinced that the rental companies compensate for a smaller number of customers with a higher price. One rental must now "compensate" for the reduced demand.

Is there a way to get high prices during COVID-19?

I have re-analyzed the offers of a dozen of the best car rentals and a few of the best price comparison websites. I found one common denominator. In fact, the prices are very high all the time, but drastically falling (by 50% or even more)just before the planned departure. The lowest prices are more or less 5-10 days before the planned departure and they drop to around 50 EUR for one day of rental, with full insurance option. Any price at this level or lower should now (especially in the summer season) be considered attractive (of course if applies to rental with full insurance). Advance booking 1-5 days is very risky and prices in such short notice often (although not everywhere) increase again.

Such price behavior in 2021 does not guarantee that the situation will repeat itself in 2022 and in the following years. So let's observe price changes yourself and choose the best time to book.

The offer of the rental company I chose and described below is still the best, but unfortunately it is more expensive than it was.

From comparison websites, I recommend that you look for two: Discover Cars - [click] and Rentalcars - [click]. They have wide offers, and at the same time have signed contracts with various groups of rental companies. Thanks to this, you check various offers from different groups. A particularly interesting alternative is here Discover Cars - [click]because it has contracts with many local, small rental companies. It is possible that some local promotion can be scored. The other comparison engines are practically a copy of what you will find in Rentalcars - [click].

All the other comments and advice that I have included later in this post still apply, so it is obligatory to read the rest. You will find my complaints there that 50 EUR a day is expensive, but I would like to remind you that this was related to the situation before COVID-19. We currently have a different situation.

### end of the fragment added in 2021 ###

Proven rental - cheap and safe

The choice of rental companies operating in Alicante is large. Virtually all network rentals and several smaller ones operate here. However, a wide selection and competition do not guarantee that you will easily find a cheap, good and safe offer. Rentals do not have any reason to compete for a client in a special way, because the number of people willing to rent a car coming to Alicante is large enough for customers to be enough for all rental companies.
Fortunately, there is a branch in Alicante of one company I know very well, whose offer basically solves the problem of finding an attractive offer at a great price. This Wiber - [click].
I used the car from this rental company in another branch in Majorca. Then I also described it, and after some time, comments from readers who followed my command began to appear under the entry. Needless to say, they only confirm my own experience.
More details can be found under the entry: Car hire without credit card and deposit - Majorca, Spain

An important thing to mention

In the case of Wiber, it is not possible to collect the keys at the airport. They just don't have their position there. Probably due to the high cost of maintaining such a position at the airport terminal (this translates directly into the price of renting a car). The key and car pickup point is about 3 km from the airport. However, this is not a hindrance, because there is a free bus with the Wiber logo that runs constantly between the airport and the rental office every 10-15 minutes, which takes newcomers renting a car from the airport to the rental and takes the people leaving the car from the rental to the airport. Fast and convenient.

What does Wiber offer?

Wiber offers two rental options:
- ALL INCLUSIVE (I recommend buying this option exactly)
- BASIC (very cheap, but without the necessary amenities so I do not recommend this option)

Options ALL INCLUSIVE in one sentence you can put it like this: you can rent a car from FULL insurance, ZERO own contribution (your responsibility is 0 Euro), with ZERO deposit (the loan does not block any funds) and WITHOUT CARD credit.
In fact, if you pay online in advance (for this there is an additional discount), you will not need any card when renting a car. Nobody will ask for any card! All you need is your ID card (or passport) and driving license. Cool thing!

Option BASIC (significantly cheaper than ALL INCLUSIVE, but I do not recommend) it takes into account your responsibility for any damage in the event of a road collision or theft - 700 Euro, and to borrow you need a credit card on which the rental company will deposit a deposit of 700 Euro. I mention this clearly to avoid surprises when picking up the car.
I know that the price of the BASIC option due to the low price is very tempting, but in the Wiber the ALL ICLUSIVE option (including all amenities) costs as much as in some rentals the equivalent of the BASIC option (without amenities).

Is the Wiber offer attractive in terms of price?

Just enter the offer Wiberaand then compare it with others (I encourage you, you will see for yourself) and everything will become clear.
However, if you do not feel like wasting time unnecessarily to pry open the door, then below you will find everything you need to find out.
As I mentioned above for ALL INCLUSIVE in Wiber you pay roughly the same as for BASIC in some rentals, in which you will additionally need a credit card, on which you will make a deposit blocking funds (on average around 800 Euro), and your participation in any damage will not be 0 Euro (as in Wiber ), or rather well over 1000 Euro.
Let's see a specific example of the cost of renting a car in Wiber.

Where to find the best offer?

You can rent a car from Wber in two ways:
- directly on the website Wibera - [click]
- on the price comparison website Rentalcars - [click]

The fact that the price comparison site is a bit surprising for you Rentalcars most often it is a bit cheaper than directly on the rental's website. However, if you think harder, it's natural. The price comparison website usually signs relevant contracts with the rental companies, guaranteeing its adequate discount from the official rental prices. As a result, the prices on the search engine page may be slightly lower than the official rental prices. Such a policy justifies the sense of the search engine existence and allows it to effectively mediate the sales on which it earns.
Either way, below is a comparison of prices from both sources. In both cases, we will check prices on the same date and for the same rental period. For checking, I will choose a date which is quite a few weeks away from the day on which I carried out the comparison, so as to be sure that the car offer is not yet purchased. Of course, in both cases we will compare cars with the same standard.
In practice, I decided to search for prices for 4 rental days cars on time between 11 and 15 November 2019 year. I decided on a cheap car: Ford Ka or similar.
The search result looks like this:

Wiber website

total rental cost for 4 days of rental and options ALL INCLUSIVE have: 99,84 Euros.
Converted to our currency at the 4,3 exchange rate it will be: 429,31 PLN (if you pay for rental online in advance on the Wiber website, you will receive an 3% discount and the price will drop to 416,43 PLN).

Rentalcars website

total rental cost for 4 days of rental and options ALL INCLUSIVE have: 412,32 PLN.
Price via Renatalcars is PLN 16,99 lower (or PLN 4,11 if you decide to pay immediately via the Internet).

How do I find a Wiber offer on Rentalcars?

Because of the huge car rental database, there will be plenty of Rentalcars search results, and their rankings may not be as expected by us. To make your life easier, use a filter. The easiest way to do it is in this order:
1. You go to the site Rentalcars.com - [click]

2. You enter into the form on the main page: place, date of pickup and return of the car (as below) and press the "Search" button

3. You are waiting for the results to appear and in the left panel, in the "Provider name" section, check the box next to Wiber (of course, it is good to look at the results beforehand, maybe there will be a more attractive offer at the time of search. However, I remind you to make sure the company whose offer looks attractive puts a deposit on the card and in what amount.)

4. This way you have other offers filtered out and you can only see cars from the Wiber offer (the car supplier's logo is visible in the bottom left corner of the offer as in the picture below). Now you must select the All Inclusive offer. It is marked with an additional description on the offer card (Special Offer). Additional description has been marked in the picture below. Only choosing an offer with this description will allow you to collect your car without a credit card and deposit. It remains only to decide on the size of the car and go to the next steps by pressing the "Book now" button.

WARNING!!!
In the statement you will also find a cheaper Wiber offer for the same car and date, but it does not contain an additional description of the "Special Offer". This is not an All Inclusive offer, only a basic offer. If you choose an offer without an additional description (Special Offer), you will need a credit card and a deposit will be created. Pay attention to this when booking so that there would be no unpleasant surprise afterwards.

5. In the next steps you will need driver details (documents) necessary to rent a car. So prepare your documents. This process is basically identical for all suppliers. You will receive car rental confirmations and necessary information by email.

Other offers, similar to Wiber - be vigilant!

When searching the Rentalcars offer database, you can find offers almost identical to the Wiber offer, and at the same time slightly cheaper. By the way writing this entry I just found one. See the picture below.

The offer is PLN 20 cheaper than the Wiber offer and contains almost identical entries in the frame Special offer. Isn't it better to take advantage of this particular offer? It seems so. That it's worth it. But before you start ordering, you should click the "OK Rent a Car rental conditions"(In the picture above it is pointed by a red arrow). A window will open as in the image below, where you must click "Deposits, Own contribution and Collateral".

Then a window will open in which you will find detailed information, among others about the deposit. You can see it in the picture below.
From the information it is clear that when renting in this company a deposit of 250 Euro is collected. So you will need a credit card to rent a car.
If you thought about searching offers, you would rent a car smarter for less money ... then you would have an unpleasant surprise waiting for you after arriving at the airport 🙂

I have a car rental. What to do after arriving in Alicante?

After arriving and picking up your luggage, look for the elevator and go downstairs (-2) minus 2 terminal. At the -2 level, look for exit and exit outside the terminal. Immediately after leaving, turn left and walk 50 meters ahead.
A Wiber bus will be waiting for you here (at one of the parking spaces: number from 1 to 5), or if it is not there yet, it will drive up in a few minutes.
The path is shown in the picture below.

Car pickup and return times

You can pick up and return your car in Wiber's office within hours 7.00 – 23.00.

GPS coordinates of the Wiber office:
38°17’18.5″N 0°34’54.1″W
38.288465, -0.581685 - click and route

If you have a rented car as an option ALL INCLUSIVE it is also possible to return the car outside office hours, i.e. between 23.00 and 7.00 in the morning. Then you have to go to the parking lot: EcoParking Alicante Ctra Aeropuerto Torrellano, CV852, Km 0.4, 03320, Torrellano and here you will return the car.

GPS coordinates of the car park for the night return of the car:
38°17’26.4″N 0°34’06.8″W
38.290666, -0.568561 - click and route

Some important concepts related to car rental

Below you will find some basic information that you should read before renting. They mainly concern the scope of insurance and liability you may incur when renting. The rental options I have proposed above basically limit your liability to zero, but I believe that what I have entered below must be read at least once. If you need to, you can always look here again.

What is a credit card deposit?

deposit is the amount that the rental company blocks on the credit card. This amount does not disappear from your card. It's still there, but is not usable.

Example:
Suppose you have a credit card with a PLN 3000 limit. You rent a car from the rental company, and in the conditions of the rental there is information about the deposit in the amount of 500 EUR. You pick up the car and the rental company will deposit a deposit on the card, in accordance with the EUR 500 contract. Your card still has 3000 PLN but 500 EUR * 4,3 = 2 100 PLN is blocked and as long as the blockade is not removed, you cannot use these funds. PLN 900 is available to you.

If you had a plan to pay with the same card for a hotel that costs PLN 1500, for example will not succeed. The deposit will be removed at the earliest about 24 hours after the return of the car, and often it takes even more than a week. It is worth remembering and it is best to pay for other obligations to have a different (debit) penalty or a correspondingly higher limit on your credit card.

What is the deposit on the credit card for?

In this way, rental companies protect themselves against dishonest customers. If the customer does not fulfill the terms of the contract, the costs associated with it rental deducts from the deposit. Suppose you are 8 hours late with returning the car. The agreement provides for an additional fee. The rental company may charge a fee from the deposit regardless of your will.
Another example: you picked up the car with a full tank of gas and returned it with an empty one. The rental charges the value of full refueling and the additional service cost. It now comes out more or less as if a liter of fuel cost 2 EUR. So e.g. the 50 L * 2 EUR / L = 100 EUR fuel tank. That much more or less disappears from the deposit. Examples can be multiplied (scratches on the car, broken mirror, broken glass, damaged upholstery, etc.).

Own contribution and car insurance

In addition to the deposit, which is blocked directly on your credit card, renting a car involves taking on yourself liabilities with so-called own contribution.

Own contribution applies to:
- destruction or damage to the car
- car theft

Each rental has its own amount of own contribution. Separately for destruction and separately for car theft.
This is the cost that you agree to pay the maximum if one of the above events occurs.
The assumption is that if the costs resulting from the removal of damage are greater than the own contribution you assumed in the contract, you are only liable up to the amount of your own contribution, and the remaining costs are covered by insurance.
Currently, practically all rentals include the cost of this insurance in basic vehicle price (the cheapest one you see on the throne). This insurance is mandatory and applies to all rented vehicles.

Vehicle damage insurance - CDW

This is it basic insuranceto which the vehicle is covered (often on the website of the rental company is called Full Insurance, which can be misleading, I feel allergic, it is common practice). The practice of calling basic insurance full is probably intended to suggest to the customer that at a similar price he is purchasing a better insurance package. Then the offer seems more attractive, but in fact it is not. So let's check if the insurance called full insurance is insurance CDW or actually full (SCDW - about which I will write a little below).
I did not find an offer where the insurance would be subject to a surcharge. Everywhere it was at the basic price of the vehicle.
CDW is an abbreviation of the English name Collision Damage Waiver. Having this insurance limits your liability for damage to the amount of your own contribution.
However, if it wasn't too colorful, it would be from this insurance are off the most common: windows, tires and chassis. There may be more exclusions. This means that if, for example, during a collision the damage touched the elements that are excluded from insurance, then for their repair you will pay extra.
Of course, if the event was not your fault and you have a police report for it, then the rental company he has no right to deduct any money. Then the offender pays.

IMPORTANT!
If you have been driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, no insurance works. You pay the full amount of repair costs.

Theft insurance - TP

It is an insurance which in the event of the theft of a vehicle limits your financial liability to the amount of your own contribution.
The name of the insurance is short for the English version Theft Waiver.
The cost of this insurance is included in basic vehicle rental price.
I did not find an offer where the insurance would be subject to a surcharge. Everywhere it was at the basic price of the vehicle.

Full damage insurance - SCDW

This type of insurance totally or partially bear your responsibility for car damage and that is real full damage insurance.
The name comes from the English version: Super Collision Damage Waiver.
In most cases, your liability after purchasing this insurance is reduced to zero, less often to a symbolic amount of around 100 - 500 EUR (depending on the brand and price of the new vehicle).
Rentals, which basic insurance is called incorrectly (or intentionally) full, are called this type of insurance: All Inclisive, Super, All Protection ... etc.
When booking on the site Rentalcars, you can buy full insurance with every rental SCDW. However, you should be aware that this is the insurance you buy in Rentalcars, not at the target rental company. What does it mean? This means that if there is damage or theft to the car, the rental will download from your account the amount up to the amount of own contribution, and for the return of this amount within the possessed you must apply to Rentalcars.
If you want to take out full insurance SCDW directly in the rental, you have to do it on site, when renting. You will then avoid any possible withdrawal of your own deposit from your account and claiming a refund from the insurer. Unfortunately, most rental companies even on their own websites do not allow you to buy this insurance online and you have to do it on the spot when picking up the car. For this rental prices through Rentalcars are lower than directly on the rental site, so anyway it's profitable make a basic booking through Rentalcars.
I checked the cost of buying full SCDW insurance at several rental companies. On average, it is EUR 30 / day for basic car models.

Travel Insurance - PAI

Often, when renting, insurance for people traveling with a rented car is also offered. It has nothing to do with the car itself, it only applies to people. If you buy insurance for yourself before traveling, you do not need it.
The abbreviation comes from the English name: Personal Accident Insurance.
This insurance is often included in the package with SCDW.

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