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Can you use your UAE driving licence to hire a car in Ireland?

129

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 17:40

Hi ladies, I cannot locate my Irish licence anywhere and its out of date too I think! Have any of you had any prob hiring a car with your UAE licence or should I just get my International Licence to be on the safe side? Thanks for any info :)

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1042

Posts

EW OLDHAND

Latest post on 12 July 2012 - 11:27

You can easily get an international driving permit which along with your UAE license should allow you to drive almost anywhere. This is from the post office and takes about a day That's the long way of getting it. You can go in person to one of the places that issues them and get it in 10 minutes. Yes well for us it was the short way, being that the post office was just a few steps from DH office, driving elsewhere seemed futile. But I am sure the OP can decide where is easier for her to get one. <em>edited by RuthM on 12/07/2012</em>

Madge_Gustard59558

841

Posts

EW GURU

Latest post on 12 July 2012 - 02:56

No need for international permit. Waste of time. Uae licence is fine to rent a car in Ireland. Hubby uses his every time x You should be aware that rental companies are free to set their own policy regarding acceptance of foreign licences. They'll accept any EU licence, and they *should* accept any other licence printed in English, but they have the right to insist on an IDP to accompany it. So just because the company your DH used accepts UAE licences without IDPs doesn't necessarily mean that the one delvin uses will. It's so quick and easy to get an IDP that it almost seems silly not to. We've recently prebooked car rental in the UK, and we checked the small print on the T&Cs - it says that an IDP needs to be provided.

CAPTAIN AMERICA...

1260

Posts

EW OLDHAND

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 23:37

We have hired cars in Cork with UAE licenses.

1430

Posts

EW OLDHAND

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 21:42

Best to ring Avis or Budget who have branches worldwide. As an aside, I have used my Irish drivers to rent cars in Ireland regardless of where else I may be living and they never asked me about residency status. Just happy with a copy and credit card. ...... Wait until you have an accident, they investigate, then you won't have a leg to stand on .... I had no idea! .... And so many don't! DVLA told me the absolute G0ds honest truth, personally not willing to risk it x <em>edited by cymraes on 11/07/2012</em>

1430

Posts

EW OLDHAND

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 21:42

Best to ring Avis or Budget who have branches worldwide. As an aside, I have used my Irish drivers to rent cars in Ireland regardless of where else I may be living and they never asked me about residency status. Just happy with a copy and credit card. ...... Wait until you have an accident, they investigate, then you won't have a leg to stand on .... I had no idea! .... And so many don't! DVLA told me the absolute G0ds jones truth, personally not willing to risk it x

1530

Posts

EW EXPERT

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 21:25

Best to ring Avis or Budget who have branches worldwide. As an aside, I have used my Irish drivers to rent cars in Ireland regardless of where else I may be living and they never asked me about residency status. Just happy with a copy and credit card. ...... Wait until you have an accident, they investigate, then you won't have a leg to stand on .... I had no idea!

129

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 21:20

Bingo! Thanks Gingercat ;)

397

Posts

EW EXPLORER

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 21:17

No need for international permit. Waste of time. Uae licence is fine to rent a car in Ireland. Hubby uses his every time x

Madge_Gustard59558

841

Posts

EW GURU

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 21:12

You can easily get an international driving permit which along with your UAE license should allow you to drive almost anywhere. This is from the post office and takes about a day That's the long way of getting it. You can go in person to one of the places that issues them and get it in 10 minutes. I have used my Irish drivers to rent cars in Ireland regardless of where else I may be living and they never asked me about residency status. Just happy with a copy and credit card Yes, that will happen in England too. Problems only arise if you have an accident - and they can be very big problems indeed. Ignorance of the law is never a defence. Unfortunately, car rental places never have a clue about how the law works in respect of driving licences and expats renting a car while home on holiday. Before I understood the situation, I used to rent on my UK licence, and I once offered both my UK and UAE licences to the rental agent, explaining that I lived in Dubai. They took the UK one.

129

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 21:11

Thanks very much ladies for all the info........think Ill just get an IDP and be done with it!

1430

Posts

EW OLDHAND

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 21:02

Best to ring Avis or Budget who have branches worldwide. As an aside, I have used my Irish drivers to rent cars in Ireland regardless of where else I may be living and they never asked me about residency status. Just happy with a copy and credit card. ...... Wait until you have an accident, they investigate, then you won't have a leg to stand on ....

1530

Posts

EW EXPERT

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 19:41

Best to ring Avis or Budget who have branches worldwide. As an aside, I have used my Irish drivers to rent cars in Ireland regardless of where else I may be living and they never asked me about residency status. Just happy with a copy and credit card.

1042

Posts

EW OLDHAND

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 19:39

Once you are resident in the UAE your 'home' driving license becomes invalid. Generally you need to be resident in your home country for your driving license to be valid there (hence why you need a UAE license asap when your visa arrives). You can easily get an international driving permit which along with your UAE license should allow you to drive almost anywhere. This is from the post office and takes about a day. There is a list of countries that accept the IDP if you do a google search, I am quite sure Ireland is one of them. For driving anywhere you should as a UAE resident be using your UAE license even though you are an Irish citizen, in fact a forum recently discussed this and there was some indication you may not even be insured if you hire a car using your home country license rather than your resident country one. Just noticed this has already been pointed out - that will teach me for leaving my laptop opening and wondering off then coming back and hitting post an hour later! <em>edited by RuthM on 11/07/2012</em>

Madge_Gustard59558

841

Posts

EW GURU

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 19:22

Any country with English as its official language should accept your UAE licence because it's printed in English, not Arabic. But just to be on the safe side, you might as well get an international driving permit. At some car rental companies, if you show them a foreign licence - even if it's printed in their national language - they'll say "Sorry, I need to see an international licence alongside that". You can get an IDP from various places, including Tasjeel near the Mall of the Emirates, or the driving licence issuing place at the police traffic department nearby. You just need 2 passport photos, your UAE licence and a passport copy. Think it costs under 200 dhs for a 12-month IDP.

129

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 19:08

Thanks for that busybee. I did phone the Road Traffic Authority in Ireland and they said you cannot drive on an Irish licence unless you're resident. Need to just phone the actual rental agencies to ask about UAE licences. Hopefully someone who is Irish will see this and reply :)

4747

Posts

EW MASTER

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 18:10

yes you can use a foreign licence in the uk, ireland i would say should be the same. as mentioned below if you are a uk licence holder as a non resident you are not allowed to use uk licence, the traffic dept here in theory should send it back to dvla. if you use that licence and have an accident in the uk, then you will not be covered by insurance. i suspect the same will apply to ireland. best to check though. in the uk you do not need an IDP because your licence is in english, if it was in arabic then you would need and IDP. i have used uae licence to drive in france, uk, usa etc etc.

1618

Posts

EW EXPERT

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 18:09

I used my UAE license in Cork when I asked do you want my UAE license or my international one they asked for the UAE one said not to bother next time getting an international one.

129

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 18:07

Thank you Cymraes, will do that so and know for definite :)

3804

Posts

EW MASTER

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 18:06

I don't know about the UAE license being valid, but an International license certainly is. Easy enough to get.

1430

Posts

EW OLDHAND

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 18:05

Devln, the only way you will know for sure is to call the Eire driving licence people ... I was told by the UK DVLA that my UK licence was not valid as I was not resident - lots of people are unaware of this as they believe as a UK passport holder they are entitled. My only advice would be to contract your driving licence issuer. Good luck xx

129

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 18:00

Thanks so much for replying Cymraes but I'm asking specifically about Ireland as there are difference laws in place for Ireland and UK! Did do a search on here but didn't get what I'm looking for, hence the reason for posting in the first place! :))

1430

Posts

EW OLDHAND

Latest post on 11 July 2012 - 17:48

this topic has been discussed at length - you are not resident in Ireland therefore your licence is not valid, even if it's still in date. You can hire a car on your UAE licence, we have done so on our UAE (ex UK) licences for many years. In fact Thrifty love a non-UK licence, no fines to pay they told us!

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