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I am a 21 year old with almost 2 year old driving license. I'm going to the UK, and want to rent a car for several days, however when I searched for a rental car, I saw that 35-40 GBP were added as "Young Driver Surcharge" for each day. My question is, does this additional fee change from one rental company to other, or can I find a rental company that charges less for the same thing?

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No, these fees may vary, as may the age range they are applied for. Note also these change significantly between countries (and in some cases even between locations within a country).

Some of the main supplier's conditions in the UK: 

Supplier   MinAge   Fee   NoFeeAge


Alamo        22     £27^     25
Avis         21     £45      25
Budget       23     £39"     25
Enterprise   25      ?       25°
Europcar     22     £31      25
Hertz        23     £31"     25
National     22     £27^     25
Sixt         21     £36      25*
Thrifty      21     £25"     25

"incl. tax - suppliers with no note may or may not be incl. tax

^excl. tax - suppliers with no note may or may not be incl. tax

°Enterprise is not very clear; the selection form allows selecting age 18-24, but the terms say minimum age 25. Also the selection form returns an error saying 'some locations' may have age restrictions on all UK locations I have checked.

*Sixt is not consistent in what is says on it's site. The Rental Guide says ages 21-23 will face the charge and mentions neither car classes on the amount payable, the Rental Information says all drivers below 25 pay £36 and lists a range of car classes which basically comprises all available for hire below the age of 25.

One additional note for the northern regions: Arnold Clark rents cars without young driver surcharges in some locations - T&C.

Here are links to the relevant pages of the mentioned suppliers - with the exception of Avis which does not allow direct linking to any useful page it seems: Alamo Budget, Europcar, Hertz, National, Thrifty

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  • Old answer, I know. But in the past I've managed to hire from Sixt (at age 24) without paying the fee.
    – CMaster
    Commented Sep 16, 2015 at 9:03

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