The nuances of renting a car in the UAE
Being a pedestrian in this country, or traveling by car are two completely different sides of the same holiday. On the first trip, we experienced all the delights of walking (the inability to cross the road due to the lack of crossings, there is practically no public transport, not the cheapest taxi) and by the second trip I was determined to rent a car. Below I will consider all the nuances that I had to face in order to implement my idea.
INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS
Everything is quite simple here - they must be available! Some people boast that they rented a car without an international license and everything was fine, but, firstly, they did not get into an accident in the Emirates (in this case, the police definitely issue a fine for driving without a license), and secondly, none of large rental offices (Dolar, Hertz, Thrifty, Budget, etc. ) will not give you a car.
Moreover, if you paid the rent in advance, before flying to the UAE, then on the spot without an IDP, you simply will not be given it. At the same time, no one will return the money, since the public offer agreement clearly states that in order to receive a car, you must have a complete package of documents in your hands, and in the absence of any of them, the leased vehicle is not issued.
Getting an IDL is not difficult, in fact, it is just a translation of your national certificate into other languages. It looks like this - a gray book and a plastic card with your photo. Production time is about a week, the cost is from $25 (valid for one year) to $85 (valid for 10 years).
An important nuance, when traveling, be sure to take your national driving license, since the IDL is just a TRANSLATION of your driving license into other languages.
Although, when we were stopped by the police in Ajman, the policeman was quite satisfied with the IDP, and did not ask for national rights.
This, at first glance, simple aspect, I spent the most time.
The requirements for the card at rental offices are as follows: embossed (in the name of the driver) and credit VISA, Mastercard or American Express. Let's take it in order.
An embossed bank card differs from a regular instant issue card by the name and surname of the owner squeezed into the plastic. The terms for making such a card in various banks range from 3 to 14 days, the cost is from 12 to 25 dollars. In some cases, it is free of charge if certain requirements are met by the bank.
Important: the surname and name stamped on the card must be identical to the letter to the variant that is written in the passport, therefore, when ordering a card, clearly write your surname and name in Latin letters, and provide them to the bank employee.
The card must be a credit card - at least that's what the intermediary company said when ordering the car. At the same time, they were not able to clearly explain how a credit card differs from a debit one. Moreover, the vast majority of bank employees also found it difficult to give a clear definition. After long inquiries and independent research of this issue on the Internet, I came to the conclusion that the status of the card is determined by the Bank Identification Number (BIN), these are the first six digits of your card number. Enter these six digits on the site https://www. bindb. com/bin-database.html enter the captcha and get information about the status of the card.
In principle, all world-class cards, regardless of the intra-bank status (assigned by the bank that issued the card), have a credit BIN, and are suitable for blocking the required amount of collateral. For example, in the UAE I used a debit card with a credit BIN, but without the possibility of an overdraft (that is, without the possibility of losing money).
The currency of the card is not so important, we had a card in the national currency, the bank recalculated the withdrawn amount by simply multiplying the exchange rate of one currency by another without additional commission.
The card must have the required amount for the deposit. The amount of the deposit can be clarified in advance, when booking a car in advance, it is better to put money with a margin, taking into account fluctuations in exchange rates.
The card itself MUST be in the name of the driver (the option is that one person granted the rights, and the other card will not pass).
Many banks require you to notify them before going abroad so that your card is not blocked for suspicious transactions. In my case, I entered the number of my embossed card in online banking, indicated the country of residence, and the duration of stay there. Note: if you have several cards linked to one account, add them all to the list of "exit cards", in some cases the bank's security service can block even those cards that you did not use in the UAE, simply by the fact of spending funds from the general account.
After arriving from the UAE, I recommend that you reissue the card that you used there in order to avoid possible future fraud with it. The blocked money is returned TO THE ACCOUNT, and not to the CARD, that is, there is no need to worry that the deposit will not be returned.
Blocked money on the card is unfrozen from three to thirty days, depending on the rental office.
If the car is damaged, or something is missing in the car, then the entire deposit (in rare cases, part of it) goes in favor of the rental office. The same is true if fines/fines come from the police. In my case, AED 220 was deducted from the AED 750 deposit as a speeding ticket.
RENTAL OFFICE
A car in the UAE can be rented on the spot, or booked and paid in advance. I used the services of the company http://www. rentalcars. com/ and, in principle, was satisfied with the quality of their services.
By ordering a car in advance, you get a lot of benefits:
1. The amount for the rental will be slightly lower than what you would pay for a rental on arrival (in my case, when renting a car for 13 days, the difference was 35 dollars for a total of 300).
2. The ordered car (or its equivalent) will already be waiting for you in the agreed dream, while when ordering on the spot (especially in places far from Dubai), the desired car may simply not be available.
In Ajman, it’s like that in general, there are no cars at all, everything is fitted to order.
3. You know exactly the amount for car rental, no need to guess how much it will cost you.
By renting a car upon arrival you have the following advantages:
1. You can use the services of one of the small rental offices. The cars there are worse, but the prices are lower and cash deposit is possible, without using a credit card.
2. In any office, when ordering on the spot, you can first familiarize yourself with the car, sit in it, and evaluate it.
I decided to book a car in advance, and did not regret my choice. There was no particular difference in price when ordering a week or a month in advance, so I ordered a car a week before departure. The cheapest option was a Ford Figo ($230 for 13 days), a small car, with my height of 190 cm, I decided to look for something bigger. After some deliberation and meetings with his wife, they opted for the Honda Civic 5D ($300).
After a couple of days of testing, I settled on "Sygic", as a more convenient program.
It is pointless to lay a route by the address - you need to search by the name of the object. Luckily, Sygic had pretty much everything we were looking for, so that wasn't a problem. There were some glitches in the program, for example: when we arrived in Fujairah to the local fort, we did not find it at the indicated place, I made a couple of circles around the block until I realized that there was a clear mistake. Many interchanges in reality look completely different, for example, the navigator shows a turn to the right after three hundred meters, in fact, the interchange has already been changed, and you had to turn five hundred meters onto a separate road separated by concrete blocks, you had to go to the next interchange, there the navigator showed another crap with a U-turn option, I had to go even further. Once, having gone from the Crown Palace Hotel to the China Mall, instead of 7 kilometers, we clocked 32!
And this is all because of the changed interchanges ...
Informativeness of signs and plates in the UAE IMHO is very low. Often they are placed just before the turn, and sometimes BEHIND THE DIVISION OF THE ROAD. It's like a lottery - six lanes are suddenly separated by a bump stop, and after a hundred meters you will find out where you turned, into the right branch, or not; -).
It is very difficult to navigate in the UAE without a navigator, this thing is necessary and necessary, but in some cases it turns out to be useless ...
NUANCES OF SDA IN THE UAE
Thirteen days with a car in the country, 2.300 km added to the run, $ 100 for gasoline and a sea of indelible impressions left after that.
Secondary road, main road - often the Arabs do not bother with such nuances (unless it is a roundabout).
How many times has it happened - you are driving along the main road, a car leaves the secondary road, the Arab businesslike assesses the situation, and if he sees that you have time to slow down, then he slowly leaves for the main road. And even if you have to press the brake pedal to the floor - these are your problems, he gave you a chance to do it; -))
On roundabouts, the "main" is always a circle - this is an immutable rule.
If there is a traffic jam on the main road, then from the secondary one they squeeze into the main one in a checkerboard pattern, I didn’t miss the “orphans” a couple of times, there were so many beeps from the offended that mom don’t cry!
It is not allowed to stop on the track without a good reason. I didn’t understand what exactly to mean by “good reason”, but when I stopped on the track to photograph wild camels, the cars passing by indignantly honked after one, although I was standing on the side of the road and didn’t bother anyone.
To the right of the steering wheel there is a mysterious lever, when you press it (depending on the pressure, up or down), orange lights start flashing on one side of the car. Unfortunately, most Arabs do not even know about such features of their cars, so every fifth driver uses turn signals at most.
The Arabs rebuild very simply - if there is nothing to the left of the car, then the lane is free! It is not necessary to look in the mirror, everything is the will of Allah!
Near the supermarkets, the nearest places to the entrance are reserved for the disabled, and what is most interesting is that no one else occupies them! For parking in a wheelchair by an ordinary driver, he will be fined 1.000 dirhams ($ 300), so this rule is observed everywhere.
We must not forget to buckle up - a fine for this is 400 dirhams ($ 110), while even starting to move from a parking lot with an unfastened seatbelt is considered a violation, if this is recorded by a video camera, then a fine cannot be avoided.
Gas stations are all of the same level and quality - there is no singed gasoline in the UAE, the price is identical throughout the country, so you don’t have to bother with the choice of gas stations. Refuelers will come up to you, pour gasoline, and take the money, but you have to be careful - at the sight of a foreigner, some begin to count “badly” in their direction, so carefully count the change, they tried to cheat me twice by 10 and 20 dirhams.
It is not customary for Arabs to cut off a car that has “offended” them and slow it down to a complete stop to sort things out. A couple of dissatisfied beeps - that's all that threatens you on the road in case of misunderstanding of each other.
You have to be careful on the highway and not race with unidentified cars - on the way to Fujairah, I famously overtook a jeep painted with colored stripes, which was driving within the speed limit. A minute later, he caught up with me, caught up with me and honked, I turn my head and with a slight shock I read the inscription on the board of the jeep “POLICE”! The bearded officer shook his finger at me, I immediately dropped my speed and began to humbly “drag” behind their car at a speed of about 110 km / h; -)))) I came across police cars of the brightest colors and unexpected color schemes, probably it depended on the emirate that we were passing through.
On long trips, do not forget to refuel, I somehow drove about a hundred kilometers without seeing a single working gas station (having seen only one closed for repairs).
Valuables from the salon can not be taken away, we left the registrar, navigator, laptop in a non-tinted car, and there were no problems.
The Arabs do not bother with this either, we have seen cars with expensive equipment in prominent places more than once.
“Cleaning” workers often work near large supermarkets - as soon as you stop, a washer will approach you and unobtrusively offer his services. The car is washed inside and out (provided that you do not close it), this pleasure costs 10 dirhams ($ 3).
When booking a hotel, it is useful to find out if the hotel has parking. There are free parking (in our case) and paid (10-15 dirhams per day). In some cases, parking must be booked upon confirmation of the hotel, otherwise you can even fly with paid parking.
Good luck to everyone, I hope my impressions and advice will help when renting a car in this contrasting country…
