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All rates are
in South African Rand (ZAR).
The modern traveler of today is experienced in doing internet searches with regard to their holiday car rental needs and knows how to search for affordable car hire in South Africa and other countries they wish to visit. Since there are so many car rental companies in South Africa, you will find the first few pages of Google covered by hundreds of car rental companies in South Africa, all vying for first place on the initial Search Engine Results Page in Google. The international traveler has not only become wise in his or her internet searches for car hire in South Africa, but has also become price conscious due to the tough economic times that we are all experiencing. So it's no wonder that the term 'cheap car hire in South Africa' is being used in different forms as the main keyword or key phrase in finding affordable car hire in South Africa.
The danger when looking for cheap car hire in South Africa is that potential clients will not know if the company they have found is reputable, real or merely a virtual company on the internet. Another concern is what the cars look like and what condition they are in. There are many questions that go through the heads of the potential client: Is the car properly insured and will I be covered with this cheap rental company in the same way as with larger, better branded companies? Will the excess be sky-high or will it come at an affordable price?
Yet another question: How will the renter be able to pay, as the norm is when renting a car in South Africa, using a valid driver's license, passport or identity document and a valid credit card? These are normally the only ways of securing a car. In our research throughout the South African car rental industry the main obstacle we came across is that potential clients need to be in possession of a credit card when they hire a car.
Coupled with the worldwide credit crunch and the economic downturn, there is a tendency in Europe to phase out credit cards in major retail stores throughout Europe, with the result that many who are travelling to South Africa are arriving on our shores without a credit card yet still need to hire transport to get around. After all, self drive car hire is still the best way to see South Africa. Drive Africa did its own searches to find car rental companies that offered cheap car rental without credit cards and car hire companies that offered cheap car rental using debit cards. We only came up with small, dubious companies in the major towns in South Africa such as Cape Town and Johannesburg. Interestingly enough, these businesses were not found on the internet.
On further investigation, we found these companies to have very limited car insurance for the overseas traveler and this worried us, as we would not like to offer cheap rental in South Africa without the acceptable insurance in place. Some of these companies only insured the car that the renter has rented and not the other party. Sometimes the car is over ten years old! The only sure way to tell if the website is genuine and not a virtual company, is to have it verified by Dot Travel - an international vetting agency that works with every country’s top tourism associations. Drive Africa is to date the only car rental company approved by the Dot Travel site and we are also the only non big-branded rental company that has a financial guarantee in place that covers the renter with a full refund from the associations that we are affiliated with (SATSA - Southern Africa Tourism Services Association).
Another obstacle we encountered in searching for cheap car hire in South Africa was the age and conditions of these rental cars. We found some rust buckets that would have never made the government Roadworthy test.
We continued in our search and came to the conclusion that we would have to negotiate with some of the smaller, more reputable car rental companies in South Africa and start offering cheap car hire in South Africa without the need for a credit card, allowing clients to use their debit cards as payment for a rental car. This proved extremely difficult, but we persevered and found one or two car hire companies willing to offer us cheap car hire in Johannesburg and cheap car hire in Cape Town without the use of a credit card. In Cape Town, our partners will allow you to rent a car at the age of 18 with no minimum period required. Also, you only need a valid driver's license. Cheap car rental for those who are 18 years old is only available from Drive Africa.
A few extra measures are put in place to cover these agencies against accidents and loss. You will need to show proof of residence or a hotel reservation, as well as your driver's license plus your passport or ID (identification document). If the renter is foreign then their air ticket will also need to be verified.
The result is that Drive Africa has teamed up with some smaller car hire companies in Johannesburg and Cape Town. We have checked them out and approved them to exclusively offer this ‘no credit card’ car hire package exclusively through Drive Africa.
Simply visit our website and click on cheap car hire in Cape Town or cheap car hire in Johannesburg for the best choice in reliable, correctly insured and affordable car hire in South Africa.
* Click here to get our cheap car rental conditions
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