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Thinking about renting a car on vacation?
Chances are you’re looking for the best price, and Discover Cars certainly offers competitive rates. But can you trust them, or are they too good to be true?
After renting at least 10 cars from them in the past 3 years, we can safely say they are legit and fantastic to deal with! We’ve used Discover Cars to rent cars in 5 different countries, from New Zealand to Mexico, and have only had good experiences with them. They’ve saved us a huge chunk of money over the years, too, and a fair amount of time.
So yes, we trust them, but keep on reading to discover our in-depth, honest review, and our top tips for using the site.
Is Discover Cars Legit?
Yes. Discover Cars is a third-party booking site (like Booking.com or Viator) and they’re one of the largest online car rental agencies in the world. They’re one of the most trusted, too, having won lots of awards, including the World Travel Tech Award for the World’s Best Car Rental Booking Website. That’s pretty hard to argue with!
What we love about Discover Cars is that they’re transparent about their pricing. One thing that really annoys us is websites that display unrealistic prices to get you to click, only to bombard you with hidden fees later on. With Discover Cars, the price you see is the price you get.
We also love that Discover Cars allows you to compare not only prices easily, but customer ratings, too. This way, we’re able to find a reputable car rental company and a great price. We’ve used them 10 times so far and have never had a single issue, so no, they won’t steal your money or leave you stranded without a car!
Check out the cars available and book with Discover Cars here!
Are rental cars more expensive on Discover Cars?
No. In fact, we’ve always found booking online with Discover Cars to be much cheaper than booking directly. This is because they allow you to compare lots of different rental companies against one another, so it’s easy to spot the best deals. For example, Discover Cars shows you which companies will allow you to register an extra driver for free, which has saved us money before because we like to share the driving between us.
Other car rental platforms, such as RentalCars.com, often display cheaper prices to begin with but they come with hidden fees. It seems like you’re getting a better deal at first, but by the time you get to checkout, you’re paying way more. For this reason, we no longer use them and stick to Discover Cars, who offer much better rates and are transparent about what you’ll be paying.
Discover Cars vs other online rental booking platforms
We find Discover Cars is so simple to use compared to other platforms. They’re very transparent, so you can see the names of the companies you’re booking with, which we definitely prefer! They work with a ton of providers in over 140 countries, so we’ve always been able to find great deals with trustworthy suppliers through them.
We’ve been traveling the world for over 10 years now, so we’ve tried pretty much every site out there, including Booking.com and Rental Cars.com, and we’ve also booked directly in the past. Personally, we love using Discover Cars the most because they tick all of our boxes: transparency, great prices, and reputable suppliers.
Related Read: Wondering if other travel sites are legit? Check out our review of Viator, Get Your Guide, and Klook before you book!
What are the benefits of booking through Discover Cars?
Free cancellation on most bookings
Most rentals on Discover Cars offer free cancellation, and only take a small deposit at the time of booking, with the rest payable just before or at pickup. Then, if you do cancel, the deposit is refunded straightaway. We find this makes budgeting for a trip much easier and allows you to lock in your rental way ahead of time, but still have flexibility just in case. This is perfect if you’re planning to visit a place during peak season and want to secure a great deal before the best rentals get snapped up!
Reviews about each company on the platform
Discover Cars displays company ratings clearly on their platform when you search for car rentals, so it’s easy to see what the best options are. You can also read real traveler reviews about each company, and these are all verified reviews from TrustPilot, so you know they’re the real deal. This has always helped us choose the best companies to rent with, and we’ve never had any problems!
Cheaper prices by shopping for deals
We’ve saved so much money by booking on Discover Cars, because they make it so easy to compare different prices. It’s all right there in front of you! Shopping around can be really time-consuming when you’re using direct sites, or using a third-party site that likes to sneak in hidden fees, but with Discover Cars, it’s so fast and simple.
Payment in home currency
We really appreciate the fact that Discover Cars allows us to choose which currency we want to pay in because it saves us from having to pay bank currency conversion fees. It’s also just easier to be able to see the price in your own currency, rather than having to convert it yourself. Plus, if you do cancel and get a refund, it means you won’t lose money if exchange rates change, or be charged yet more currency conversion fees by your bank.
Safe third-party mediator
Booking through Discover Cars gives you an extra layer of protection if there’s an issue with the car rental company. If there’s a problem, you can get in contact with Discover Cars, as they can hold the company to account. As a huge third-party site, they have more weight behind them than individual customers do, as companies don’t want to annoy them and get barred from the site!
Compare rentals now and check out Discover Cars here!
What are the negatives of booking through Discover Cars?
You are not booking directly
When you book with Discover Cars, you’re going through a third-party site, much like when you book a hotel through Booking.com or Expedia. For us, this is actually a good thing because it provides all of the benefits mentioned above, but some travelers feel more comfortable booking directly.
Not all bookings are instant confirmation
Sometimes, we’ve had to wait 24 hours for our booking to be confirmed through Discover Cars. This can be a bit annoying if your travel dates are just around the corner, but fortunately, when you browse the list of rentals, Discover Cars does highlight the rental companies offering instant confirmation. In fact, you can even filter your results so that you only see these options.
Not all rental companies are on their platform
Most car rental companies are on Discover Cars, but there are a few who choose not to use it. We’ve found that the best companies are usually on there, and we’ve never struggled to find a good option on the site. However, this is something to bear in mind.
What is Discover Cars’ customer service like?
In our experience, the rental process has been seamless. We had to contact customer service once after booking a rental car in Mexico. The local agency tried to scam us when we arrived to pick up the car by making us pay for their insurance and when we refused, told us our cards wouldn’t work. They eventually made us cancel our booking with Discover Cars and book directly through them and “shockingly” our cards started working again.
This is a rare situation and Discover Cars was really good about it and gave us a full refund. When we are booking on Discover Cars, we now tend to choose recognizable large suppliers like Thrifty, Hertz, and Budget Car Rentals to avoid the chance of this happening.
What is our personal experience with Discover Cars?
We started using Discover Cars about three years ago and we have loved them more and more over the years. In fact, they’re the only car rental site we use now!
We’ve rented vehicles through them in Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, New Zealand, and Canada. The process was seamless every single time and we’ve always found affordable options, so we really can’t fault Discover Cars. We will definitely continue to use them throughout our travels, and rest assured we will update this blog if we do start to notice any issues with their service!
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance!
If you’re looking to save money on travel insurance, we currently use and recommend SafetyWing. We’ve been using their coverage since 2018 and they’ve had our backs when we needed emergency flights and got sick overseas.
SafetyWing is one of the cheapest providers out there and covers everything from medical costs to lost luggage, travel delays, and emergency flights. A huge difference we’ve found between them and other companies is that they let you take out a policy AFTER leaving your home country. We’ve also found it handy that it’s a monthly payment rather than a lump sum, and you can get a refund for unused time.
SafetyWing has helped us out in some scary situations before and their affordable coverage has given us peace of mind. You can read our honest review of SafetyWing for all the pros and cons.
Thanks for reading!
Hopefully, this article helped answer any questions you have about booking a rental car with Discover Cars. Yes, DiscoverCars.com is a legitimate website and it’s used by travelers all over the world – us included! It’s where we’ve found the best deals and it’s saved us a bunch of money and time over the years, so we think it could for you too!
Wherever you’re planning to explore, let us be your personal travel guides! Have a look at our blog for travel inspiration and tips for places all across the globe.
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