Finding the Cheapest Car Rental in Spain

It's my first time driving in Spain, second time outside my home country.

I'll be landing in Malaga, so I'm looking to rent a car from April 29 to May 9, 2025 (12 days). I know going to the counter at the airport might not be the cheapest option so it took me 2 days to research what kind of car I should rent, how insurance works and what is expected when I get there.

This is the cheapest hack I can find (€202 with insurance) and this is what I learned.

What to Expect

Coming from my car rental experience in Jeju, Korea, where I think people are just more honest in general, I was shocked to find out that the car rental company will hold more than €1,000 on your credit card during your rental period.

If you don't want them to hold this amount, I also had the choice to pay €86, which they call (upon checking with Perplexity) "Zero Excess" insurance, "Super Collision Damage Waiver (SCDW)", "Full Protection", or "Excess Waiver". You can choose to take this for your peace of mind.

They'll also hold €100+ for fuel, from which they'll deduct your gas you don't return it to the agreed fuel level.

I saw this amount getting deducted from the credit card, while the €1100 was just held, it did not appear on the statement.

You're also expected to have the following:

• International driver's permit
• Your local driver's license
• ID - I brought my passport
• Credit card - not a debit card!

Ways you can get Scammed

I've read a lot of reddit on the subject and here are the ways you can get screwed, and it's usually related to the deposit.

• the car company holds the deposit, you did not get insurance, then charges you for the damages from the previous clients.
• the car company doesn't return the deposit at once, and you end up following up on them over the course of months.
• you book for the car in advance, and you learn that you did not complete the requirements so you want to cancel. but they won't allow you to cancel.
• you get a different car from the one you booked (in our case we got upgraded so there's no complaints for that), and the company doesn't allow you to cancel
• you booked insurance with the agent and the actual car rental company doesn't honor it.
• rude staff members - they'll glare at you for taking videos and photos of the car or push you to get the insurance

Be wary with the bad reviews online though, you will definitely find a super bad review, even with good companies.

I realized that out of the 10,000 bookings, those with a good experience usually won't rave online, but those with the bad experience would. So I take the ratings with a grain of salt.

If there's 1-2 people who give a good review, I would consider that company despite the bad reviews because good reviews are rare.

Comparing Car Rental Companies

There are 2 ways to book online - either through

1. a marketplace - usually cheaper, but not sure if they'll honor the insurance
2. booking directly with the company

So I was torn between booking with the a marketplace and booking directly. Of course, it's safer to book directly, but upon checking the prices it was much more expensive.

Recommended Marketplaces

Here are the marketplaces / consolidators I was considering, check through these for options, I think they're to be trusted as I checked for good reviews one by one:

• Wiber
• Booking
• RyanAir
• Skyscanner

Recommended Companies

I've also checked the common car rental companies and checked for the good and bad reviews. Everyone has super bad reviews, but not everyone has good reviews so I weighed them and have classified them for you.

• Super Good - has the best reviews, and hard to find "scam reviews"
• Good - has mixed reviews but generally good
• I will Avoid - feels generally bad

Recommended Optimal Process

I went around and around, did some repetitive checking because I didn't take note of my initial search.. had hundreds of tabs open..

But if I were to do it again, I'd do it like this systematically, take note of the price with and without insurance!

1. Check the "Super Good" first, directly on their website
2. Check the "Good" next
3. Check the 4 marketplaces for any of these brands

What are we looking for?

This is specifically for me because I'm going to drive around narrow streets.

• Car Type: small - In Europe, especially if you're just 2 pax, you have to get the small car because it's hard to go through the small roads in Andalucia, and also for easier parking
• Fuel Policy: Full/Full - requires you to return the car in full. it's recommended to get this to avoid arguing over fuel levels
• Transmission: Manual - cheaper by 30-50%
• Insurance: Have to get some sort of insurance
• Same pick up / drop off location - I tried to return to a different airport but it was like 2x more costly

Price Check

So given these parameters, here are the prices for my 12 days. I was already booking late, like 1 week before the actual usage.

I did 2 rounds because I only got the total. I went back to check the cheaper ones like Wiber and Centauro for the insurance.

So far, I found Centauro to be the cheapest amongst these brands, so I tried to check for their price in the marketplaces and it was cheapest in Booking.com.

Turns out the car costs €132 and insurance was €120 because I was a Philippine national. Have I been from the UK, my insurance would have just been €63.

So I finally got this idea, the car is so cheap! - what if I bought insurance separately?

To get or not to get insurance?

Since it's my first time to rent a car in Spain and I will be parking my car on the streets.. I wanted to get insurance first.

But, to be able to save on insurance, I needed to understand how it works and see where I can save.

Marketplaces and car companies would sell you the full insurance, otherwise you would need to do the excess thing and have €1,000+ held on your credit card.

If you get full insurance and anything comes up, you don't have any headaches. But if you don't you get deducted from your deposit when you return the car.

As mentioned from the first part of this blog, getting insurance from the marketplace doesn't guarantee full insurance so I'm trying to avoid that too.

I've read on Reddit that Americans have car insurance included with their credit card so they can opt not to get insurance with the car rental companies.

So I explored getting car insurance and found 2 options:

• Getting 1 year worth of car insurance for only €80, but with a not-so-proven insurance company
• Getting 12 days worth of car insurance for €70 under RentalCover, which has very good reviews and an official partner of one of the marketplaces.

If you're a UK resident though, it's cheaper to get 1 year from a reputable car insurance company which is easy to find online. As a Filipino, somehow car insurances are more expensive for me.

Since again, this is my first time, I went with RentalCover.

• Reddit reviews say that it's easy to get a claim on anything. So if I were to get deducted from my deposit, I can easily claim from them
• Buying insurance was as easy as filling out the form with their super modern system
• The insurance policies were also super clear and easy to read!

My Actual Experience

So in conclusion, I booked the car from Centauro via Booking.com without insurance for only €132 and got insurance for €69.59 with a total of €201.59! Compared to the €400 euros most good companies offer.

So I felt pretty good with my hack, but now comes the implementation.

What happened?

From Malaga Airport we needed to ride a shuttle to the office. I kind of got lost, good thing someone posted on Youtube - How to find the shuttle area in Malaga.

I waited for the Centauro shuttle to arrive but was worried because no shuttle is arriving and MalagaCar already did 2 rounds.

So I called support, someone answered and she can speak English! She said she'll call the office. 10 minutes later the shuttle arrives and we got a ride to the office.

I got assigned to a super friendly girl:

• she said she'll hold €1100 euros or I pay €86 euros to avoid the hold - I was listening to how others did it, and also people choose the former so I felt comfortable doing that
• then she said she'll charge €121 for the fuel in case I don't return it in full tank. I said okay.
• then she explained the policies, about the damages and scratches.. she didn't upsell me anything, just like the common complaints in reddit
• then she finally gave me the keys, and said I got a slightly bigger car (which I actually like because I drive a small MPV back at home)

Super smooth process so far! So we head to the car, I took so many pictures and videos to be sure..

drove the car around for 12 days..

extended 4 days for €60 (I had to go back to the office physically to get it extended)..

returned the car in full tank and good condition..

and I immediately got the €121 back and the checker said they'll release the €1100 as well!

So super smooth process with Centauro overall. Good price, good customer service (at least in Malaga), easy-to-reach customer support.. I believe they deserve a very good review!

That's it, I hope you learned a thing or two from reading this. Message me if you like my blog, I will greatly appreciate it as no one ever emails me.. ever..