Take the following tips into consideration before doing anything:
- Make sure you have all your identification documents with you
- Make sure you have copies of those papers
- Make sure your sponsor (if you're an expatriate) doesn't have a problem with you renting a car, or leaving the city (if you plan to go out of town)
- Make sure the Car Rental place is trustworthy, check for their license and see how long they have been in business, how many branches do they have in Saudi Arabia, perhaps they are an international Car Rental company
- Make sure the terms that ou sign on are understandable and that you agree, nobody is forcing you to rent a car from these people
- Check how many kilometers (1.6 kilometer per mile) you get free, and how much each extra kilometer costs
- If you plan to go out of town, or think you might just go out of town even though you're not planning to, register with the company that you will be taking the car out of city limits. The reason you should do this is because the Local Police might just give you trouble at a Checkpoint on your way out when you aren't given permission by the owner of the car (Car Rental Company) to take it out of city limits. Plus you might just get some extra kilos if you ask to be able to take the car out of city limits.
- If you are takng others with you make sure they all have valid documents and are legal residents. You don't want the headache of Jawazat (Immigration) give you problems cuz you wanted to help some poor guy (illegal alien) get to his home or city.
- Make sure you have the Car Rental Company's contact information, perhaps you might want to take the phone number of the employee that actually processed you rental just in case something goes wrong.
- There are different fees you can pay to make sure you are not liable if some loser crashes into you (I'll be covering Saudi Driving Tips in future posts Insha Allah)
Well that's about all I can think of for now, I'll probably update the post if there is anything important that I missed. Comments are always welcome, and perhaps the links provided in the sidebar might be of some use so you might wanna check that out. If you want any more information, leave a comment and I'll update insha Allah.
I'll probably put up a post regarding what NOT to do when wanting to rent a car in Saudi Arabia, solook out for that. Enjoy!
