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Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company is a rental car company serving customers in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Ireland, Puerto Rico and the U.K.. They are also the owners of the Vanguard Automotive Group, operator of National Car and Truck Rental and Alamo Rent A Car in North America.

As I live in the UK, my experiences with Enterprise were from here, and specifically with Enterprise offices in London and Hull, England and Perth, Scotland.

We hired a car from Enterprise a couple of times in the last 10 years and we hired a van from them twice in the last year. As these were the more recent experiences, I will concentrate on those.

I will start by telling you what I look for when hiring a car.

Firstly, and obviously, a good price. At the end of the day, a hired car is to do a job, most larger companies have asimilar fleet and what matters is to get the job done cheaply and efficiently. All deals are welcome.

Secondly, a company that accepts payment by debit card. Surprising number of car rental companies require a credit card, often in the driver's name, and I find this requirement totally baffling and very annoying. I have credit cards, for emergencies mostly, while my husband (who drives when we hire a van for example) doesn't on principle, but the idea that you can't pay by a debit card, linked to a bank account with a balance often larger than any of my credit limits is just ludicrous.

Thirdly, a reasonable opening hours and location and/or free delivery/collection or a pick-up service. We live in the sticks and don't want to have to drive to the city centre just to pick up a vehicle that will have to be driven out again.

Fourthly, a company that provides an extra insurance option that waives the necessity of paying any excess charges or/and low excess on insurance. One's better safe than sorry and especially with a van driven by a person who usually drives a normal cars, it seems a sensible precaution.

On our recent rentals, Enterprise fulfilled all those requirements.

They offer great deals, especially on van hire, and they are flexible and helpful in offering a half-day (4 hour) hire, ideal when what you need is to move one van load within 50 miles without having to pay a fortune! They were even helpful enough to let us know as one became available on the day we enquired about and couldn't get one for earlier on.

Enterprise don't do deliveries, but they do offer a pick-up service, where their driver will collect the customer from their place and take them to the Enterprise office and on the return journey, take them back home. This is very useful especially for the car-less, but even if you do have own vehicle, it saves on the amount of driving you have to do and finding the office itslef.

The telephone booking was efficient, they seemed to be genuinely interested in us as customers, and the paperwork, done by a friendly, competent and pleasant lady in the Enterprise's Perth office was quick and efficient.

The car (ore van, in this case) was as it should be: clean, in good condition and ready for as when we arrived.

All in all, I can recommend Enterprise, or at least its UK operation, to all customers looking for a well priced, efficient and friendly car hire company and in particular those who have no transport of their own as their collection service is free and very useful in such cases.

Learn more about this author, Magda Healey.
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