Recently I was traveling and decided to rent a car again. I reserved a car through Budget, because the first time around went smoothly. This was in a different state than the last time, but they also had a touch pad of terms and conditions I had to scroll through. I glanced quickly through them, but zeroed in on “24 months” – the length of time since your last major violation in order to rent a car. This was half the time specified at my previous car rental. This probably means that there isn’t a standard policy out there for when rental car companies will rent to you with a DUI. Regardless, my experience with Budget has been great and they’ll be my go-to for renting a car.
It’s been four and a half years since my DUI, and it generally never came up that I needed to rent a car. Even when traveling, most of the time it made sense just to use a car service. But last month, I decided to rent a car while traveling. I had done some research about renting a car when you have a recent DUI on your driving record, but I didn’t find anything I thought was authoritative. (It’s the driving record that counts, not the court conviction. I got my record expunged, so I no longer have a conviction, but the DUI should stay on my driving record for another six and a half years.) Some places I saw the phrase “36 months” and others I’ve seen “48 months” to reference how long it should’ve been since you’ve had a major violation, not just DUI.
Without looking too much into it, I decided to reserve a car at Budget, because I had a discount code and I thought, “Why not?” If by chance they refused to rent a car to me, since it was at one of those mega airport car rental centers, I figured I’d move on to another company until one would rent to me. That’s still a gamble, of course, because all the companies could have the same policies. Or they could have no cars without a reservation.
When I went to pick up the car, I signed an agreement on a touch pad that I only glossed over. But one phrase stuck out to me and that was “48 months.” My DUI was 54 months ago so I was in the clear. I can’t say if they ran a driving record report on me, but I’d be really surprised if they did.
DUI Blues 