Get a FREE Zipcar drive on Wednesday – plus £15 free credit if you join for free

Zipcar, the ‘rent by the hour from your street corner’ car service, is offering free electric car journeys across London tomorrow, Wednesday 28th October, to celebrate Sustainability Day.

Between 7am and 10pm you will be able to pick up any eGolf in the Flex zone for a free one-way trip. There’s no minimum spend or minimum rental period involved.

What is Zipcar?

Both Rob and I are big fans of Zipcar for when we need four wheels!

Zipcar is a car sharing app that lets you book and rent cars by the minute or the hour.

Zipcar makes driving in London easy, and takes care of any congestion charges, ULEZ, insurance, fuel, breakdown assistance etc. The price you see covers everything, which makes it a hassle-free option if you ever need to rent a car or van.

On the free basic membership plan, you pay from £8/hour. If you are a frequent user, you can pay a monthly fee in exchange for cheaper hourly rates.

What is Zipcar Flex?

Zipcar Flex lets you take flexible one-way trips without pre-booking.  You can take a car and leave it wherever you want, within a designated zone.  Park and walk away.  You don’t need to drive it back to where it came from.

The only downside with Zipcar Flex is that you can never be certain that there will be a car near you.  It obviously requires another Zipcar user to have dropped off a Flex car near you.  To make life a little easier, you can put a 15 minute ‘hold’ on a vehicle via the app, giving you time to get there before it is released for another user.

The following boroughs now allow you to pick up or drop off a Zipcar Flex car.  It is perfectly fine to drop off the car in a different zone to the one you collected it in:

• Hackney
• Hammersmith and Fulham
• Haringey
• Islington
• Kensington and Chelsea
• Lambeth
• Lewisham
• Merton
• Southwark
• Tower Hamlets
• Waltham Forest
• Wandsworth
• Westminster 
• Plus Heathrow Terminal 5 (additional £5 airport fee – more info in this article)

Heathrow Terminal 5 is very interesting. It is substantially cheaper than taking a taxi to the airport. You drop off your Zipcar in the Terminal 5 short stay car park (Zipcar is owned by Avis and uses some of their parking bays) next to the Sofitel, allowing you to walk directly into the terminal.

How to register for Zipcar

If you are not already a Zipcar member, you can also get £25 free Zipcar credit (which covers around two hours of ‘Flex’ rentals) when signing up for the free membership tier using our link here.

Zipcar takes around two hours to approve new membership applications, based on a DVLA and other background checks. If you want to take advantage of this offer on Wednesday you need to sign up in advance.

The only requirement is that you are at least 23 years old and hold a valid UK driving licence. All you need to do is upload a photo of your licence and details.

You can see the full details of this offer on the Zipcar website here. If you are a new user you are best signing up via this link and claiming £15 free credit first.

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How to get FREE car rental status and other benefits via UK credit cards (April 2024)

If you hire a car in the UK, you can get special benefits (discounts, upgrades, free additional drivers etc) if you have elite status with a car rental programme. You can get elite status for free via certain American Express cards.

The Platinum Card and American Express Business Platinum

The Platinum Card from American Express and American Express Business Platinum come with two free car hire status cards. Your supplementary Platinum cardholder can also receive status in their own right.

From Avis, you receive President’s Club status in Avis Preferred. This gets you up to 25% off standard rates, a free additional driver and a guaranteed one class upgrade. For weekend rentals you will receive a two class upgrade, subject to availability.

From Hertz, you receive ‘Five Star’ status in Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. This gets you up to 15% off standard rates, a free additional driver and a one class upgrade, subject to availability.

Hertz also offers Platinum cardholders a 4 hour grace period on rentals. Your final day is treated as 28 hours, so a 1pm pick up with a 5pm return the following day is only charged as one day, not two days. We wrote about the Hertz / Platinum 4 hour grace period here.

The Platinum Card also comes with full car hire insurance with no obligation to pay for the rental via American Express. You can refuse any attempts to sell you additional insurance at pick up. This benefit has substantial value if you rent on a regular basis.

You can find more details on the two Platinum cards, and apply, in our full reviews linked below. You can apply here for the personal card and here for the business card.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is an excellent card in its own right. You receive 20,000 Membership Rewards points for signing up (convert to 20,000 Avios amongst other things), four airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit. Even better, your first year is free.

There are two car rental benefits:

• you receive Preferred Plus status in Avis Preferred

• you receive a special package with Hertz – 10% off best available rates at participating locations, a one class upgrade for rentals of 5 days or more, subject to availability, and no additional driver fees

Find out more about the benefits of American Express Preferred Rewards Gold in our review. You can apply here.