Renting or sharing a car in the Netherlands on a foreign licence
The desk will hand you the keys. That is not the same as being allowed to drive. Who accepts which licence, what changes on day 185, and what to do about it.
Provider conditions from their own help centres, read 2 September 2026. The rules from the RDW, verified 2 September 2026.
Who rents or shares a car to you
Four companies, four different answers. This is what their own help pages say, most permissive first.
| Provider | Foreign licences | Minimum age | Licence held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greenwheels | Any valid passenger-car licence; no excluded countries listed. | 18 | No minimum |
| MyWheels | Any country in the world except Turkey (technical processing issue on their side). | 21 to book rides (account creation from 18) | More than 1 year; SEPA bank account required |
| SIXT share | EU/EEA licences accepted. Non-Latin script (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Cyrillic): international driving permit required. Non-EU/EEA: accepted if the country is party to the 1968 Vienna Convention and the licence is in Latin script, otherwise official translation or IDP. Residents of the EU/EEA for more than 6 months with a non-EU licence must show an EU/EEA licence. | 21 (25 for certain vehicle categories) | No general minimum; 5+ years for certain vehicle categories; provisional licences not accepted |
| SnappCar | Only ~28 accepted countries: EU member states plus the UK (Switzerland, Greece and Norway by manual exception). Other non-EU licences are not accepted (an insurer requirement). | 21 (23+ for vans) | At least 12 months |
Sources: Greenwheels help centre (help.greenwheels.com); MyWheels help centre (help.mywheels.nl); SIXT share help centre (www.sixt.nl); SnappCar help centre (support.snappcar.nl); read 2 September 2026. We name them, we don't link them: none of these companies has a partner deal with us. Conditions change; the companies' pages win over this table.
Day 185. The part nobody at the counter tells you
- Non-EU licence, registered at a Dutch address: you may drive for 185 days from the day you register. After that the licence counts for nothing here. Not for your own car, not for a rental, not for a shared car. RDW
- The rental desk does not know your registration date. They check the licence, the card and your age. You get the keys.
- Now you are driving without a valid licence. An insurer puts it plainly (Univé, in its own terms): the damage is not covered, and they claim it back from you. what an insurer says
- So the question is not "will they rent to me". It is "is my licence still valid today". The checker gives you the exact date.
EU or EFTA licence: 15 years from the issue date, and only while the licence itself is valid. One trap: a licence issued after you already lived in the Netherlands may not be used here at all. RDW
So what do you do
- Before your date: rent, share, drive. And sort the exchange or the exams before the date, not after. Both take weeks.
- On or after your date, no Dutch licence yet: don't drive. Train, bike, a friend who drives. Yes, it is annoying. It is cheaper than one claim.
- Your route: exchange at the gemeente, about €100, or the CBR exams. Which one depends on where the licence was issued. Look up your country or see what each route costs.
Short answers
- Can I rent a car in the Netherlands with a foreign driving licence?
- Yes, as long as the licence is still valid for driving in the Netherlands. A non-EU licence is valid for 185 days from the day you register at a Dutch address; an EU/EFTA licence for 15 years from its issue date. The rental company checks the document, not your registration date, so that check is on you.
- Can I use MyWheels, Greenwheels, SIXT share or SnappCar with a non-EU licence?
- Four companies, four different answers, from their own help pages:
- Greenwheels: Any valid passenger-car licence; no excluded countries listed.
- MyWheels: Any country in the world except Turkey (technical processing issue on their side).
- SIXT share: EU/EEA licences accepted. Non-Latin script (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Cyrillic): international driving permit required. Non-EU/EEA: accepted if the country is party to the 1968 Vienna Convention and the licence is in Latin script, otherwise official translation or IDP. Residents of the EU/EEA for more than 6 months with a non-EU licence must show an EU/EEA licence.
- SnappCar: Only ~28 accepted countries: EU member states plus the UK (Switzerland, Greece and Norway by manual exception). Other non-EU licences are not accepted (an insurer requirement).
- Do I need an international driving permit to rent a car in the Netherlands?
- The RDW recommends one when the categories on your licence are not labelled A, B, C, D or E. SIXT requires one for licences in a non-Latin script. It never extends the 185 days.
- What happens if I rent a car after my 185 days?
- You get the car, and you drive without a valid licence. That is an offence, and insurers state that damage is not covered and is recovered from the driver (Univé says so in its own terms).
- Does international insurance cover me after my 185 days?
- No. The problem is the licence, not the insurance.
- Dutch law requires every driver on the road to hold a licence that is valid here (Wegenverkeerswet 1994, article 107). After day 185 a non-EU licence is not. No policy, Dutch or foreign, makes that legal.
- The car's liability insurer must pay the other party, but the law lets it recover that money from the driver when the driver was not covered (WAM, article 15).
- Univé's own terms say exactly that for driving without a valid licence: no cover, the costs recovered from you.
- Rental conditions require a valid licence too, so the contract is broken as well.
- Insurance protects a legal driver from bad luck; it cannot turn an illegal driver into a legal one.
Sources for the insurance answer, read 6 September 2026: Wegenverkeerswet 1994, article 107 (a licence for the category is required to drive on the road; article 108 lists the exceptions, the 185 days among them); Wet aansprakelijkheidsverzekering motorrijtuigen, article 15 (the insurer that pays the victim without cover recovers from the liable person); Univé, "Ben ik verzekerd zonder geldig rijbewijs?" ("geen dekking … bij jou verhaald"); BOVAG general conditions for rental and car-sharing companies, January 2021 edition, car-sharing annex article 1 (the company may require a valid licence; members-only document, public copy read at cdn.group.renault.com).
Provider conditions are market data from the companies' own pages, read 2 September 2026, re-checked monthly with every other source. The 185-day and 15-year rules come from the RDW, verified 2 September 2026. This is guidance, not legal advice.