Additional Driver and Add-On Fees in Dubai: What You Actually Pay

The headline rate is rarely what you pay. A car advertised at AED 90 a day can land closer to AED 140 once a second driver, a child seat and airport delivery go on the bill, and most of that is decided at the counter, not online. This guide walks through the add-ons a visitor to Dubai actually gets asked about, what each one costs in real dirhams in 2026, and where you can skip the charge without skipping the thing you need. If you are renting for a week with family, the totals here will matter more than the base rate did.

Adding a second driver

If two of you plan to swap behind the wheel, the named additional driver is the line item to sort first. Driving someone else's rental while unnamed on the contract usually voids the insurance, so this is not the place to save money quietly.

Expect AED 15 to 40 per day for a second driver, charged per rental day rather than once. Over a ten-day trip that is AED 150 to 400. The driver has to be present at pickup with a valid licence, which for visitors means the same paperwork as the main renter: a home licence plus an International Driving Permit, or a GCC licence for GCC nationals.

Two ways to soften it. Many local companies waive the fee when the second driver is your spouse, so ask directly and have proof of the marriage or matching surname ready. And if only one of you will realistically drive on the highway, name one driver and skip it. The fee buys insurance cover, not convenience.

Car seats for children

UAE law requires a child restraint for children under four, and under-tens cannot sit in the front. So if you are travelling with young kids this is not optional, it is the law you are renting around.

A child seat or booster runs AED 15 to 30 per day from the rental company. On a two-week holiday that is up to AED 420 for one seat, and families with two kids feel it fast. The seats supplied are functional rather than premium, and you cannot choose the brand or guarantee the exact model.

Here is where many visitors overpay. Most airlines carry an approved car seat free or cheap as checked baggage, and bringing your own kills the daily charge for the whole trip. Two weeks with two children, and your own seats can save the better part of AED 800. Rent the seat only for short trips where flying it in makes no sense.

GPS, Wi-Fi and the gadgets

A built-in GPS unit costs around AED 20 per day, and an in-car Wi-Fi hotspot lands in a similar range. Both are easy to wave through at the counter and both are usually a waste of money for a visitor.

Google Maps on your phone already knows Dubai's roads, the Salik gates and live traffic on Sheikh Zayed Road. A local SIM or eSIM with a few gigabytes of data costs less than two days of rental GPS and does far more. Skip the in-car gadgets unless you genuinely cannot use your phone for navigation.

Salik, tolls and how they hit your deposit

Salik is Dubai's automatic toll. There is no booth, no cash, no decision to make while driving. A camera reads the tag as you pass a gate and the charge is logged to the car.

Since the move to variable pricing, a gate costs AED 6 in peak hours, roughly 6am to 10am and 4pm to 8pm, and AED 4 the rest of the day, with no charge between 1am and 6am. A normal day around the city crossing two or three gates each way adds up quietly. The toll itself is small, the surprise is how it reaches you.

Rental cars come with the Salik tag already fitted, so there is nothing to buy. What matters is the recovery method. Some companies charge a flat daily Salik fee whether you cross a gate or not, others deduct the actual tolls from your security deposit, sometimes with an admin fee of a few dirhams per crossing on top. Ask which model applies before you sign, because the same trip can cost very differently under each. The same logic covers RTA fines and parking, which also land against your deposit, often weeks after you fly home.

Driving to Oman: the cross-border permit

The road to Musandam is about 100 km from Dubai, and it is one of the genuinely worth-it drives out of the city. You cannot just point the rental at the border, though. You need a No Objection Certificate from the rental company plus insurance that is valid in Oman, arranged before you go.

The supplier permit or NOC runs AED 200 to 500, and the Oman insurance extension adds AED 150 to 300 for a short trip. Companies also tend to want a higher security hold for cross-border rentals, often AED 3,000 to 5,000, and not every car in the fleet is eligible, so confirm the specific vehicle at booking. You will also pay UAE exit and Oman entry charges at the border, which are separate government fees. Arrange the permit days ahead, because a missing NOC turns you back at the crossing.

Delivery, airport pickup and the young-driver fee

Two more charges catch first-timers. Delivery and collection runs roughly AED 50 to 300 depending on distance and time, and airport handover at DXB or DWC often carries its own fee on each leg. Collect from a central branch and you can sometimes avoid it entirely. Landing late with luggage and kids, delivery to the terminal is usually money well spent.

The young-driver surcharge is the one you cannot negotiate away. Drivers under 25 typically pay AED 35 to 100 per day on top of the base rate, and some companies will not rent certain categories to under-25s at all. There is no trick here. Build it into the budget if it applies to you and compare suppliers, because the surcharge and the minimum age both vary by company.

When you book with us at 24baba, the add-ons and the deposit method are laid out before pickup rather than sprung at the counter, which is the part most visitors wish they had checked. You can sort the car and the extras in one go at 24baba.